As frequent readers have read, I modeled in smaller scales and gauges since the late '60s, but am new to O gauge. Well not so new - three years now. I was drawn to O gauge by the detail and sound of the newer offerings by various manufacturers. However starting with a super find one of my daughters gave me for Christmas 2013, I have dabbled in post war and MPC trains.
Today it finally dried out enough, and the mowing was down Friday, so I got the chance to set up a new oval of 027 42-inch track to run some of my old steamers. I can't run smoke in the house. So here was the lineup:
2026
621 NW2
211 Texas Special
8604 Wabash
8617 Nickel Plate Road
Observations
1. I like the noiseless electronic E unit in the 8604 and 8617. I take it this photo shows part of it. Woah, discrete components. As an electronics technician and engineer for 40 years, it's been a while since I saw components big enough to actually work with.
Trying to to show the blue capacitor here, but It barely shows.
I acquired the 8604 in a trade, and when I bought the 8617, I didn't realize they are the same locomotive until I got them side by side. Well not exactly the same. On first unwrapping the 8617, I noticed the is big semicircular piece of plastic under the tender with a big tire on it. I moved the wheel and heard something like broken pieces moving around. When I got it on the track, I heard it moves those pieces of whatever around to make a sort of chugging noise. It's not bad, if that's all you know.
2. Both 8604 and 8617 smoke great, but the 8617 runs much faster at the same voltage level. I put both on opposite sides of the oval, and the 8617 caught up in no time. No 'simulated' double heading here. I thought if they were the same locomotive, they may run at the same speed to pretend they were coupled together. No way. The one with the chuffing roller runs much faster. I thought that may have caused some drag.
3. The 2026 came with a 6066T tender. When I took it for service, I only took the locomotive not the tender, since it didn't have a W on the box. The Lionel authorized service man told me I should have brought the tender to make sure it whistled. I never opened it up until today, but there is nothing inside. was there a whistling tender that came with 2026 the 4-6-2 model?
4. I like to run trains fairly slowly' but since these wore made for kids to run fast, I thought I would see what they would do. The steamers all go faster than I would want to push them. The Texas Special was going pretty fast when I hit the top end and stayed on the track.. The 621 flew around the track, and finally left the track with volts to spare. I guess I felt like a kid today.
5. I got this 6419 work car with the the 2026 and 621. I recently purchased the crane car. It works.
Oh yes, here is the whole set I got with the 8617. Pretty nice.
If if you are still with me, any comments or answers would be appreciated. There was something else I was going to ask, but I typed so long I forget.
Thank you!
