0-4-0 Gas Mechanicals

[tomplatten]

Your Customer Service Dept informed me you do not produce , service, or repair the little 0-4-0 Gas Mechanical! This is disappointing! It was a cool little locomotive especially with the little mine cars! I sent mine in for repair and they sent me back a Porter 0-4-0. Those are notoriously poor runners due to poor electrical pick-up from the track! The apologized but said they were not told why the Gas Mechanicals were dicontinued! Be advised!

[NarrowMinded]

My Old porter 0-4-0's run just fine, I have four 0-4-0's and four 0-4-2's and they all run great.

I have one  Gas Mech 0-4-0 that also runs great

I have heard the first run of porters had an issue if they shorted across the track the tiny sping in the pickup would turn red hot and loose it's "temper" and then there would not be enough pressure against the wheel.

NM-Jeff

[ChrisS]

Hang on.  You sent them a gas mech and they mailed back a porter? Were you asked first? Don't quite agree with that...

[Anubis]

Me neither.....


John

[NarrowMinded]

I had assumed they sent back his gas Mechanical as well as the Porter... never would I have thought they would just send a different product.

NM-Jeff

[Biglars]

Very interesting, was the Porter they sent back DCC? What was wrong with the Davenport a spit gear?
I have not seen many Davenports for sale lately I wonder if they are in for a retooling and the available stock is all gone? I have a few still in unopened boxes.

[railtwister]

Hi Tom,

If the Porter they substituted is the one of the recent runs with the DCC decoder factory installed, then are actually ahead of the game. Of course, if you really liked the Davenport a lot, and find it hard to warm up to a steam loco, then, I sympathize with you. Personally, I really like the Davenports myself, and I hope that they will soon be re-released and upgraded with optional Tsunami sound like the Porters were about a year ago. I am also hoping for the same upgrade treatment with DCC & sound for the old On30 2-6-0's  as well, and if that happens, I have a couple of the original 2-6-0's that I will replace with newer upgraded ones.

I'm also curious as to the original problem with your Davenport.

Bill in FL

[Anubis]

Me too....

Those DC Davenports are practically bullet-proof.

They have no gear-train to suffer from split gears, unlike the Shay and Climax, and the only problem that I have ever had from my fleet of them is that there is sometimes a loss of contact between the bronze current pick-up strips and the backs of the wheels. This usually responds well to a clean, then all is well again....

I wish that I had purchased a few more, before they are discontinued, and re-offered next year in a very-expensive DCC / sound version.


John

[Biglars]

I have one person I know that had a gear split but they removed it and they let the side rods power the other set of wheels, But that is one of a 100+ units that I know owners of that had an issue. I think the Davenports were one of the most sound units that have been produced.

[Bucksco]

The Davenport is not currently in the catalog but that does not mean it will not be produced again in the future. The service department was attempting to give you a replacement locomotive of similar value.

[webfoot]

Amazon is selling 040 Davenports.