New 2-8-2

[Pacific Northern]

Any word on the release of this engine?

Sure been a long time coming.

Sure do miss those 4-6-0's, new members to the local club want to buy some, good news is I have a few extra Spectrum engines, but I do not want to sell them, premium price or not. I will hold on and use when the original 4-6-0's wear out.

[Trainman203]

Yes I miss the 4-6-0's too.  I have 6 to hold out against repairs. They sold out fast, maybe the Bach Man will bring them back on day, with better headlights.

[MilwaukeeRoadfan261]

Yes I miss the 4-6-0's too.  I have 6 to hold out against repairs. They sold out fast, maybe the Bach Man will bring them back on day, with better headlights.

Yeah the 4-6-0 I have may not be able to pull long trains but they are a darn good engine regardless. But I will agree that the headlight on the 4-6-0 and even the 2-8-0 could be better. Compared to some of the other engines in my fleet which includes 3 4-8-4 Northerns (1 Santa Fe, 1 Southern Pacific and 1 Athearn Genesis Union Pacific), 2 2-8-0 Consolidations (1 Bachmann Spectrum and 1 Bachmann Standard line), 1 4-6-0 Ten Wheeler (Bachmann Spectrum), 1 2-10-2 USRA Light Santa Fe (Bachmann Spectrum), 1 2-8-4 Berkshire (Bachmann Standard line), 1 GP-38-2 (Athearn Genesis), 1 GP-40 (Bachmann Standard line), and 1 ALCO S4 (Bachmann Standard Sound Value line) the only ones that could have brighter headlights are the 2-8-0's and the 4-6-0.

[Trainman203]

Milwaukee, how many cars you want that ten wheeler to pull?  Mine will pull a dozen cars up a 2 1/2 percent.  The real ones didn't do any better.  Their era was one of short trains. A 25 car freight was a long train.  Double headers were common.

[jonathan]

The question of the new USRA Light Mikes has been coming up lately.

The delivery date keeps moving back.  I'm sure it's because of all the port problems in California, as that's where everything coming from China is delivered.  Have you seen the pix of the backed up ships?

I'm afraid we are at the mercy of the dock workers at this point.

Regards,

Jonathan

[ACY]

Unless we want to cross the pickett lines and work as scabs to get our model railroading  fix. Jonathan I think you can find the time to  moon light as a dockworker/crane operator.

[ebtnut]

According to recent news reports, the strike has been settled.  Now, hopefully, it will be a matter of how far into the backlog the Bachmann ship is before it hits the docks.

[Trainman203]

The only trouble with this model is that it s very popular.  It's been offered by at least two competitors in the last 10 years.  I have three already so I won't need the Bachmann model, unless, maybe, the Frisco one has the corect below-headlight coonskin number plate and is offered with sound.

[MilwaukeeRoadfan261]

Milwaukee, how many cars you want that ten wheeler to pull?  Mine will pull a dozen cars up a 2 1/2 percent.  The real ones didn't do any better.  Their era was one of short trains. A 25 car freight was a long train.  Double headers were common.

I have the 63" Driver version and usually I would have it pulling 3 or 4 Athearn heavyweight coaches or around 8 or 9 freight cars between 24' (an Athearn 24' Ore Car) and 40' (which is, on my model railroad, the standard box car length and most by Athearn made), and the occasional Accurail 41' gondola in DM&IR, plus a caboose and I don't have an incline on my railroad as I tried adding one when I was building my last railroad and it was to be a 4% grade (I know. A 4% grade with a 4-6-0 with 63" drivers is impossible) and the 4-6-0 and even my 2-8-0's (which can each pull a train of about 34 HO scale freight cars ranging from 24' to 50' plus a caboose with just one 2-8-0) could hardly manage to START making their way up the incline. Even the GP-40 I have had trouble with it so I got rid of the incline before I even glued it down. I know they never really hauled very much in terms of weight in real life. I have seen pictures of 4-6-0's of around the same size pulling around 6 Heavyweights (usually a baggage car, an RPO, a couple coaches, a dining car and an observation car) at a time with one engine for a run from say, St. Paul, MN to Duluth, MN or 2 or 3 coaches on a branchline from say St. Paul, MN to Stillwater, MN.

[ebtnut]

Yardmaster:  Gotten any intelligence on delivery date yet on the Mikes? 

[Bucksco]

Probably toward the end of the summer. We have production samples and we are doing some "tweaking".....

[ebtnut]

OK, that's fine.  Thanks for the response.  Looking forward to it.

[jonathan]

This actually works out well for me.  I want two of these locomotives and saving up for them is proving to be a challenge... A little more time is good.  Thanks for the update, Yardmaster.

Regards,

Jonathan