Athearn N gauge Big Boy rerelease in Oct.

[gmat]

Got the e-mail from Athearn today. Will be saving my pennies.

 

http://www.athearn.com/Search/Default.aspx?SearchTerm=Big+Boy+RTR&CatID=TNLS&NYA=True

 

Best wishes,

Grant

[westfalen]

They might be trying to get the jump on Kato. Their people at train shows in the US have said they will be bringing out an FEF3 4-8-4 and excursion train consist in 2013.

 

I've always liked the Challenger, I think it's a better proportioned engine than the Big Boy.

[keitaro]

The big boy has no style so i'll pass on this.

 

I like more like these http://www.steamlocomotive.com/consolidation/ar556.jpg

 

and a few others such as the canadian national 4-8-2's example model

[Guest Closed Account 1]

Their people at train shows in the US have said they will be bringing out an FEF3 4-8-4 and excursion train consist in 2013.

 

UP has an iPhone app for the 150 Year Anniversary celebration to track the UP 844(4) throughout the US.

[nik_n_dad]

We have an earlier model of the big boy and a challenger with tsunami sound.  Both are great runners and are impressive trains to see on your layout.  Obviously the tsunami sound is very nice.  Definitely save your pennies.  Athearn locos are good trains, and their steam has nice detail.

[The_Ghan]

keitaro,

 

You might also like the British "Austerity" 2-10-0 class and the BR Standard 9F class, also 2-10-0 ... that Canadian National you linked to reminded me of these.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[Martijn Meerts]

Very tempting, but I'm not a fan of N-scale sound, so I don't really want to pay for extra for sound I won't be using.

 

Of course, I have the big boy in H0 already.

 

 

A UP844 with excursion consist on the other hand, that'd be interesting =)

[keitaro]

keitaro,

 

You might also like the British "Austerity" 2-10-0 class and the BR Standard 9F class, also 2-10-0 ... that Canadian National you linked to reminded me of these.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

 

thanks ghan i'm very much acquainted with them.

 

I was thinking of getting the following

 

http://www.bachmann.co.uk/prod1.php?prod_selected=farish&prod=2

 

372-426

372-425

also thinking the princess coronation but these are way off i have to clear my current preorders

[The_Ghan]

Yuh ... I pm'd you about the Coronation class.  I'm kind of thinking that you don't really fancy the LMS crimson colour, so perhaps take a look at the Dutchess of Sutherland ... she's still running today and is painted in LMS black with gold trim ... I'm sure there's a model of her out there somewhere ... or perhaps a Duchess in BR Green.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[Lawrence]

Strange reading about you guys discussing buying British locos, I moderate on http://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/ and the one thing that is pretty much constant is that the Bacmann/Farish or Dapol locos (especially the kettles) can't touch Kato for quality, looks or reliability.  I have just picked up a brand new Kato Budd RDC Demonstrator for under £28 shipped from the states, it is a cracker.  Now I don't model British stuff and given the amount of complaints I read about it I doubt I ever will, if Kato or Tomix went into the British N market it would be the end for BachFar and Dapol

[keitaro]

on the topic of bachfar they just released a fair amount of new steam locos and some of them maybe even all now have the motor in body and not the tender anymore but the nem 6 pin will still be in the tender for dcc hmmm sounds like alot of room for sound if you ask me.

[The_Ghan]

Hi Lawrence,

 

I'm reminiscing more than anything.  Before I ever went to Japan I used to model British OO scale as a kid.  I'm talking about 1976-1984.  The Hornby OO scale used to have reliability problems and might still do.  When I got back into model railways a couple of years ago the first thing I did was look up the current range of Hornby OO.  I was hoping they'd done away with that terrible coupler they had, but alas, that's not the case.  I spent months researching product before settling on Japanese N gauge.  I can't understand Hornby in this regard.  Look at Tomix, Kato and Microace.  All have models with a variety of couplers.  Yet Hornby insists on that horrible, big, ugly, and certainly non-prototypical D ring coupler.  Why?

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[Lawrence]

Hi Lawrence,

 

I'm reminiscing more than anything.  Before I ever went to Japan I used to model British OO scale as a kid.  I'm talking about 1976-1984.  The Hornby OO scale used to have reliability problems and might still do.  When I got back into model railways a couple of years ago the first thing I did was look up the current range of Hornby OO.  I was hoping they'd done away with that terrible coupler they had, but alas, that's not the case.  I spent months researching product before settling on Japanese N gauge.  I can't understand Hornby in this regard.  Look at Tomix, Kato and Microace.  All have models with a variety of couplers.  Yet Hornby insists on that horrible, big, ugly, and certainly non-prototypical D ring coupler.  Why?

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

 

My Dad has some Hornby / Triang from 1960 on and they have the coupling you mention and I guessing it was a good low tech option for them back then, I think because they have always done it that way they wont change it now because all the old stock that people have would then need to be converted and there would be a right hullabaloo from the collectors.

 

Dapol have recently released magnetic N gauge knuckle couplers but they are not as fine as micro trains and from the A3/A4 models onwards Dapol are offering a one year guarantee of their chassis. Any faulty chassis will be replaced by two newly appointed agents.  As a number of our members have said it now takes the worry out of buying a new Dapol loco for them.

I do believe that British makers are slowly improving, recently Olivias Trains and Kernow Model Rail Centre have produced their own releases, but small manufacturing runs come at a cost premium but the big 2 (I'm talking N Gauge) still need to up their game I believe