Would you like to see a Spectrum 2-8-2!

[Alex V.]

How many of you guys want to see Bachmann produce a generic 2-8-2 Mikado in HO Spectrum?  Something to go along with the 4-6-0, maybe.  I'd like an 8-coupled loco for my pike, but the 2-8-0 doesn't really jump out at me.  Who's with me?  I know they're disgussing it on the 4-6-2 thread, but I thought I'd give it a seperate topic to itself.

[Orsonroy]

I would, but so long as it's NOT NOT NOT anything USRA (there are PLENTY of those on the market already!)

How about a Harriman Mike? Designed in 1906, they're anything but a USRA lookalike, and would satisfy SP, UP, IC, Alton, GM&O, and other proto modelers, while giving freelancers something new to use in their fleets.

[Virginian]

What I would like to see is a separate board for all the "I wants".  But, I guess that's about as likely as B'mann satisfying a lot of these requests.

[lanny]

I'm in total agreement with Orsonroy's suggestion. My layout would doubtless find room for 3 or 4 Harriman style Mikes, specially if they were of Spectrum quality.

lanny nicolet

[Hoople]

Harriman mikes in SP and UP sounds fine n' dandy to me.

[Nigel]

How many of you guys want to see Bachmann produce a generic 2-8-2 Mikado in HO Spectrum?  .....

There is an HO Spectrum 2-8-2 - the SY.

[Orsonroy]

How many of you guys want to see Bachmann produce a generic 2-8-2 Mikado in HO Spectrum?  .....

There is an HO Spectrum 2-8-2 - the SY.

Nigel, that's like saying that Bachmann shouldn't have come out with a 2-10-2 because they already had the QJ. You know as well as anyone else that the SY is a CHINESE engine, and that we're talking about AMERICAN prototypes. While you CAN make the SY look "Americanish", you can't really turn it into a 1940s-1950s era US or Canadian engine (it's the drivers that do it in)

[SteamGene]

What Nigel is pointing out is the simple fact that a Spectrum 2-8-2 actually does exist.  It's possible that the original poster is not aware of this fact.  He did not indicate that the SY is a replacement for a Mike built in the U.S. between 1915 and 1940.
Gene

[brad]

NO,

I'd rather see a 2-6-0. 2-6-2, 4-6-2, high drivered 4-4-2 anything but ANOTHER Mikado, there's enough of them already.

brad

[Bill Baker]

Count me in on another Spectrum 2-8-2.  I mentioned on another thread that I would like an Americanized 2-8-2 SY, but after seeing a picture of the Harriman that Orsonroy posted, I would definintely get a couple of those.  They are very beautiful and clean locomotives.

[wade]

Well how about properly detailed to the transition era USRA mikes. They often look completely different than the stock 1918 originals. NKP H-5s and H-6s were technically USRAs but the pictures from the 40s and 50s make them look like a different animal . Or how about a B&O Q-4b. While they were only slightly larger than USRAs ,they were distinct in appearence and Bachmann already makes a vandy tender to match! Brad mentioned 4-4-2. That would be cool. Or how about a dutch (fat boilered, WM or RDG styled) 2-8-0 or 2-10-0.
Wade

[Orsonroy]

Well how about properly detailed to the transition era USRA mikes. They often look completely different than the stock 1918 originals. NKP H-5s and H-6s were technically USRAs but the pictures from the 40s and 50s make them look like a different animal .

H-5 Mikes were anything BUT USRA engines! They were built starting in 1914 by the NYC out of NYC-designed large Consolidations. The NKP's 35 examples were some of the later (1917) engines built from the ground up. None of the NYC's Mikes, with the exception of the H-6 and H-9 series, looked anything like USRA engines.

As an example:

H-5 Mike to the left, H-6 to the right.

Unfortunately, we'll never see a road-specific later-period Mike, unless it's something like a Pennsu L-1 or an NYC H-10. USRA engines went through a LOT of changs over the years, changes that were too numerous and varied to make them cost-effective to do in plastic. That's why you have to "roll your own", like I do:

[r.cprmier]

While the SY is a mike, and that Bachmann did indeed produce it is a fact; it is a Chinese prototype-not an American; and an American prototype is what people would like.

I have built what could have been a small mike on almost any American standard gauge road out of an SY 9 (a lot of you have seen those pictures).  THis little engine had lent itself marvelously to my endeavour, but I think a mike might be  food for thought. 

On the other hand, BLI has a great USRA (heavens, that word...) light and heavy, that could lend themselves to a wide variety of adaptations.  To flood the market with what may be too many themes of the same kind might not be all that good a move.

RIch

[lanny]

Orsonroy,

You once sent me the name of a supplier of the NKP/ICRR style steam headlights, which I have subsequently lost or deleted ( the beautiful model of your NKP mike is a good example of that headlight).

What companies make them as super detail parts ... I need to stock up on several for my Spectrum 'kit bashes'.

Thanks!

lanny nicolet

[Alex V.]

Gene,
   I had temporarily forgotten about the Spectrum SY, but it's still CHINESE!    For those who are good at modifying and superdetailing, then just buy an SY and "Americanize" it - but people like me, that aren't very good at heavily modifying models, need something that they can bring home and run without having to completely rebuild it first.