Steam Locomotives: small, gigantic, not much in between

[vsmith]

Don they have been promising us that loco for the last 4 years, I'll beleive it when I see it

[DMUinCT]

Aristo's great new engine for 2010 !  Should fill the bill for a mid-sized locomotive.  A scale or dummy front coulper will help.

[ansley]

Hi, I know this is an older topic, but I found it and was thinking that there are a few choices in the "in-between" category.  First , I didn't see anyone mention MTH.  Last I looked, but I'm not that interested personally, MTH has/had quite a few 1/32 1 gauge locomotives.  Some look quite good, but I have no experience with them.  Also, I have an Aristo Pacific, almost brand new, I purchased on Ebay a few months ago and I love it!  I put a QSI plug-and-play card in it, put a speaker right in the boiler, it was quick and easy.  My pacific was custom painted by previous owner to Erie with a vanderbilt tender, it is very nice and has a raised cab that allows close in coupling of the tender.  It looks nice, but the pacific is just ready for adding detailing, if desired, with some brass parts to make the look a little more upscale.  The running gear on the new model is very good, quiet and powerful, nice new gearbox. IMHO the large drivers look great on the Pacific.  I paid only about $380 shipped for mine ( it is the new model), but you can find older pacifics with little running time for very cheap, just picked one up. Take a look at George Schyeher(sp?) web site for upgrades and tips on the pacific, old and new to make it a great runner. Mine runs ok on 6.5 foot curves, but looks quite good on 8 foot curves since it isn't as big as the other Aristo large locos.

  I also picked up a new Piko 0-6-0T switcher for dirt cheap. They are very nice running basic engines that can be upgraded.  I saw a guy on Largescale.com forums who upgraded one and it looks REAL sharp.  I'm very much of a bargain hunter, so I will never buy an AML/Accucraft loco or large USAT steam loco.  I do have some great older used LGB engines though, but not 1/29 or 1/32. 

Also, use bachmann 4-6-0's (Annies or not) for kit bashing.  There are upgraded, very nice, motors available for non-Annie, I picked one up for about $12 and it drops right in.  I've seen some great kit bashed Bachmann locos that look and run quite good.  I LOVE my 3 Bachmann Annies that I have and my Bachmann Spectrum Mogul and I just picked up an older Bachmann industrial Mogul (discontinued and hard to find).  The Mogul is probably my favorite engine, but it is, once again,  narrow gauge.....

If you really want a specific loco, find someone who will build it for you and give him the parts from an Aristo or Bachmann, that's the best solution IMHO, it might cost some $$, but  you'll get a unique custom loco, or do it yourself if you have the skills.  

Regards,

Ted

[climaxpwr]

If I ever find a PRR version for a resonable price, I will pick it up, but all I seem to find are the other road names.  My wife hails from PA so it would be a nice mantle piece till I can do the drive mods.

[lownote]

climaxpwr

There are loads of those Atlantics left on the market, I would love to see someone market a good drop in replacement drive block to make it run as good as it looks.  Its a nice size engine for smaller layouts, but lacks the drive quality most look for now. 

 

 

That's very true--if you do some work, you can make it run very well, but it takes some work. I added power pickup to all the wheels, which took some doing, and battened down the motor and skimmed the frame so it can't strip gears. Added a lot of weight as well, and now it picks up power from 18 points and pulls extremely well.

I can't understand why Lionel let that model die. They could sell the molds to a manufacturer who wants to put a better drive in it. Or if it was still beng made, I suspect someoen could easily market a replacement drive

[climaxpwr]

There are loads of those Atlantics left on the market, I would love to see someone market a good drop in replacement drive block to make it run as good as it looks.  Its a nice size engine for smaller layouts, but lacks the drive quality most look for now. 

[lownote]

 I completely agree with the original poster. It takes a LOT of real estate to make the really big steam engines look even halfway decent. I love those things but on my layout, which has some eight foot curves, the Aristo Mikado looks absurd. The Aristo Mallett is a great model, but it's huge. The Aristo consol is a great idea if they ever produce the thing.

The Lionel Atlantic was a really nice compromise, in terms of size. i recently bought two of them, and chopped up my Aristo Mikado to make a consolidation. The other I refurbished into an excellent runner. Both have the look of mainline, workaday steam engines, and they are far and away my favorites to run.

I'm pretty new to this stuff, but I would guess that after years of there being nothing but Euro-model small stuff from LGB, people went nuts for really big US steam, and then realized that it's problematic if you haven't designed the layout for it.  As far as I can tell from watching Bachmann and Accucraft, the trend there is similar--making bigger and bigger engines, and probaby they will quickly saturate that market

AML's stuff is really great--I've been coveting that 0-6-0 switcher for a while now. But it's pricey

[Greg Elmassian]

Pre-ordered from RLD hobbies. All AML locos are limited production, and they give you a substantial price break when you preorder. Sure I waited almost a year, but all the other manufacturers take more than a year from the time you hear about them to being in the country.

Whatever AML promises next, if it's my era, I will buy it. I have a K4 Pacific and the 0-6-0 so far.. Might go for the sparkie docksider, but it's a bit small, and I have about 7 switchers to fill my yard already..

Regards, Greg

[gbbari]

Greg Elmassian

(SNIP)

The prices on the AML 1:29 stuff is coming down, I pre-ordered my brass and stainless steel 0-6-0 and it cost me under $800, so the price gap is narrowing, and I got one hell of a beautiful looking and running loco.

I'm buying everything in SG I can find, trying to support these guys making more locos!

Regards, Greg

Good heavens Greg, where did you find that price? I did not see the 0-6-0 USRA anywhere for less than $1100 and change.
Al

[Greg Elmassian]

Thanks for re-railing this Kevin!

The original poster is talking standard gauge, and I will keep replying in that direction.

While Mr. Polk does believe smaller locos will sell better, there are distractions that have not helped, like (in my opinion, a PCC trolley car)... boy I wish that effort had gone into a small steam switcher, like an 0-6-0... I bought an expensive AML instead... an 0-8-0 switcher, and other light steam would be great.

Putting a new/different boiler on the Pacificado (the mikado and pacific share a boiler that's not really good for either) could give us a new loco.

The up coming consolidation from Aristo is great, and hope more is coming.

I look to USAT to make some more early locos, but mostly diesel, they do not seem to be into "affordable" standard gauge steam.

The prices on the AML 1:29 stuff is coming down, I pre-ordered my brass and stainless steel 0-6-0 and it cost me under $800, so the price gap is narrowing, and I got one hell of a beautiful looking and running loco.

I'm buying everything in SG I can find, trying to support these guys making more locos!

Regards, Greg

[kstrong]

You have hit the proverbial nail on the head in terms of the standard gauge (1:32 and 1:29) steam market. There is nothing. Nada. Zippo. Squat. We're starting to see a bit more--albeit very slowly--enter the market, but it's long been neglected, and for no real reason that I have ever come to terms with. Maybe it's because the manufacturers think the average large scale railroader will use the LGB, Bachmann, etc. 1:22 scale narrow gauge locos to fill that void, so they see no point in doing a proper standard gauge loco of that size. More's the pity. We definitely need smaller steam locos.

Later,

K
 

[SNOWSHOE]

Bachmann is coming out with the forney and it looks nice.  Dont forget about Hartland  they have some great 1:24 scale engines like the forney the mogule (which I love but cant afford :-( and the big john plus others.  You are right it seems all the new stuff are big and if their not big the price is high.  I found that all the new engines coming out are higher in price as well.  Why would the Forney be more expensive the the Annie.  Maybe because of the new added fetures.  If thats the case I could do without all the electonic things etc....  

Vic said it the best kitbash what you need.   

[vsmith]

Theres stuff out there, if you win the lotto you might even be able to buy one or two. Accucraft is now advertising a 0-4-0 B&O Docksider to go with the 0-6-0, USA has an 0-6-0T, I just picked up a Piko 0-6-0T  

If Aristo EVER gets off the pot with its standard gauge Connie, that would at least open the possibilities to modify that into a small 2-8-2, and an 0-8-0 switcher, someone could make a 1/29 standard gauge 2-6-0 out of LGBs Mogul drive block without too much hastle, or Keystones 2-6-2 Prairie cheesemaster drivetrain could also be rebuilt to 1/29 also. Bachmann's venerable Annie can also be rescaled to 1/29 if you try, I've seen it done and the results were pretty good.

Welcome to the darkside of large scale, wlecome to kitbashing to get what no one else is willing to provide.

 

 

[Greg Elmassian]

Well, the 3 main manufacturers are Aristo, USAT and Bachmann.

 Your post indicated you are looking for standard gauge models, so that eliminates Bachmann.

Now, with as small as the market is, there is no room for duplication of locomotives.

So, you ask where the Mikes and Pacifics are, well, you already answered, Aristo.

Aristo is coming out with a consolidation. The Northern is a gleam in someone's eye, but Aristo blames poor sales of the Mikado and Mallet on the fact that they (Lewis Polk) believe they were too large for most layouts.

So you can kiss any large locos from Aristo goodbye in the near term.

There are expensive die cast and brass locos, and some of them are great, the USAT Hudson is wonderful, likewise my "amazingly expensive" 0-6-0 USRA.

I have a custom built Northern from Rex Ammerman. And that's pretty much all she wrote in the larger locos. USAT seems to prefer diesels in their normal "consumer" line, and no big steamers from Aristo, and AML/Accucraft will be more expensive.

Sigh, wish there was better news...

(oh, did I mention there was a recession/depression going on?)

Regards,  Greg

[Southwest Chief]

You didn't mention the LGB Mike.  Not currently in production as far as I know, but you can still find them out there.

It's one of my favorite looking large scale steam locos because it has a western Baldwin look to it.  Something about the headlight position and front says Southern Pacific to me.  It's definitely not like the Aristo-Craft eastern looking Mike.  Sorry, but I personally don't like the Aristo Mike's headlight placement and overall front of the locomotive.

An issue with the LGB Mike is the scale.  It's LGB scale, what ever that is

A nice review of a Santa Fe LGB Mike with many photos can be found here:

LGB Mikado

[punder]

I posted essentially the same thing in the MR forum, but specifically in large scale, I would like to know what you guys think of this observation:  The steam loco mfrs are offering lots of models lately of the standard-gauge railroads' most massive, rarest prototypes--Texans, Big Boys, Hudsons and such.  At the other end, there are vast numbers of narrow-gauge locomotives.  Between these two extremes, there isn't much.

In addition to the Aristo Mike and Pacific, I see an amazingly expensive 0-6-0, and that's about it for mass-produced standard-gauge steamers.  Am I missing something?  Where are the 0-8-0s, Consols, Mikes, Pacifics and Mountains that made up the bulk of railroad operations until the very end of the steam era?

Thanks,
Patrick