I have wanted a Big Boy for some time now. K-10 just got a shippment in last week that had 2 Big Boys in it. I had put the Big Boy idea out of my mind for a few months ago, it was out of my $ range. Couple of things happen, last night I hunting on E-Stupid and found some Big Boys. Then today I found this on U Tube.
At first I was not impressed with the Big Boy, few parts fell off as I open the plactic box to get to the 4-8-8-4. Found where all but 2 went so far.
Sound, well it blew at first but as the speakers broke in souned much better. Then I figeured out how to control the sound better and now I am pretty happy.
It will handel a 18" turn as well, that was one of the things that keept me from getting one.
But there is a small problem that I can fix. On the lone 18" curve I have the tender wants to string with a 25 car dragg. I have plywood and 30’ for code 100 and weights if needed.
Hope you enjoy the U-tube link and maybe the Thunder Will Roll on your bench.
cudaken, One question , does it have the conductor’s voice saying “aaall aboard” like the challenger (which irks me no end)? All right another question , with a logon like cudaken there better be some nice HO scale Mopars for your layout!! Right? Andrew the GTO fan (Mopars also).
Oh yeah got to have me some big boys. Right now I have a few of the plastic models that you can find here and there. My LHS refuses to carry the Athearn Challengers and Bigboys saying they are junk and will not pull a long train and will burn up the motor. Personally I think the owner of the LHS is nuts. So I guess I will order it from somewhere online so he will miss out on the big chunk of change. I took my son to a train museum to see the 4018 languishing next to a repainted GG1 and the Frisco 4501.
The parts of the video when they show #4023 being pushed by a diesel was when some company was thinking of renovating it, so they pushed it to see how it rolled. Turns out there was some retired UP railroad worker who came to the museum every week and lubed all the steamers.
My grandson got an Athearn ‘Challenger’ for Christmas.
It runs quite well and pulls our 12+ car passenger train without any problems. I find the detail pretty good, though I am no rivet counter. It hasn’t had a rest since Christmas so I haven’t had a chance to tweak it very much. One of the big pluses is the remote operating system for DC. The versatility it provides makes it usable with sound, on both the BRVRR and my grandsons small DC home layout.
Yes, the conductor says 'All…aboard…!" but you don’t have to push the function button. My grandson loves it however.
Berk, there are a few Mopars on my bench.[;)] I think there are 7 Daytonas, 3 Hemi Cudas, 3 Super Birds, 71 Charger R/T and a 69 Road Runner.
On the LHS that won’t carry the Big Boys, hum he may be right. I am having problems with my right now. First the wheels seemed to get drity really quick! I ran it last night for around 3 hours, then in certain spots it started to slow down or stall. Clean the section that where causing the problem but has not helped.
I lost the sound last night as well, I resat the engine to #3 and sound came back. Today I lost sound again. Try the same trick and it did not help this time. I cannot go into the CV’s because I only have a Bachmann E-Z DCC system. Manual says I can reset it on the DC line with the hand held control that came with the engine.
With the string of the tender I cannot say how much it can pull yet. But, from what I have seen my BLI Class J may very well out pull the Big Boy. 8 more drive wheels but still only 1 motor does not make a monster puller. The J takes less power than the Big Boy, and has a higher top speed hands down. More than likely the gearing with the BB being a heavy drag engine and the J being a passanger train engine.
