Thomas, why did you pull up a 6 year old post?
My self, I went with the PCM Loksound 3.1 and it sounds great.
Cuda Ken
There was a detailed comparison a long while back on tonys trains of the three models
Trix
PCM/BLI
Athearn
Athearn made a fine unit, but they didn’t have the detail of the trix or pcm/bli, nor were they as heavy.
I can tell you Horny/Rivarossi made an excellent C&O H-8 that rivals brass versions I have seen. It’s running characteristics are nothing short of excellent. I heard the detailing on the RR model is a little crude by todays standards. But there’s more then one way to judge a model besides cost. You have to compare them side by side and determine which features are important to you.
For example the Walthers P2K GP-9 has excellent sound but average detailing.
The Athearn GP-9 has excellent detailing but average sound.
Which is more important to you?
Hornby America/Rivarossi has announced another run of Big Boys; supposed to be out soon- The Rivarossi with sound is supposed to retail for $459.99 versus the $ 649.99 for the new Athearn Genesis unit- IS there realy almost 200 dollars of difference between the two- I doubt it. Probably some difference in detailing but … more bang for the buck with the Rivarossi.
I’d suggest that everybody go out and buy IHC articulateds. I’ve heard many reports that they run great, including around 18" radius curves. I plan to get a 2-8-8-2 for about $100-150. With a little work, the IHC locos will look just as good as any other model.[2c]
S&S
sheldon:
HA! Change that statement to “except US” and we’ll talk, lol. The Big Boy is the LEAST attractive articulated locomotive I’ve ever seen. And UP, despite all of their horn-tooting, could have accomplished the same thing with a 63" drivered simple 2-8-8-2. Another case of “Oversell” by a loco manufacturer.
Tom
Tom, them there are fighting words! [:(!]
How did you come up with such a great looking layout with your apparent lack of taste? [:-^]
Your friend with better taste Ken. [swg]
I’m runnng a mid-late 80’s Rivarrossi Big Boy on Code 83 track with no issues with Shinohara turn outs. There’s no sound, but a Digitrax decoder. I also own 2 BLI AC 5s.
Jim
I think the question could be asked “who hasn’t made a big boy?” I would like to see a non-UP challenger for once (non-brass GN or NP Z6 would be sweet)
When has IHC ever done a 2-8-8-2?
don’t forget the SP&S one packer, I should probably look for an N scale challenger to work into an SP&S one.
Yeah, forgot about that one. Although N scale actually gets a Z8 challenger:
yeah, I wonder if I’ll find a rivarossi challenger for a price I will pay. Or I could always go bug Kato, they could give athearn a challenge so it’s not just a monopoly over challenger and big boy class locomotives.
I recently ( a few months ago) purchased a soundtraxx heavy steam decoder speakers etc to put in one of my 2-6-6-6 locos. I also picked up the detector that determines chuff and goes on one of the wheels. This device will allow you to keep the chuff rate synced with driver rpms and can also be configured to produce chuffs for simple or compound locomotives weather they are articulated or not. I have not gotten around to installing it yet , but I keep thinking about it. Right now I have some 60 Virginian hoppers to build and number. I have heard one of these I believe it was on the web site for soundtraxx and I heard one in the hobby shop I frequent and think they sound rather good.
I will also have to reletter my H8s into AGs and go from the 1600s to the 900s.
Sound units are great, I just wish they were cheaper.
I would also like to add over rated. There is a reason they only made 25 of them. Virginian had locomotives that could out pull it in the early 1900s and better high speed steamers after WWII.
2-10-10-2 147000 te compound 176000 simple
2-6-6-6 nuff said
No sense trying to change an H8 into an AG. Rivarossi has an AG coming out early this summer and the tender is correct for the Virginian. From what I saw at Trainfest in Milwaukee all you have to do is change the hatches on the sand domes to get a Blue Ridge. Rest of it looked pretty good too.
The new release has Sountraxx installed, not MRC. True the first release several years ago did use MRC and the results are not worth talking about. I removed the MRC and filed it away.
CZ
This is my Rivarossi Big Boy, a later version with can motor and RP25 wheels. I installed a Tsunami Heavy Steam DCC sound decoder, LED headlight and back up light and it is a smooth running loco with great sound. I put a 1.25" diameter speaker in the tender with the decoder. I used a mini connector between the tender and engine. The detail isn’t as good as the Athearn but I only paid $90 for the Rivarossi on Ebay. I bought a used Athearn (MRC) Big Boy sound decoder on Ebay for $22 and put it in my Rivarossi Challenger and now know why the original owner sold it. It was still worth it to get sound in the Challenger but I willl eventually replace it with a Tsunami as well. Don’t overlook Rivarossi if you can’t aford a Genisis or Trix or other expensive Big Boy, they still are magnificent looking on the layout.
-Bob
