Join the discussion on the following article:
Video: Fox Valley Models HO scale Hiawatha passenger train
amazing model!
The passenger cars look great - magnetic diaphragm surfaces would be a nice addition to eliminate the gap between them. The locomotive is another story though. The appearance is very good, but the body gyrations as the drivers turn is unacceptable. I can only hope it is from uneven traction tires, and not from axles that are off center.
Wow Dana, what an improvement over your early videos. You are a confident professional video personality now! Beautiful train also, I’m patiently waiting for the N scale version.
GREAT NEW MODEL. LOVE IT & THE BEAUTIFULL CARS IT’S PULLING. WHAT A GREAT NAME TO GIVE IT.
KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK
THANKS
steven, I noticed the same thing on the locomotive as you did. no thanks.
The model looks great but as Steven says the loco does gyrate. I have three of these sets and all three locos do the same. I’ve contacted Matt at Fox Valley and he’s looking into a solution.
It is not the traction tyres!
The engine seems to porpoise and gyrate on that initial approach shot, and the cars do not, so it’s probably not the track. Perhaps some adjustments are in order, plus a little
more weight…
Lovely shots of the train moving… thanks…
I was very hopeful when I saw this set introduced. I have not evaluated the locomotive, but had a derailing problem with two cars because of warped trucks. Has anyone noted a similar situation? Any suggestions? The car bodies are beautiful.
A Plea to Model Railroader Magazine
Many of your subscribers are moving away from fixed position computers and moving into the new mobile computing devices such as iPhones, iPods and iPads. These devices are great for displaying video during “train nights” with friends, club nights and other model railroad events. Other media websites have figured out how to present video in a format compatible with these devices, even the mass distributors of video including YouTube and Netflix. It really disappoints me that Model Railroader does not. Some of your people I have talked to about this issue at various Midwest shows blow it all off blaming Steve Jobs for causing the problem. I don’t really care about these petty I.T., anti-Apple attitudes. I do care about the fact that Model Railroader Magazine (and Trains) and probably all your publications I subscribe to are doing nothing about the problem to make your content available on these leading portable devices. Please start putting your customers wishes ahead of your I.T. staff attitudes. At 7.3 million iPads sold last quarter, There are about 5 to 6 times as many iPads sold each month as Model Railroader has annual subscriptions, and I know many of them are being sold to model railroaders. Add in another 16 million iPhones and a couple million iPod Touch devices sold last quarter alone, and it is clear that many more tens of thousands of Model Railroader subscribers are being denied access to your online video content you are not letting us view on our portable devices, and the numbers are growing bigger and bigger each month. It just makes good business sense to post your videos in a format compatible with these devices. Please consider this request carefully and with an open mind. Consider the good will it will create with your subscriber base by making your video presentations available on the new devices which are defining theses new product categories. Thanks for reading my concerns. I assure you there are many more who feel the same way. <
I don’t see the body gyrations, Steven, but it may be my old eyes. Regardless, this is a beautiful train, and I look forward to reading the review in MR. Thanks, Dana, for the video.
I would imagine that the wobbling is a side effect of the short driver wheelbase, as any side movement at the center of the loco would be amplified at both ends. Perhaps stronger spring tension on the leading and trailing trucks would help to dampen this motion.
Looks great, but you should have installed a Tsunami sound decoder. I did, and looks great and sounds even better! The installation is a snap.
Never did like the looks of that 4-4-2 Hiawatha loco. It looks weak and the model demonstrated in the video wobbles and bucks its way down the track. Reminds me of a 0-4-0 or 0-6-0 switch engine. The passenger cars are outstanding and the close coupling is very nice. The set would look great with a non-prototype loco like a 4-6-2 or 4-8-2 streamlined and painted as a Hiawatha. Would have liked to heard more sound from the engine.
The wobble of the locomotive is clear, even on my droid phone. Again, how about stepping up to some hi def vid?
Dana,
That Hiawatha sure looks sweet on the MR layout!
Can you tell me the name of the song and artist that accompanies the intro/
Keep up the good work!
Although I anxiously waited for the release of the Hiawatha, I ended up returning the whole set. The locomotive wobbled and galloped with a frequency that suggested the traction tires or drivers were not round. Very distracting. The article made no mention of this defect despite it being reported elsewhere.
My Hiawatha only wobbled on 1-1/2 degree and above grade after I installed a sound decoder it stopped as the anti dither was able to eliminate it. It still propoisesa a little alittle passenger weight in the cab roof and its all gone.
As for the video, use real player to down l.oad it the then share it.
Nice model, nice video -lots of time on the whole consist, lovely!
The train looks excellent and probably need a few adjustments to correct the gyrations, but the prototypes wobbled and hunted. As for Russ Princes problem, I had to load software into my PC to run some Apple aps, maybe this is something to be looked into further Russ, before raising a stink over a free forum.