2-6-0 report

[florynow]

I have had 4 of these engines in my house in the last month.  Here are the facts concerning each one:

Mogul No. 1 - Ran smoothly but with a very audible gear chirp in reverse.  The second day I had it, one of the valve gear eccentric cranks came loose so it would flop around with every revolution of the drivers.  No amount of tightening would secure it.  Luckily I bought it from a dealer who returned it for me, and I received Mogul No. 2.

Mogul No. 2 - The sound-value sound function of the decoder died after two days of running it.  I returned it to the dealer and am now awaiting Mogul No. 5 in exchange.

Mogul No. 3 -  It ran really, really rough out of the box compared to the others and had the same gear chirp as Mogul No. 1.  Running it has diminished the chirp somewhat.  Adjusting CV's 209 and 210 got it smoothed out, and of course the chuff had to be adjusted then.  This one, though, when you power up the track, one time out of three the bell comes on and the only way you can turn it off is to rock the engine and break the connection.  Anyone else have this problem?  Is this something I should return the engine for?

Mogul No. 4 - I bought this engine for someone else.  It had the same loose eccentric crank problem as Mogul No. 1.  I don't know what they are going to do with this engine.

4 engines, all with flaws, some major.  Three engines require return, one may or may not.  Any comments?  Yardmaster?

PF

[Bucksco]

Yes - call the service department.
Sounds like you have a black cloud over your head.

Am I surpised that you had issues with it?  Not really....

[Bucksco]

I would suggest speaking to the service department before jumping to conclusions .

[edbubie]

i have a 2-6-0 Mogul that after three days of running a shrot circuit cane in the tender where the sound unit i and it caused my E-Z Command control center to short out and now I cannot even run the other train.

[Rod in PA]

I too, recently purchased the sound value 2-6-0 and had some issues with it.  Set it on the track for its initial test run using NCE Power Cab.  Sound came on but the engine would not move.  Bumped the engine and it moved a few inches and stopped.  Repeated this numerous times with the same results.

Took the engine to my work bench for a closer inspection and found a problem.  First thing I noticed was one of the pick up wipers (the wipers each have 3 copper fingers) on the tender were all bent out of shape and none were touching the axle.  Another set of wipers weren't bent but none or the fingers were touching the axle.  Repaired this and went back to the track.  Same results, had sound but no movement unless the engine was bumped.  Back to the work bench and discovered the connector between the tender and engine was not completely seated.  Reseated the connector and it ran fine after that.
 
It would appear there may be some quality control issues with the assembly of this product or maybe just one assembler having a bad day (not my call).  I guess a buyer should not expect a product to function properly right out of the box, and should do their own quality control inspection before using it.

Rod in PA
 

[the Bach-man]

Dear All,
The vast majority of these locos have performed perfectly. If you have one that doesn't, we'll happily replace it.
Have fun!
the Bach-man

[Pacific Northern]

Florynow

I ended up with a few of these Alco 2-6-0's and right out of the box a couple ran a bit slugish and the others ran fine.

After running these engines for a couple of hours in forward and reverse in slow and moderate speeds all of the engines now run very well.

There were no loose parts, nothing fell off, there was no binding.

I would assume my batch were not typical to what you bought.

[Reinhard S]

Hi All.

I purchased the New York Central Sound Value version of the 2-6-0 a month ago and it ran perfect straight from the box and continues to do so where as I have purchased other (much more expensive units) that would not perform as advertised and needed to be sent back to the manufacturer after 5 minutes on the rails.  I have had the same experience with cars, the BMW was in the shop many, many, many more times than the Toyota.

All the best.

Reinhard