They sure look beautiful. I’ve read that they are smooth runners. But can anyone tell me how they behave on your turnouts?
I have a very small, industrial switching layout, and I’m thinking about blowing the bank and getting two of these switchers to be the main engines on my layout (thinking about putting Tsunami’s in each one, too).
Anyone have any bad or good experiences with these engines on tight turnouts and trackage?
Thanks
Jim
I cannot say that I’m unhappy with the one I own but it hasn’t seen a lot of track time yet… It Is a smooth runner and handles even my worse track just fine.
Jeff
They are small switchers, just like the real thing. They are meant to handle rough track, though not crazy. Also, the newest version with sound decoder already included has more weight and better pickup than on the previous models. So, you should count on enjoying both of them immensely.
My biggest complaint with the 0-8-0 I had with a Soundtraxx LC unit is that it would cut out a lot at low speeds. Other than that it was great.
I would go with the QSI installed version. It has the additional pickups in the tender which will help prevent cut-outs on the turnouts and at low speed. Also, I believe It might be cheaper to have the QSI version than having a Tsunami + 0-8-0 without sound.
Be extremely careful if you decide to open the body to grease gears. It’s easy to get the wheels out of quarter and cause a binding.
If you decide to go without sound in the 0-8-0, and the tender does not have pickups, I humbly suggest you pickup a 0-6-0 tender which does have additional pickups and is swapable with the 0-8-0 tender.
I got one of the P2K 0-8-0’s when they first came out. The tender did not have electrical pick-up. The 0-8-0 ran smooth as silk but would stutter here and there, the light would flicker a little and it would not make it through the insulated frog turnouts on my Timesaver unless run fast. I added pickups and a little weight to the tender and it goes great with no stutter or stammer. Like most of my other steam locomotives it still hates the insulated Atlas turnouts on my Timesaver but at least will clunk through them with out stalling now. I understand that the newer releases of the 0-8-0 have tender pick ups so they should work perfectly. Zero problems on Peco or Walthers turnouts. It a really nice model, beautiful detail…very very quiet and smooth. It will run through#4 turnouts with no problem. Its a light locomotive but probably can handle most any reasonable work its given where there are no grades like yards where it would normally be used. Bruce