How is the electrical pick up on these? Any problems with DCC friendly Walthers/Shinohara turn out frogs and stalling or hesitating? How many freight cars can you pull and block with this loco? Trying to decide between these and/or some Proto 0-6-0s when I purchase 2 or 3 switchers. I’d presume they aren’t powerful enough for helper service on grades? Thanks.
These are awsome little switchers. Yes, the pickup area is small, but it absolutely utilizes what it has. If you equip it with a good quality decoder, then you have something that will crawl!
If you power your frogs, there will be no issues with pickup.
The real tank switchers were not designed to move many cars and the model reflects this. They were absolutely NOT designed as helpers on grades, but rather spent their lives roaming the docks and light industrial rail of the Americas.
Here is a video I made about 5 years ago. I used a Soundtraxx Tsunami TSU-1000 with a small speaker shoe-horned into the cab. An install with a micro-Tsunami will fit much easier. Please dont count the chuffs…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VIb8BnEIYk
David B
Thanks for the video clip David. That’s great to see and hear it run. Would this loco be “hopeless” or at least “less than satisfactory” on non-powered frogs? Would it be just as easy or easier to add some pick up shoes/strips onto the loco itself? If I choose not to power frogs I suppose the Proto 0-6-0 would be better pick up wise? I sure do like the tank engines though… The “LIVE” vs. “Powered” terminology always confuses me. Thanks.
I own three of them. They got a good BMF DCC decoder (Zimo MX620, an Austrian product) and run very smooth and reliable. As all my turnouts have powered frogs pickup up is also reliable.
Mine are about 2-3 years old. Their problem is the noise they produce even after a long break in period. I don’t like to listen when they are moving.
I have one as well, I bought mine as the non-DCC variety and installed a DZ 125 decoder.
A very straightforward installation in the boiler.The biggest problem was shortening all wires to the correct length…
Mine is dead silent when running and is the only non-sound loco I have that actually is being used as much as the sound-equipped ones! I will buy more of them and try a Tsunami install. My only question is; What speaker to use?
Just measured the wheelbase of one of my three - 46mm. If the span across your dead frogs (bare rail to bare rail) is 45mm or less, you should be good to go - unless the dead frog is higher than the live rails, in which case a little judicious filing might be in order.
I own the analog DC version - one (with suitable cosmetic mods) in service, the other two slated to give up their mechanisms to a Golwe that I have on my ‘Round Tuit’ list. Since all of my frogs are powered (built up from raw rail) I have no contact issues.
As for helper service - on the Tomikawa Tani Tetsudo, an 0-6-0T is a line-haul engine! The little Spectrum (smallest of my 4 in-service 0-6-0Ts) is rated two freight cars or one passenger car up the 4% continuous ‘mainline’ grade. (The freight cars are 4-wheel 17 ton wagons, not auto racks or humonguboxes, and the passenger car is equivalent to a 50 foot American box car.) It’s frequently called upon to assist one of the bigger 0-6-0Ts if the train is one car too much for same.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with a bunch of teakettle tank locos)
i own 3, all of which are converted to Tsuami TSU-750 DCC (sound decoder) The coal bunker on the back makes for a very nice lil speaker holder.
They are very low to the ground, so if you have decoupling magnets, you’ll need to bury them between the ties and not on top.
And regular cleaning of wheels and live frogs is really a necessity, (especially with power hungry sound.)
I do not recommend the TSU-750 for analog DC operations on this model. The chuff is WAY off.
If you remove the front coupler box, you may need to do a turn on two with a #11 blade on the screw hole. My screw was very short on all three, and had a problem catching the thread until I did this trick on the box cover hole.