New Spectrum Mikado

[Anonymous]

Train World has an ad for a new Bachmann Spectrum Mikado at around $130.00. I have not seen ads for this locomotive anywhere else. Does anyone know any more about this offering? What is the basis for the loco, etc.

[cacole]

Bachmann's Web site doesn't list a Spectrum 2-8-2 Mikado, so it must be so new that they haven't added it to their own site yet.

I'm beginning to get a little gun-shy of Bachmann Spectrum products after the experiences of three other members of our local club who have gotten bad products that had to be sent back, and a G-scale Spectrum 2-8-0 I purchased was dead on arrival. When I opened that one up to install a decoder, I discovered that it was DOA because three wires hadn't even been soldered at the factory. So much for cheap Chinese slave labor.

Just today I helped a friend install a SoundTraxx system into a new Bachmann Heavy Mountain, and that was not a pretty sight. The factory in China just uses whatever color of wire they happen to have on hand, and the Bachmann exploded drawing doesn't show any of the wiring. We wound up having to totally disassemble the locomotive so we could conduct continuity checks and determine which of 3 red wires from the tender went to the motor, and which were to the headlight and firebox light. We never could get the headlight to work with the decoder, even though it lit before the sound system was installed.

The worst part of it all was that Bachmann evidentally changed manufacturers after SoundTraxx designed their "plug-and-play" sound system, and it would not fit into the re-designed tender without major modification and the addition of an adapter plug, which had to be purchased separately from Litchfield Station.

[Anonymous]

I know that the 2-8-2 is based on a Chinease 2-8-2.

[orsonroy]

The listing is of a Chinese built SY 2-8-2. Two engines have been imported to the USA (and a third lost at sea!). There was a thread about this engine on this list about a month ago (and a thread on the Atlas forum about converting it to a USA prototype, but you can't look for that topic right now...)

From what I've seen and read, the engine is a very nice runner, and suitable for kitbashing into many pre-USRA small mikadoes. The boxpox drivers aren't very correct, but they can be replaced. The engine was a limited run, so if you want one, I'd get it NOW.