This review is on Mantua’s “Big Six” 0-6-0 steam engine. The version reviewed is from the early 60s, when Tyco was gaining popularity.
This 0-6-0 was built by my grandpa sometime in the early 60s as an undecorated kit under the Mantua name, so it wasn’t pre-painted and ready to run like Tyco’s steam engines. All the details, except for the railings and bell, are cast on. There are a lot of details around the boiler, like pipes, grab irons, steps, cylinders, and what I believe is a turbo-generator right in front of the cab. All the detail looks pretty good, but the pipes are a little thick, and aren’t as finely done as what’s on more expensive steam engines from the same time, like Bowser and Rivarossi. The bell is solid brass, but it’s only the bell with no hanger. The headlight is very simple, and modifying it to hold a light bulb would be a very big challenge. The cab and tender shell are plastic, and have finer castings and detail than the boiler. The coal load is very finely molded, and looks very realistic when painted gloss black.[:D] Unlike the earlier “Big Six” from Mantua, this one has no valve gear rods, giving it a less detailed look. The drivers are all metal, but like the boiler and metal tender trucks, the castings are a little rough. The center drivers are “blind”, meaning they have no flanges, so the engine could probably make it around curves with a radius of less than 15". The motor is clearly visible in the cab, but there’s still plenty of room for a crew, if you’d ever want to put one in.[:D]
The 0-6-0 ran pretty well in my tests, with only a little wobbling and some noise through most of the speed range. The motor vibrates a lot, and caused a lot of noise in the joints from the frame to the boiler. I stuck two small pieces of very thin copper between the frame