Hello,
I saw a kit for an MDC - 2-6-0 old time STEAM LOCOMOTIVE that could fit in my collection and I was wondering if it is worth to try it.
I never built engine kits, only ‘shake the box’ cars kit, so I am a bit worried. Do I need some special tools or it can be put togheter on the kitchen desk with a few screwsrivers and a sharp knife?
And the engine will run well?
Thank you for any feed back
sebastiano
I started building a similar MDC kit several years ago. I haven’t completed it yet, but only because other projects have taken over - not because it was particularly difficult. I seem to remember that in addition to a screwdriver and hobby knife, I used a 6" mill file and a couple jewler’s files to clean up the castings. Probably a good sanding stick would be useful, too. Otherwise the assembly went pretty much as outlined in the instructions, and I was able to get the chassis up and running with only a little effort and adjustment.
Two problems I did run into: 1) the can motor ran in reverse. I could have fixed this by simply swapping the motor leads, but when I contacted MDC (before they sold out to Horizon), they indicated that there was a problem with several motors and they sent me a new one in exchange. 2) there was a little wobble in one of the drivers - something I’d like to fix, but not really that noticeable in operation.
I say go ahead and buy the kit, read the instructions and dive in! I can’t think of a better excuse to buy new tools.
Tom
MDC kits are pretty straight forward. I’ve had no trouble building them, but I’ve built several Mantua loco kits before them. The key is to take your time, this is definately NOT a shake the box kit. As the other Tom said, dive in and try it. You may surprise yourself at what you can do.
The Roundhouse 2-6-0 is one of their easier kits to assemble, and an excellent way to learn how to build steam kits. The boiler is molded plastic around a metal weight, so it’s easy to add detailing to the engine (and they DO need detailing: stuff as simple as sand lines and lifting injectors will do wonders for the base kit’s appearance). The drive train is easy to assemble and runs reliably. You should only need basic modeler’s hand tools to fini***he kit (Xacto, pin vice and bits, files, screwdrivers).
A few small things to keep in mind:
the engine is not a great puller. It’s very small; the real engines couldn’t pull that many cars either. On my 2.5% grades, mine would only pull three 40’ cars.
the engine is NOT DCC-friendly, if that’s of importance to you.
follow the instructions to the letter.
clean up all the metal castings but do NOT file the axle slots! You can deburr around the outside edges with a LIGHT pass or two with 400 grit sandpaper, but anything else is a recipe for dizaster. If you file or sand the axle slots a lot, you’ll end up distorting their shape, causing binding once the rods are added to the drivers. I destroyed a couple of frames before I figured out what I was doing wrong.
i’m in the middle of building one of these and it’s been both a lot of fun , and frustrating !
the frustrating part was binding in the crosshead-guide rod-cylinder block area . i finally managed to get everything there moving smoothly and now i’m finding the electrical flow from the drivers to the frame isn’t very good . not sure what i did wrong yet , but i’ll find it ! i’m also adding a dcc decoder , the main thing there is isolating the motor from the frame . a bit of electrical tape here and there seems to have done the job
I built a 4-6-0. I imagine it is very similar the the 2-6-0. It was pretty easy to assemble. I had it built and painted in PRR within a month. I also added a DCC decoder and it ran great. Sadly, it was damaged beyond repair when lightning hit the house and the roof fell on it[xx(] Fortunantly the layout wasnt damaged though (engine was in the living room)
I built a 4-4-2 about 2 months ago and it runs fine. The jewlers files are a must as far as cleaning up all the flash on the cast parts, as every one stated take your time and follow the instructions to the letter. Before you paint the boiler or any of the casting parts, make sure they are really clean, there is a real lite oil film on all the casting parts and if you do not get it off the paint will not stick.