New Lifelike N Berkshire-What is your opinion? Any reviews?

[boomer5344]

I see the new N scale Lifelike Heritage berkshire is hitting the stores.
How do they look and run? I am considering a few. Share your comments with us.

[Virginian]

All I can say is that if it is as good as the HO scale version, get one. That is a great engine. And I only had to wait 30 years for a non-brass Virginian BA.

[orsonroy]

I'm a Nickel Plate steam modeler in both HO and N scales, and have at least seen the new N scale Berk. There's also been a LOT of talk about it on the Atlas N scale forum.

Long thread short: it's so-so. It looks great, and seems to scale out a whole lot better than the old Rivarossi Berkshire, and it has very good slow speed control. But...it only pulls 15 cars on the flat (no traction tires, which are basically a must for N scale steam), and is completely DCC-UNfriendly. Life Like took a step sideways when they came out with this engine.

I'll stick with my Rivarossi/Con-Cor Berkshires. They'll at least pull 30 cars on the flat, and are now less expensive that the new LL engine. Of course, I stuck with HO scale mostly because of the availability of high-quality NKP steam (the LL Berk in HO is a great engine, and will pull 25 cars up a 3% grade).