More experience with Nscale Spectrum 2-6-6-2 & Nscale steam

[Anonymous]

If anyone is still asking about whether he should buy one of the Spectrum 2-6-6-2s, I'd like to provide more information gained from my experience with my two. The biggest problem to me seems to be the inconsistent quality of each unit. The first unit I bought I exchanged for another of the same number do to binding in the front gears or drivers when going forward. The thing ran perfectly going backwards! Its replacement runs better and I'm hoping that with time it will smoothe out more. Just out of curiosity, I tried one which had the other road number. It was absolutely perfect. A very smoothe runner. I had to buy it! It seems to me that getting a good 2-6-6-2 is a crap shoot and judging only from the batch my LHS received, the odds are not with you. At my LHS you can test run a loco before buying it. I've run 5 or 6 of these, maybe more, and found only one which was perfect. As stated earlier, I snatched it up. I think the gauge problems were occuring mostly on code 55 rail. Mine is the standard rail and I've never seen one having trouble staying on the track. If my replacement for my first 2-6-6-2 doesn't smoothe out more, I'll send it back to Bachmann. I've been told that they are very good with customer service. It is an awesome engine when working correctly. My Model Power steamers have been pretty good. If you want a really good Nscale steam engine, look at the Athearn 2-8-0s (formerly sold under the MDC Roundhouse name.) I have two and they are fantastic little engines. They are nineteenth century steamers so that may not appeal to everyone. Of course the Kato Mikado is what most Nscale steam engines are measured against. My Life Like Berkshire is as smoothe as it gets and has fantastic detail. Its Achille's Heel is that it pulls very few cars. One fellow on this forum said his can barely pull itself around his layout and he is not far from wrong. The Spectrum 2-8-0 is a real winner. I'm waiting to see what the Spectrum Russian Decapod is going to be like. One other Spectrum steamer, I think its a Mountain, is supposed to be very good. Hopefully my experience will benefit others. If you have the Nscale Spectrum 2-6-6-2, please share your experience with it. Perhaps my LHS batch was not representative of most of the 2-6-6-2s.