My WBB Rutland GE 70-tonner finally arrived. First impressions:
- The detail is fantastic, compared to the Williams/WBB made from postwar molds. The paint scheme is lacking the yellow striping on the pilots and the front of the hood, but based on the early photos, that is not a surprise. Like the WBB scale 44-tonner, the handle rails are plastic. Handle with care. Otherwise, with it's diecast chassis gives it a nice heft for a small locomotive. The fixed pilots are nice.
- Like most if not all Williams/WBB locomotives, it's geared to far too high. Rewiring the motors from parallel to series was easy. (Use care when removing the shell to avoid breaking the plastic handrails.)
- The True Blast Plus sounds are nice, and the set volume is just about right, though the bell is a little hard to hear over the prime mover. (I forgot to look for a volume pot when I removed the shell to wire in-series.) It would be nice if the TBP had a battery or capacitor back-up to sustain the sounds of direction changes, maybe that's an upgrade for True Blast Plus II. :-)
- WBB rates it for O-27, however, when coupled to a consist, it failed to make the first curve without derailing the first car. Wheel slippage was audible. At first I thought that the fixed pilot was preventing the coupler from swinging far enough, however with upon inspection it turned out that it was the post on the coupler arm that engages the centering spring was preventing the coupler from traveling the full range of the hole in the pilot. It turns out that the groove in the chassis that this post travels in was the limiting factor. Solving the problem required a minor modification to the chassis—lengthening the groove. A Dremel tool would be ideal, a drill press would be nice, but careful work with a hand-held drill worked for me. A small piece of separately-applied detail, perhaps a handle of some type, that is on one side of the pilot opening had to be removed, too. These modifications were necessary to both the front and rear pilot.
- With series wiring and the pilot modifications made, it pulls my small Northeast consist nicely.
It would have been great if the modifications weren't necessary, but overall it seems to be a terrific conventional locomotive. I'm delighted to have it running on my layout at long last.
(I know, I need to take some close-ups.)
