New N steam releases LL Berk, CC 2-10-2, Spec 2-6-6-2, ATL Shay; How well do they run?

[boomer5344]

A lot of new N steam has hit the shops. Please provide your opinions/remarks on how well these operate. I'm on the fence on these myself.

Thanks for your help,

Boomer[:)]

[Anonymous]

A 2-10-2, a shay and a 2-6-6-2. I think I'll go to the hobby shop!

[twhite]

Whoa--a Spectrum 2-6-6-2 in N scale? If it's anything like its big brother in HO as far as smoothness of operation and pulling power, I'd RUN, not walk to your LHS. It should be a honey!
Tom

[Wdlgln005]

Go to the Atlas forum for a good review of the LL Berk. & others
While Atlas is on holiday, this time they did leave their forum up for viewing.

The LL Berk seems to have some quality control & other problems. Not a good one for DCC. The CC 2-10-2 appears to be a winner, and pulls like 10 drivers should. The Atlas Shay appears to be delayed till Jan. The Spec 2-6-6-2 may be on the boat as we speak.

4Nscale reports to be digging out from 17 in of snow, so all these steamers may be out trying to clean the driveways. The combination of snow & cold made a good week to make progress on the layout & run trains for Christmas.

[boomer5344]

Thanks for the feedback ! Anyone else care to comment?

[orsonroy]

Most new N scale steam runs great, looks good, and won't pull itself around the layout. The Kato Mike will pull SIX cars out of the box. You need to add a driver set with traction tires (at added cost) before it'll pull a normal length train (25 cars or so). The P2K 2-8-8-2 is just as bad, but doesn't have a traction tire fix. The new P2K 2-8-4 will pull a pitiful 15 cars on the flat. The Bachmann Spectrum 2-8-0 is a decent puller out of the box, but their 4-8-2 doesn't pull well because the driver bearings are usually installed wrong (they're BARELY rectangles). You have to completely disassemble the drive train to fix the problem. Apparently, Con-Cor has (surprisingly!) come out with a high-quality engine in the 2-10-2, and it'll pull over 50 cars on the flat! Unfortunately, Con-Cor has two strikes against them: their crappy track record with N scale steam in general, and their outrageous prices ($350 for a non-brass N scale steamer? Please...). Model Power's new steam had bad QC issues witht heir first runs, which have been apparently fixed. They're decent runners, average pullers, and NOISY.

In short, you've got to REALLY love both N scale and steam engines to bother with both. Most are anemic pullers (as are the new HO plastic steamers, but they're easier to fix), and we still don't have the variety needed to accurately model any single road. And it's hard to impossible to add DCC to these engines, making them unattractive for serious modelers who need a fleet of them.

And people wonder why I stuck with HO to model steam...

[brokemoto]

I had QC problems with my LL 2-8-4. I was less than happy with LL's response, even though they were 'not wrong'; my choice of vocabulary is deliberate.

There have been complaints about the Bachpersonn USRA 2-6-6-2, I have seen little good about it.

The C-C USRA heavy 2-10-2 seems to be a winner, although a pricey winner. It will pull, too, which, as has been pointed out, is unusual for N scale steam, although most ot C-C's N scale releases in the past have pulled well, even if they did not run all that well. It appears that this time, C-C got both parts correct.

I have not purchased either the B-mann or the C-C, so I am just passing on what I have heard. I did buy one LL berkshire; I will not buy another.

I am waiting to see what the MP eight-wheeler and mogul will do. The eight-wheeler will not have to pull all that much as the prototype did not pull that much.

The second and subsequent runs of the MP USRA light mikado are supposed to have traction tyres. Those who have done the traction tyre upgrades on the MPs report that pulling power increases markedly, but this upgrade is not a simple one, as it is on the Kato. MP's biggest drawback seems to be its refusal to have all-wheel pick-up on the tenders. The eight-wheeler lacks this, as well. I spoke to Mr. M. Tager at Edison, New Jersey, a while back about it. Heinformed me that the MP had run it over all sorts of the worst possible plastic frog switches and it did not stall. MP seems to be of the view that the weight of the metal locomotive body allows for decent enough contact that it can save the cost of using Kato 0r B-mann style tender trucks for all-wheel pick-up. While the pacific and mikado have borne out this point of view, it would seem that the short wheelbase of an eight-wheeler would not allow for as good electrical contact.

The Atlas 1870s mogul has a similar problem. Two pair of drivers on the locomotive pick-up (the other pair has traction tyres); only one tender truck does--these do stall on #6 Atlas plastic frog turnouts. My understanding is that Micro-Ace allowed the Atlas to make only minor modifications to the original design as a condition of the licence to sell these in the United States and Canada. The modifications allowed were the placement and type of headlight and US roadnames, they were not allowed to modify the drive train. From what I understand, the people at Atlas noticed the one tender truck pick-up and wanted to make the necessary modification but were not permitted to do so.

Stalling on plastic frog switches is a problem common to all small/short-wheelbase N scale locomotives, be they steam or diseasel.

[boomer5344]

Thanks for the info. I have six Spectrum 2-8-0's and 2 4-8-2's. All the 2-8-0's have about 3 hrs runtime. (To loosen up the mechanism) with NO problems. The mountains have about the same time with no glitches. They are a bit noisier. I have a Kato mikado I bought in 1996. Has no traction tire but will pull about 8-10 MT cars with no problems. I purchased one each of the modelpower steamers to evaluate. I may test them this evening. They appear satisfactory.
I am "on the fence" on all the rest. I appreciate the great responses orsonroy and brokemoto.
Anybody else care to comment?

[Wdlgln005]

The Atlas Shay is now out. I'd like to see a comparison of it with a small diesel, like a RS1 or the LL SW units, or the Baldwin VO. It appears to be a clever disguise of a diesel, with the outside bits going along for the ride. The metal casting for the boiler shell mus t be helping put some weight on the wheels, so it may pull about 12 cars.

[Anonymous]

My LL Berkshire runs about like the Kato Mikado. In other words, really good. My friend got an Atlas Shay. It seems to run very well. Some of the add on details, the "bars" or "rails" up on the boiler, for lack of a better term, look wrong. It looks like they are folded and pointy in the front. It seems to run well. I'm kind of torqued at Bachman putting rapido couplers on the new H-5. Hells bells, when you spend that kind of money on an engine you expect knuckle couplers. Oh, forgot to mention one cool thing about the LL Berkshire. It has directional lighting. Its the first N scale steam engine I've seen with it. The first good running steam engine I came across was the Kato Mikado. The Minitrix and Rivarossi just don't seem to be worth buying. The next good N scale steam engine I found was the Bachman Consolidation. As earlier stated, the LL Berkshire, (C&O Kanawha) I recently bought runs very well. I have seen the H-5 run but only on a short "Test Track" at the local hobby shop. I think it will be a good runner but am not sure as I haven't seen it run any distance.

[orsonroy]

The new P2K berkshire runs exceptionally well, but pulls for crud. We're talking 14 boxcars. That's completely unacceptable when the Bachmann Spectrum 2-8-0 will pull 35+ and the Kato Mike with traction tire will pull 25+. The new P2K Berk is a fashion model that can't spell...