I still have, run, and enjoy my 4014 Big Boy. Carl did his magic on mine as well. He narrows the trailing truck side frames, the front tender truck side frames, and tucks in the caterpillar side frames on the tender as well. Results in a nice clean look. I had some trouble with BB's microswitch in the rear drive truck. Had to replace it and try different numbers of washers under it, but (knock on wood) it's been working well since. I've also serviced some with smoke unit troubles, and tender sub-frame wear issues. The Big Boy and Challengers both rely on the majority of tender axles bearing on nothing but the edge of a sheet metal sub-frame. If you don't regularly grease (not oil) those they wear down. On one Big Boy that I replaced the sub-frame on it otherwise looked as though the tender was squatting. The Mallet on the other hand has its tender axles in side frame bearing housing. Keep them oiled and they should outlast the Challenger and BB's. I love the way my Challengers run too. I'll have to check my notes. I know I did a bit of minor remedial work on them and some preventative work as well (pinned one portion of the crosshead linkage to prevent its cantilevered design from later resulting in droop, so far working great), and have fixed some issues on others for customers (e.g. solder shoulders on can motor contacts scraping through heat string tubing and shorting out on inside of the boiler shell, etc.), but otherwise I enjoy my gray UP and 3985 units. They along with the BB and Mallets always get still photo and video cameras going when run on a club layout at a train show or event. I am grateful Flyonel produced them for uS.
Dave
