My Whitcomb is here!!

[Stevelewis]

My Whitcomb  arrived this  morning  , it  is  a  very impressive  model  well worth  the  money (and  the  wait!!)

I am a little pushed  for  time  at  the  moment,  but  should anyone wish to look at  www.rmweb.co.uk  and look at  the  modelling ' special interest '   section  and  NARROW GAUGE etc  you will find   a short  reveiw  there  under  the  Whitcombe  heading.

One  thing to  note  the  loco  is  very  heavy  701 Grammes!  It  runs  superbly!

A couple  more  observations..... sound module  installation  when  they  become  available  appears  to be very  easy,

2 Bells  & 1 Horn  are  enclosed  for  user  fitting,  there is  a driver in the  cab,  the lights  are  directional, but  the  rear  one  remains  on  but  dims slightly.

Pulling  power   will be  exceptional  I have not  got  enough  rolling  stock  here to  test it!!!

The loco  runs very smoothly  from  a very slow  crawl, to  a Maximum speed  which  is probably  just  below a scale 40MPH

There  should be  no problem  with  tight  curves,  the  bogies  (sorry  Trucks!) have a lot  of  swivel ( turnability)  the minimum radius on the layout I have been testing it on  is  17"  but when  I  stopped the loco  on the  17" curve to check I found that   there is still a little more turn available  in the  trucks  so 15" radius should be no problem.

[Lemurien]

Bravo!!!!

[Stevelewis]

I have  just  realised  that  I  should  have  said  in  my original  post  that  the  Whitcomb  seems  to  be  nearly  all Metal

Very few  plastic  parts, the only ones I have  identified   so  far  are  the   Lenses in the  lights,  the  window frames (which open & close)  and  the  Driver!

Weighs  heavy  701 Gramms (24 ounces)  as   a comparison  the  Climax  which is similar in size  weighs  570 Grammes.(20 ounces)

[NarrowMinded]

I'll make it  bit easier to find for others.

Looks nice I may hav  to get a couple of these.

Heres a more direct link to his review.

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/90483-bachmann-0n30-whitcomb-diesel-locoarrived/

Nm-jeff

[Stevelewis]

Thanks  Jeff......

If  I get   time  later  I will  take  the body off  and  have  a  look inside  and  post  a  couple  more  pics on  the RMWeb link.

I was thinking of  buying  a  second one, but not  sure   re color!  I weather  everything , but  would  like  to  get  more info  as to  what  the   other  3 colors look like!

[Stevelewis]

I have  removed the  body  to  fit  the  Horn  &  Bell'

There  are  some  additional phots of  the  inside  on  the  rmweb site (via Jeffs  link  on above  post).

The loco  is  fitted  with  TWO  speakers  one in  each  hood

My local  retailer  has  already  sold  out  of  the  orange livery  one!

[Lemurien]

On sale by  Micro Mark.

[Stevelewis]

Further  testing  this evening!  As  the loco has  outside  cranks  it  is  easy to count  the  wheel revolutions when  it  runs  slowly,  so to test  the  slow crawl  I counted  just  14  wheel revs. per minute it covered  around  30" in the  minute.

[aussie geoff]

Hello All

Today I received 2 Cream and Orange Whitcombs , and what a surprise . They are wonderfully crafted with crisp detail .
Well done to Bachmann on these worth the wait Locomotives .

Geoff

[NarrowMinded]

Those are the ones I was considering, are the true to the pictures?

Or better?

Nm-jeff

[aussie geoff]

Hello NM Jeff

I must say as good as the pictures are , the colours are much better in real life . The Cream is subtle and the Orange is bright but looks great and not to  loud  . I was thinking of the Safety yellow , but am very glad to get these instead .

Geoff

[Stevelewis]

Some  ongoing  info  for  Whitcomb  owners!

After  you  have run  your  loco for a little  time,  turn  it  over  and  check  the  tightness  of  4  screws in  each  bogie      ( sorry  TRUCK!!)  these  are  tiny  screws  which  hold  the  side  frames in position,  I  found  that they tend to  work  loose, The  main consideration  is  if  they  get  too loose   the screws will drop out  and  be  rather  difficult  to  find!