Recieved one the other day and have been testing it out. My pros and cons are below.
Pros----Great sound with the ESU lok sound, Led headlights front and rear, motor control is incredible, silky smooth and quiet drive train, 20 different sounds. Detail is a little less then more expensive engines, paint is nicely applied. ALL ELECTRONICS in locomotive so you have sound coming out of where it should be.
Cons----No marker lights front or back, whistle sound is great but too low, (sounds great though), no smoke unit,
My other thoughts are that it is a very nice engine, it is a keeper for me because I got what I wanted at a price that is much lower then some other mfgs.
The cons I listed can be corrected if you want, marker lights can be added, sound will be able to increased according to ESU.
Nice to hear that these are still good engines! It is amazing how these still look nice today even though the body was developed almost 50 years ago. When it comes to molded in 3-dimensional details, Rivarossi’s always been excellent.
This thread prompted me to go look at this model on one of my favorite dealer websites.
Honestly, for the price of the Rivarossi, and having owned the Athearn Genesis Big Boy recently, I would opt to save my money and purchase an Athearn Challenger from the new run coming, or a new Genesis Big Boy.
Your mileage may vary.
John
I did look at the Athearn big boy, it’s very nice but the sound, especially the chuff is horrible. The Rivarossi big boy had a better price point also. It also has the ESU lok sound which is a better sound decoder IMO.
After checking the sound CV’s and changing the whistle, the sound is much louder then it was.