Hi guys,
I was wondering if mantua products (mainly engines) are any good. My LHS has all of them for 50% off.
Thanks,
Mark
I don’t know about the ones now, but back in the 60’s I got a Mantua OO 4 axle diesel switcher for Christmas. It lasted well into the 70’s and finally bit the dust in the early 80’s.
Over the years, Mantua made some durable mechanisms for 4-6-2 Pacifics and 2-8-2 Mikados. In fact, I’ve restored a few of the older 4-6-2’s and 2-8-2’s from abused junkers I purchased at train shows for next to nothing. I found repair parts on the internet. The old engines run quite well now.
The simple answer is “yes, they are good.”
The Mantua line and design goes back about 50 years. Currently, they’re being produced by Model Power under the name Mantua Classics. They are good, basic, generic steam locomotives. I own 4 mikados, 2 pacifics, a prarie, 2 Generals, and several switchers (some since the 60’s). Because the older designs are made with an all metal boiler casting, they have good weight and have good pulling power.
Hi Mark;
Yes they are good stuff - BUT for many years the MSRP was totally out of line with the competition, so 50% may or may not be a good deal. Shop around before you buy.
Good Luck
I have a couple of Mantua locos on the BRVRR. One, a GP20 belongs to me. It runs very smoothly and quietly and has but one flywheel. The detailing isn’t the greatest, but the price was right, $29.00 a couple of years ago.
The other loco is a small steamer that belongs to my grandson. It to runs very smoothly and quietly. It has taken a lot of abuse (handling) in the last year or so, but so far no problems.
If you can find them at a reasonable price, and the relatively low level of detailing isn’t a problem for you, go for it.
I had a couple back in the 50’s. (kits) They were great. Even ran the “Mantua loop-hook” couplers.
I think the Mantua’s are great. They need to be detailed but are very well built and the latest ones run real nice.
I am detailing a Mikado that I repowered with a NWSL can motor and Timewell flywheels. I could not imagine a better running steam engine.
Get one and try it out.[:)]
Jim
Cool.
They don’t have a big selection though- A mikado, several old time 2-6-0s and 4-4-0s, Little 0-4-0 switcher diesels, and a couple of fantasy 0-10-0s…
When they were “Made in America” the price was higher, but worth every penny.
I have 4 die-cast and one plastic-boiler Mantuas.
All run just fine, and none of the “dcc” stuff to mess things up.
Open frame motors, the Mike is a 1951 with the gearbox screwed to the frame.
I’ve made dummies out of some of their “F” units, one just yesterday.
I’d buy them and run them.
I bailed on half-zero in 1970, just back into it since Thanksgiving for restoration purposes only.
Probably help my brother re-build his pike.
Brass track, even!
I don’t know about “all” but I will tell you that the Pacific and Mike mechanisms were outstanding products. When space considerations forced me to bolt HO for N back in the early '80s I “swap tabled” three Mikes and two Pacifics, all five with Cary boilers, all extensively super-detailed so that I had about a hundred iron men invested in each one. They ran like a jewel and pulled like an ox!
Just a couple of years ago I was eyeballing an HO modular set-up at one of our local trainshows; the Mike on the point of this freight looked vaguely familiar except all of my units had Elesco feedwater heaters and this one didn’t. It turned out that this was, in reality, one of those I had bought and assembled way back in the '70s. The current owner stated that he had had to remotor it and he was getting ready to redriver it but it was still going strong after more than a quarter-century.
Mantuas - at least the Mikes and Pacifics - were always very, very good buys.
NOTE: A short while back I was at my LHS and someone had ordered one of the Mantua Classics, the 2-6-6-2 I do believe, and they were examining it atop the counter. This one was ready-to-run out of the box. A beautiful locomotive! I don’t know whether Model Power markets these as kits but this on sure made me pine for those HO days of yesteryear. And no, I am not going back to HO because I have entirely too much invested in N.
<>So far I haven’t seen anything from Model Power saying they would be offering these as kits, appears will only be RTR. Hope they sell the spare parts, one of the nice things about Mantua was their huge parts catalog allowed you to make alterations and do other things easily.
One negative was the 4-6-2 and 2-8-2 used many of the same parts, like the body. This made the 2-8-2 ride kinda high, there is a pretty big gap between the top of the drivers and the bottom of the body.
The Pacific boiler was #2310. The Mike was #2307.
The part numbers were the same from at least 1952 to 1981.
Folks used to swap boilers to get a “different” look.
The Mike is a light Mike, hence the space, and one can always file down the cylinder saddle to lower it in the front, and either hog out the inset in the back or file down the frame tabs to lower it.
Different boilers.
The Mikado and Pacific did indeed have completely different boilers. Though generic, I believe the Mike was based on a Reading prototype, from some of the photos I’ve seen.
You can’t beat Mantuas for reliability, pulling power, and customizability. If you choose to run them stock, you don’t have to worry about damaging a lot of fine detail, which means they’re kid friendly. If something should break, replacement parts are readily available on eBay, from Yardbird Trains, and Model Power. Their sheer weight and tractive effort give them a distinct advantage over some of the latest high-tech lightweights.
A few years ago I sold a Pacific through my LHS with a spare boiler casting, and I mean spare: no cab, handrail stanchions, headlight lens, or even much paint. Both were snapped up in a few days. There must be a demand if Model Power saw fit to resurrect the line.