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Spectrum On30 Siderod Gas-Mechanical Impressions

Good looking, very small; even smaller than the Porter. Nice amount of cab detail (which comes seperate on the "unlettered" version). The unlettered is really more of an undecorated unit than any of Spectrums previous unlettered units. As for running... I went through FIVE of them to get two that ran OK. Two had a bind (one had a HORRIBLE bind) and one wobbled and was very noisy. Yellow headlight that is nice and bright (though yellow) and goes off in reverse. I don't know how well they pull and don't really care; I'm sure they will handle a few cars fine. I like them alot but all these chinese built things seem to have some SERIOUS quality control issues to settle. Too bad Kato doesn't have the variety that Atlas and Spectrum have. I have only seen ONE bad Kato in 20 years. (Mikado with a bind). But who needs these Dash-9 whatever things??1?

Reply to
Pacific95
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=>But who needs these Dash-9 whatever things??1?

Have you ever stood next to real one? Ever heard 'em revving up to start a mile long train? Awesome!

Wolf Kirchmeir ................................. If you didn't want to go to Chicago, why did you get on this train? (Garrison Keillor)

Reply to
Wolf Kirchmeir

Ever heard double-headed NKP 700 series Berks pulling a string of reefers up a curving grade along a river?

Sure doesn't sound (or smell) like a herd of Greyhound buses or cement trucks or smelly and clanky GM passenger auto diesels built on cheap gasoline engine bottom ends.

Reply to
Steve Caple

Very neat. Wish I had known they were coming. I just finished a project to chop and channel an Atlas standard gauge Plymouth WDT and mount it on an HO Kato MP-15 drive. I took 9" in vertical cuts out of both cab doors, and a similar amount out of the underframe, to reduce the unit's width from 10' to a more reasonable narrow gauge unit width of 8'6". (A little more may have been better, but it would have made the doors and walkways unrealistically narrow, and I did not want to narrow the hood.) Oh well. It runs very well, so maybe that's a benefit if the Bachmanns have problems. It's perfect on my HO portable "Timesaver" module, which works just fine with Bachmann On30 rolling stock. GQ

Reply to
Geezer

Years ago, (while in 50's era HO) I saw in The Gazette where someone took an Atlas RS-3 drive and made an Sn3 Doodlebug with it. This was the birth of my interest in Narrow Gauge. So when Bachmann did the On30 I took a passenger car, shortened it, and put it on a Proto 2000 switcher drive. I like these homemade projects. Much more fun in O scale. The Siderods that I got (that DIDN'T have a problem) run quite well. Quiet and smooth. The wheelbase is shorter than the Porter so I may add on some additional power pickup, but so far so good.

-John

Reply to
Pacific95

=>Ever heard double-headed NKP 700 series Berks pulling a string =>of reefers up a curving grade along a river?

No, wish I had. At the time I was in England, listening to, and sniffing the hard coal smoke of ex-GWR Kings and Castles and Halls and Manors rushing trains through the level crossing at 60mph a half-block from my house. There was a slight grade about a mile down the track - the stack talk was something wonderful.... But those big diesels have their charms, too.

Wolf Kirchmeir ................................. If you didn't want to go to Chicago, why did you get on this train? (Garrison Keillor)

Reply to
Wolf Kirchmeir

Reply to
Geezer

=>That would have been mighty nice too! Were you perhaps the lucky lad in the =>wonderful poem "Upton Magna" in the Oct '89 issue of Trains? GQ

No.

Used rto hang out on an "overbridge", too, spotting trains - writing down the loco numbers. We could buy neat little books with all the lcos listed by class, and a space rto tick them off when you saw them.. :-)

Wolf Kirchmeir ................................. If you didn't want to go to Chicago, why did you get on this train? (Garrison Keillor)

Reply to
Wolf Kirchmeir

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