Good Afternoon
After doing some more reading I decided to go ahead and pick one up today.
Looks like they ship without couplers so I'll have to get around to installing them before giving it a run. Guess it saves the time uninstalling and replacing with Number 5's.
Springfield PA
Blue, let us know what you think and some pictures as well. I still don't like the Mike makes only DCS decoders, but his trains are starting to get a some what of good rep.
Ken
I hate Rust
I agree totally about the DCS but my main issues have been lack of Advance consist and not being able to control individual sounds. I don't plan on consisting steamers so the first is not an issue. I see how the sound issue goes but the loco is a beauty. I'll post plenty of pics when I get it running.
Hamltnblue Good Afternoon After doing some more reading I decided to go ahead and pick one up today. Looks like they ship without couplers so I'll have to get around to installing them before giving it a run.
Looks like they ship without couplers so I'll have to get around to installing them before giving it a run.
Thats the one thing that drove me crazy about those engines lol, I put down $400 for each engine and both times they came without the right screws to install the couplers!
Well, it looks like a beautiful engine you got there, I hope it works out.
Thanks.
Reading through the manual I do find something interesting. There isn't a cable to connect the Loco to the tender. Data is passed through the drawbar through 2 conductors. If it works well, I'd say it would be an improvement over my Blueline and Paragon 2 connectors which I've had issues with in the past.
HamltnblueI agree totally about the DCS but my main issues have been lack of Advance consist and not being able to control individual sounds.
I wonder if Decoder Pro could read and write the CV's (if they are called that in DCS).
Looking forward to your review Blue.
Hamltnblue Thanks. Reading through the manual I do find something interesting. There isn't a cable to connect the Loco to the tender. Data is passed through the drawbar through 2 conductors. If it works well, I'd say it would be an improvement over my Blueline and Paragon 2 connectors which I've had issues with in the past.
Yes, the wireless tether is indeed one major positive to MTH products that I had completely forgotten about, I would agree its a vast improvement over the Broadway connectors and saved me a lot of hassle and frustration, especially when I wanted to pack up the loco and bring it over someone else's place. The wireless tethers on Lionel's scale line of O gauge steam engines have always been amazing, and MTH seems to have transferred this technology to a smaller scale absolutely flawlessly. I'm actually a little surprised that Broadway hasn't employed these on the new Paragon 2 locos considering Lionel was the first to use them and Bob Grubba is originally from that company.
I finally got the loco running and so far am liking what I see. I took about 50 pics along the way of which about 25 I kept. I probably wont be able to finish tonight but here's some of the things I noted along the way. Edit (waiting for photobucket to finish the upload. Each pic is about 2 meg in size)
Besides the Manuals and packing here is what you get out of the box. One Berkshire Loco with Tender, a spare driver without traction band, A wrench to remove the drive rods, and a pair of couplers. It's kind of sad but common these days. Here we have a 400 buck loco and the couplers are not pre-installed. Not only are they not installed, they're Plastic junk. Note to MTH: You know we're going to change the couplers to kadee anyhow, so why not just supply them? The pair in the picture are now in the trash.
Also note that I was surprised by the weight of the pair. The tender feels very heavy and almost as much so as the Loco. I don't have a scale to weigh them with but definitely a weapon if you need one in a hurry
A couple of pics of the front of the loco with a couple of close ups of the Number boards:
This loco has very nice detail and looks great IMO
Left Side
Right Side:
Here's a shot of the belly:
And the Top:
Rear View of the Fire Box:
And Cab with Engineer:
Here's The LED board for the Cab Light. (Yes the cab light works)
The next couple of pics are centered on the Draw bar. The unique thing about the drawbar is that it passes data between the Loco and tender. There is NO interconnect cable between the 2. Note the electrical connections inside the hole of the Draw Bar. To the touch it seems a bit flimsy but I'm sure it's plenty strong. I think it's a great idea and the time to hook the Loco to the Tender is just a couple of seconds. This is something MTH should be bragging about. I will be looking into picking up a spare for sure though.
The Next Pics will be of the Tender. Since I noted the Draw Bar here's the tender end. Note how the 2 halves are separated to mate with the 2 Draw Bar Conductors:
Side View of the Tender:
IMO the coal load looks fantastic:
Tender Rear View. Note the marker lights. You'll see them working shortly
There is a free photo editing program called Irfanview that allows you to resize digital photos before uploading them to photobucket which makes the task faster and uses up less of your free photobucket space. The resizing does not degrade image quality and it makes viewing easier for the rest of us.
The next 2 pics are the underside of the tender. A couple of things to note.
1. The electrical pick-up is massive and should be more than reliable. I couldn't see the pick-up of the loco without opening it up.
2. There is a single speaker. I don't know the size but looks like about an inch in diameter.
EDIT" After reviewing the pics I see I missed one speaker under the truck. There are 2 there:
BdewoodyThere is a free photo editing program called Irfanview that allows you to resize digital photos before uploading them to photobucket which makes the task faster and uses up less of your free photobucket space. The resizing does not degrade image quality and it makes viewing easier for the rest of us.
Thanks
I have the ability to re-size in photo shop. The originals were 22 meg. The size you see aren't 2 meg. I upload them that size for storage since I have a Photobucket Pro account. If you note the size you see it's much smaller. You do have the ability to download the full size if you ever wanted to.
Here's a close up of the spare driver without traction tires.
Now the couplers. Here's what I found
The coupler box that included for the tender will not fit a Kadee # 5. It will fit a #48? Whisker coupler. I think that's the equivalent number. I don't have any 48's on hand so I substituted the coupler box with one of the one's included with the #5's
The loco is different. The coupler box is open and part of the loco. You cannot use the # 5 here. Unless I'm missing something you should use the #48?. Again it's the whisker equivalent of the #5. The pic shown is the extended shank #156 since it's all I have on hand in whisker. It doesn't look right to me so I'll be swapping it when I get the right part. Also note the included instructions show installing the coupler with the pilot truck in tact. Do yourself a favor and remove the pilot. The job goes much faster. Note that there is a spring under the pilot shaft. Just be careful not to loose it.
Hamltnblue Good Afternoon After doing some more reading I decided to go ahead and pick one up today. Looks like they ship without couplers so I'll have to get around to installing them before giving it a run. Guess it saves the time uninstalling and replacing with Number 5's.
Hamltnblue... congrats on the aquisition! I hope you'll enjoy it as nuch as I do mine. If you need any help with anything just give me a yell off-sight.
BTW: here's some pics of the 09' excursion I just got last week - enjoy .
Thanks and good luck with your new locomotive.
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After the couplers are installed it's time to set up the loco. The Draw Bar Assembly is easy and only takes seconds. No plug to worry about.
I ran out of time but got a couple of pics in.
Here's a couple of front shots: Note the top light is a gyralight. It' looks steady because the exposure is 20 seconds. It actually flashes at about a 1-2 second rate.
Here's one of the Cab:
One of the Tender with the marker lights on. Nice Touch
And last pic for tonight, a head on shot. Note the top light is the gyralight and flashes. Exposure makes it look steady. Beer can on the right is part of the layout, but does move around from time to time.
Hamltnblue
Well, The layout makes a great backdrop...I'm really impressed with your photos though...great job! Now, how bout' a Coors to whet my whistle(no pun intended).
Thanks for the pics - enjoy the engine. We better not offer too much information on this engine though...some of the pro-Bachmann guys are getting sweaty palms- and they're running out of good things to say about their own 'toys'.
Just for the record: Comparing all the HO variations from P2K and Bachmann really shouldn't be uttered in the same sentence with the MTH version...there is no comparison.
I've owned a few of the Proto engines and a Genesis Northern and they are very well done and affordable. But, unlike the P2K and Bachmann models, MTH models have the characteristics, look and feel of a brass model and perform better than any locomotive out there at any price - bar none. There's just nothing like metal construction combined with a supurb drive.
I know that the less-expensive brand locomotives with the more basic features that have been mentioned here are just fine for most buyers, for the money, and if those contributors who own the other brands, are content with what you have, then terrific! That's what it's all about - enjoying the hobby and expressing your pleasure with what you like.
Someone commented(and it doesn't matter really) about the 'thickness' of the running boards on the Berk... I'd rather have that part of the loco be slightly over-sized and offer durability, rather than all the attempts to create scale parts that cannot hold up to even the slightest handling.
If Bachmann could build a model of this caliber for the same or lower price, I'd buy it...but, they don't and until Bachmann(or P2K for that matter) can offer the same, they will not get my business. Bachmann will never produce a model of this caliber - it's simply not their market, and they're wise to do what they do best - especially their narrow guage line.
HamltnBlue... good luck with the engine...I hope it brings you a lot of enjoyment.
Okay.. that's a dollars worth and I'm trying to save up for the new BLI Pennsy Q2.
Peace to all - out.