Darth,
Our club, The Columbia Gorge Model Railroad Club, was built (this layout) in 1983, so the meters are 25 years old, maybe older, but they do seem consistent from one cab to another. They are also 5 amp meters, from the Athearn BB days, when locomotives were more amp hungry, so at this small of a draw they are in the bottom 5-10% of the meters range, so these readings aren't as accurate as they would be on a 1 or 2 amp meter.
Another thing that MR may not have done in their test, and is something VERY IMPORTANT with these Locomotives, is to lubricate the 5 axles of the rigid axle bed on the tender. If these axles are run dry, they will squeek & squeal to high heaven. I haven't done any scientific controlled tests, but it does make a difference in their pulling power.
Another consideration is that my Challengers are EXTREMELY well broken in, the 3980 (My Favorite, if you can imagine ) pulls a 12 car HVY WT Passenger set that is properly weighted. This train is VERY popular at the club, I wish that it had an odometer, it has been run so much that the plating on the drivers is wearing off.
Doug
May your flanges always stay BETWEEN the rails
twhite, the Bowser Challenger is actually around a scale foot too wide, so that would make it look heavier than the other models available. The tender came from a Con-Cor/Revell/Monogram Big Boy, and I added a Bowser tender power kit to it. I was also able to make a full interior using modified Big Boy parts.
challenger3980, the Lionel Challengers draw less than 0.25 amps? If that's so, than MR must have been WAY off in their review, or they just got a stiff runner (they measured 0.7 amps running free!).
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Let me compliment your workmanship, it looks GREAT , mine are all "OUT of the BOX" Lionel HO Challengers. Mine average less than 0.25 amps pulling either a 12 car passenger train (Athearn BB HVY WTs, weighted & Kadee axles) or 15-20 car freights. The amp meters at our club are 5 amp meters, so it is sometimes hard to tell by the meters if the train is still running in unvisible locations.
Darth--
Handsome loco, and looks like a nice, smooth runner. What I like about the Bowser Challenger is that it seems to look 'buliker' than most of the manufacturer's Challenger's I've seen--it certainly looks like it has more girth than my Genesis. That's a really nice job you did. Question--where'd you get the tender?
Thanks for the video. That's one handsome HUNK of loco you've got there.
Tom
Tom View my layout photos! http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm310/TWhite-014/Rio%20Grande%20Yuba%20River%20Sub One can NEVER have too many Articulateds!
dale8chevyss, for having realistic articulation, the Bowser Challenger can take some pretty tight curves (down to 18"!)! Of course, it looks a little silly on curves that tight, but since a 4'x7' layout is all I get right now, I guess I'll just have to live with it (until I can get a whole basement!).
SteamFreak, if there was a club around here that I knew of, I might have to take it in and really test its pulling power. The driveshaft is working pretty smoothly now, although I might want to actually spend money someday and put a good NWSL shaft in there.
New Haven I-5 and AggroJones, it is kind of noisy right now, but it doesn't have a lot of run time yet. The gears are fully greased, so it should hopefully quiet down after some hours of running.
I enjoyed that. Hopefully lubing and addtional run time will quiet the beast some.
"Being misunderstood is the fate of all true geniuses"
EXPERIMENTATION TO BRING INNOVATION
http://community.webshots.com/album/288541251nntnEK?start=588
- Luke
Modeling the Southern Pacific in the 1960's-1980's
Nelson
Ex-Southern 385 Being Hoisted
Modeling the N&W freelanced at the height of their steam era in HO.
Daniel G.
scubaterry, the Challenger would do fine with DCC, as long as you have a 2-amp decoder for incase it ever stalled. It only draws about 0.3-0.4 amps running free, which I've read is actually less than the Lionel Challenger!
How is that Mikado coming along? I remember it took you a little while to get it from Bowser.
G Paine, I don't think I'll take another video for a while, since it's a complicated process getting it to the computer, but if you want I can try getting some photos of the realistic articulation in action.
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch
Master of Big Sky Blue requested a video of my Challenger running on my layout a few days ago, but I thought I would go ahead and share it with everyone else too. It's not a high quality video, since the good one was too large for Photobucket to accept, but it's still enough so you can see this massive brick of metal running.
http://s9.photobucket.com/albums/a70/DarthSantaFe/?action=view¤t=Challengerstreaming.flv