Which loco?

[NICK C]

Hello friends,
Thanks for all your help regarding the DPDT switch.
Whew!, thats my signals almost complete. In about a week i should have them up and fully working on my layout.
Recently ive been looking through my issue of railroad model craftsman and railway modeller looking for an affordable small steam loco(N gauge), i had seen some nice pictures of Bachmanns 060 dockside steam loco and the price of this loco was certainly reasonable for N at about $25 including p+p. If anyone Knows of any similar locos at about the same price please contact me.


Thankyou,
NICK C

 

[billk]

Nick - I think you mean 0-4-0, not 0-6-0? If so, here's what Spookshow has to say:

Introduced: 1970

This is a really bad locomotive, even for a Bachmann. When the motor runs (which is not all that often), it shimmies and shakes down the rails like some pixilated burlesque dancer. With Bachmann this usually means that the wheels are out of gauge, but these have been checked and double-checked. So, there is some other glaring flaw in the system. Frankly, I'm just not all that interested in finding out what...

I'm told there that have been at least three different versions of these locomotives. The oldest had plastic valve gears. The second was made with metal valve gears and had a 5-pole (rather than 3-pole) motor. The third had metal valve gears and a 5-pole skewed armature motor (each subsequent version supposedly running a little better than the one preceding it).


In other words, you get what you pay for?

 

[railohio]

N scale and steam, any size, don't seem to mix well. Your best bet, if you're on a budget, would be to get a Life-Like diesel switcher. They can be purchased for not much more than said steamers. That being said, if you're dead-set on steam in N scale, there was a series of articles published in Model Railroader in the 1980s describing how to modify Bachmann steam to run better. I have a Bachmann Plymouth industrial switcher which is built around the same mechanism as some of the small steamers. It runs, but that's all the credit I'll give it.

 

[BDC]

Try looking around on ebay. You can find an older Atlas/Rivarossi 0-8-0 or 4-6-2 for less than $40. These run rather well, especially for their age. They might need a little TLC, but a whole lot less than any Bachmann. Bachmann has three levels of quality: the standard white box, "Silver", and "Spectrum." Only the Spectrum is any good, IMO. The white is pure junk (cheap locos for the cheap plastic layout) and the Silver line is very iffy.

Bachmann does sell a 0-4-0 and 0-6-0. Both are poor performers. I wouldn't buy one unless I got to see it run before I bought it. If you feel like spending a little more, Kato makes a very nice 2-8-2 and Bachmann just put out a very suprising 2-8-0.