Hey Bach-man will that cute coreless in the 4-6-0 lead to an awesome Jupiter?

[kmcsjr]

Please, can it please. Same size as the old one, only have it run like a spectrum. I'd even wait til Christmas.

[brokemoto]

The newest version of this one already runs as well as a SPECTRUM.  They improved the mechanism, which was really the problem.  The last cardboard box versions of these were not bad, but they did have a wobble and tended to tail.  The newest versions, in the plastic box, run very nicely, even on straight DC (or as 'straight' as rectified DC can be).

Here is a photograph of one of mine, the plastic box version, with a MT coupler, spotting a car on my nineteenth century pike.  Until this version, using this as a working locomotive would have been unthinkable.



Keep in mind that you must operate these on pikes with metal frog switches.  Due to its extremely short wheelbase, this one will stall on plastic frog switches.  This is not a QC problem, it is something around which you can not get with short wheelbase N scale power.  No amount of QC will make plastic conduct electricity.  I suppose that Bachpersonn could use a different frame for the locomotive and make the drivers and pilots live, but even then, I suspect, the conductivity in the locomotive would not be reliable.  The drivers already have traction tyres.  Even if Bachmann took the tyres from one pair, the presence of them on the one pair could compromise the contact on the other pair.  Its extremely small size and concommitant light weight  could also hinder good electrical contact.  Making the locomotive live could drive up the price for little gain in performance.

If you will consider the Model Power mogul, which has traction tyres on one driver pair, it is heavy, has a tender that has only half the wheels live, and will stall, even on straight and level, at speeds below thirty five SMPH.  Swapping out the stock tender for one that has all wheels live, such as a B-mann SPECTRUM or Kato USRA standard, solves the problem.

The B-personn eight wheeler already has all the wheels live in the tender.  In fact, the tender is the only point of electrical contact.  This is why the necessity for operating it on pikes with metal frog switches.  If you operate the current version on such a pike, it is an excellent runner.

One thing for B-mann to consider would be to offer a live boxcar or combine with wires arranged in such a way that the consumer could plug them into the tender and that they would not be so obvious.  The extra electrical pick up would allow this one to operate smoothly on pikes with plastic frog switches.

[kmcsjr]

I started a thread about my specific 4-4-0 (i'm sure it's a rehash of familiar ground for most Bmann forum guys.

I still would like a Spectrum unless this one ends up pretty darn quiet. Maybe the coreless isn't the answer, but a motor quieter than the existing tender motor would be worth paying for. Sadly, in my world my trains run near the TV. They run quietly or they sit silently.

[sharriso]

Agreed -- a Spectrum version would be great.  We have limited choices on our railroad.

There were moguls in the early 1860s, but nowhere near the size of the Model Power version.  (The very first mogul-type in the 1850s was really an 0-8-0 with the front drivers idle.)

And 4-6-0s were popular in the 1850s and 1860s, but they were only slightly larger than 4-4-0s of the time.  Again, nowhere near the size of Bachmann's.