Broadway Limited On30 C-16 Impressions

Good Morning All,

The comment about the cast on detail for the C-16 is correct. But....that will be the same for any engine from Broadway that is produced under the Powerhouse banner. Broadway produces engines under both the Paragon and Powerhouse banners. The Paragon should be in comparison to the Proto 2000 from Lifelike, while the Powerhouse will be more like Proto 1000. This means Paragon engines will have more add on detail than Powerhouse, but the drive mechanisms and sound will be the same. This info comes directly from Broadway, the Proto comparison is mine. Yes the sound is loud. Broadway sends out all of its engines with the sound turn up. On the C-16, back of the tender is a oval shaped water hatch. This hatch lifts off and exposes blue, slotted "screw". The engine comes with a plastic screw driver which some have described as looking like a shovel. This tool is used to turn down the volume of the sound. Understand that this a master volume control, so all sounds will be affected. I tell you this as some sounds such as the generator whine may be "lost" with the master volume set too low. Speaking of sound, the way the bell rings is the most realistic for a bell that would have been rung manually. Some steam engines' bells were rung thru other means. The whistle has the same tone all the time, but will have a slight alteration depending on how long you hold down the whistle key. Hard to explain this, you have to hear it. The engine runs nice and quiet from a motor perspective - pulls very well and decent weight. The engine comes with a very nice detailed owners manual that explains how to operate this engine in both DC and DCC. Remember, Broadway engines will run with sound on either type system without any programming or physical alteration save, lifting the engine off one system and putting down on the other. Also note, when running on a DC powered railroad, the engine will take more than half throttle to get moving. This is due to the electronics in the tender. Once moving, the throttle can be reduced some. This goes for all Broadway engines. One negative.....if you buy one, before running, or for that fact, before taking from the store, check the wheel gauge on the front and rear axles. There has been, quite a prevelent problem with one of the axles being out of gauge either wide or narrow. One of my two had the front driver set wide. When running this way....the engine bounced noticeably on switches. It would not derail, but was quite noticeable. 5 out of 7 engines in the initial shippment to my store had this problem. I have called Broadway about the problem so that they are aware. I sent my engine back to them per their instructions on their warrenty card. One thing to note about the card. It says to send $7.00 to Broadway to cover return shipping. This is NO LONGER a policy with Broadway. You DO NOT have to send that money. If you do, Broadway will return you money to you when your engine is returned. All in all, I am EXTREMELY pleased with the C-16. I have two now and to have another would not be unthinkable.

Bob Rule, Jr. Hatboro, Pa

How about the coupler on the tender - did they go the Bachmann route and install an HO scale coupler?

BTW, I am very disappointed to hear that they released this under the Powerhouse label. It's no wonder the price wasn't as high as it could have been with an exploratory project like On30.

Frank Eva Digital Railroader

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The Gratiot Valley Railroad Club bi-annual train show and sale March 7, 2004, at the Macomb Community College Sports and Expo Center. Macomb County Michigan. Please visit our Web Site at:

Frank, I plan to get one of these if I have extra money left after Christmas. Though it would be nice to have a more detailed model I think they may have made a wise decision to make it the way they did and keep the costs as low as possible. Most of the people buying On3 will be either be of the Christmas tree village / RTR only group who probably don't care too much about some cast on detail or of the bashing building, must alter everything traditional On30 crowd who take the knife to just about everything no matter what. That will be the fait of my C-16 when I get it or if there are any left when I go to buy one because after a turn or two on the track it will be back dated. My main hope is that they have good success with this model and will want to offer more On30 subjects down the road. Bruce

Yes, the sparse detail is OK; that can always be augmented. My only real gripe is the cast on piping. As far as cast on piping goes, some is better than others. This stuff looks like an old MDC kit from the 50's, (of which I DO have several still running). I still like this engine alot. I'll get one soon. (Round domes). And I will chisel the pipes off and repaint it.......... Someday.

-John

Frank,

Broadway did indeed go the HO route for the coupler on the tender of the C-16. The front coupler is a dummy O scale coupler and the underneath side of the pilot leaves precious little room to convert to an operating coupler. Right now, in the On30 Conspiracy on Yahoo...the thought is that a switcher pilot will be necessary on the C-16 to have an operating coupler.

Bob Rule, Jr.

Good for you, Bruce. That will sound great with them just sitting and steaming, I found out yesterday that there are two versions of the loco. One has the smoother modernized domes and the other has the older fancier domes. I just don't remember the numbers of each. As of yesterday, we had them both in the store.

Bruce Fav> Frank,

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The Gratiot Valley Railroad Club bi-annual train show and sale March 7, 2004, at the Macomb Community College Sports and Expo Center. Macomb County Michigan. Please visit our Web Site at:

Frank, Your right. Both dome styles are available. I want one with fluted domes to start with if possible. I was going to bash a C-16 using an MDC 2-8-0 and a Bachmann 2-6-0 a few years ago but all I finished was the cab and the diamond stack and never got round to getting an MDC kit. Bruce

Yes, well pretty much everyone has seen the front coupler. I asked BLI not to go the Bachmann route on the rear, but they haven't seen fit to show any pix of the rear, and I'm still concerned that they may have gone the Bachmann route...

That's exactly the way BLI is looking at it - if this one doesn't sell really well, you can bet they won't come out with any more On30 stuff.

Dagnabit! That means major overhauls to get the tender and any cars behind it to get them looking like the "real thing" (as in narrow gauge). That's one of the reasons why I gave up on On30 - just too much work involved.