I wanted to share my experience with this and other Nscale steam. I had looked everywhere to find opinions on the Nscale Bachmann 2-6-6-2 to help decide whether to buy one. Now that I have one, I thought I’d share what I know. First off, I consider myself a “medium level” model railroader. I’m not a newbie but I’m also not a master model railroader. Also, I have a limited amount of funds to put into my railroad. Blowing two or three hundred dollars on a dud would be catatrophic to me. I got my 2-6-6-2 a few days ago. I ran it before I bought it and I bought it from a shop I trusted. No way would I consider buying one sight unseen.
I am glad I bought it. Mine hasn’t been the nightmare described by Tony’s Trains or some modellers. It also isn’t the jewel that the Kato Mikado is. As for running, it runs o.k… At medium speed it runs o.k. without stalling. At slow speeds it will stall. I’ve read that it takes a very LONG time to break one in. I hope that it does improve in performance. Even if the performance doesn’t improve, I still like it. As I expected, it doesn’t pull a lot of cars on its own. It is slightly better than the Life Like Berkshire. I wonder, though, if the folks at Bachmann weren’t smoking a doobie when they decided how they would execute this project.
First of all, the packaging is CRAZY! I wonder if Rube Goldberg inspired its package design. Either that or someone ate a few magic mushrooms before coming up with the package. Why didn’t they package it like their Spectrum Consolidation? The coupler design is very poor. I would have gladly paid $50 more to have factory installed Microtrains or Accumate knuckle couplers. For the tender couple assembly, its not a case of simply removing the old assembly and putting on Microtrains body mount couplers. That would be too easy. I tried this and the coupler was way too low. I had to remove a lot of plastic from the tender to get the coupler at the right height. Now this was a harrowing experience! I was
Great review, thanks for sharing your experience. I’m glad you had a local shop where you could try out the 2-6-6-2 first, and where you’ll have recourse if something goes wrong.
I’d really like to have one of those, but it would just look too out of place on my little sharp radius curves.
By the way, speaking of Model Power N scale steam, their new 4-4-0’s are supposedly on their way from Korea. The 2-6-0’s are supposed to be two months away.
Regards
Ed
Thanks Ed. I read an add for either the Model-Power 4-4-0 or the 2-6-0. It sounded like there was a motor upgrade from their three pole motor used in the Pacific and the Mikado. Have you heard much about these new models?
Nice Review ! I am not a hardcore steam guy .but have bought 2 of the Kato “Mikes” . They are a Kato for sure they run soooo smooth, they pull the 5 or 6 passenger cars i intend to use them for. I will do the “Traction Conversion” and install MT’s on them.
As for my other Steamer i have the LL 2-8-8-2 . This is by far the best running steamer in “N” Scale. this locomotive is quieter than my best Kato. No trouble with stalls and the slow speed is above average for a steamer. I did a pulling test and it pulled 34 cars on the flat with o problems, on a 2% grade it did 25 cars.
My 1.5 cents!!!
Great review! My wife is into N scale and has 3 Rivarossi Big Boys, a LL 2-8-8-2, a Con-Cor/Kato 4-6-4 and Bachmann 4-8-4.
The LL 2-8-8-2 is a marvelous piece of craftsmanship. I wouldn’t know where to stop praising it, so I’ll just say that its great in all ways. The 4-6-4 runs (as I would expect from a Kato drivetrain) and looks beautiful.
She did have to remotor all her Big Boys, and now they run almost as smooth as the 2-8-8-2!
Her one bad experience was the Bachmann 4-8-4 which barely ran out of the box. She sent it back to Bachmann and got a replacement engine under their warranty about 3 months later. (It was out of stock at the time and she wouldn’t accept their offer of a different road name and different wheel arrangement, even though it was a much more expensive Spectrum engine) The new Bachmann runs flawlessly! Can’t believe it is from the same company!
A combination of a great warranty and some strong wording in the letter sent with it seemed to ensure a properly tuned replacement engine.
My [2c] worth.
Check the thread on the Layouts and Layout Building forum entitled “N scale MP 4-4-0 details”. I’ve posted what I know regarding both these locos, incl a couple of photos, and links to theads on other forums discussing the models. Yes, I believe the motor is supposed to be 5 pole.
http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=40357
I’m anxiously awaiting my 4-4-0 which I hope is, as we speak, enroute from Korea.
Regards
Ed
I also just bought one of the new 2-6-6-0’s, and I’m pretty happy with it. I was concerened at first because of bad experiences with the older bachmann engines. I’m quite happy with it. I haven’t tried to stall it, because I’m still in the break in phase. It runs pretty smooth and haven’t had any electrical problems so far.
As for the couplers…I’m sure that Bachmann or somebody probably makes a kit to switch them. I’m going to leave mine as-is for now. I still use the old style couplers, and although they aren’t the best I’m just too cheap to switch over some 100 engines and 500 railcars. I’m guessing that would bring me a bill that would choke me, or possibly give me a heart attack…
As for the packaging, it is pretty complicated and I’ll probably just toss it in the corner and use a foam bin to hold it most of the time. I agree that they were definitely stoned when they designed the packaging…
As for price…I agree the $220 asking price was a bit much. I took a supreme risk and bought one off of ebay for about $140 delivered. If anyone wants the sellers name let me know and I’ll send it to you…
Currently I’m building a futuristic layout so the steamer doesn’t fit in with the picture, but I’m happy that when I get my bedroom remodeled I’ll have a nice steamer traveling around the room up near the ceiling…yeah, I know. Weird that I’d want to fall asleep to the sound of a steamer chugging around…lol.
LS