matchmaker
Established Member
I've been asked in another thread to comment on the above. In short, it's dreadful. The body moulding is inaccurate in a number of areas and this has been commented at length on the "RMWeb" forum. The paint finish is very glossy, although this is of course is fairly easily altered with a bit of care and weathering.
It's when you come to the mechanical aspects that it really falls down. By far the worst problem, in my experience, is the pickups. Although it has pickups on all wheels, the pickups are so badly designed and there is so much sidefloat in the wheels that it is extremely difficult to keep the pickups in contact with the wheels - hence the loco moves a few inches then stops. The wheels also have a tendency to slip on the axles and lose their quartering. It's a partucular problem on mine, which is the 4-4-4-4. The 4-4 + 4-4 versions may be a bit better as the two groups of wheels are not connected by coupling rods.
I've also found that there is insufficient downwards spring pressure on the bogies, hence they "float" and derail.
One area, however, that is good is the sound. Mine is DCC sound. It sounds magnificent (when running)! You start the two auxiliary engines - loud .Then start the four traction engines - very loud! Of course this is the only area of the loco not made by KR - it's a Loksound 5...
In short, I was very disappointed. It's a quirky model which I'd love to get running properly. I may manage, but when I can buy a loco from Bachmann or Accurascale (for example) which I can just plonk on a layout and run without problems, why should I have to spend hours getting a KR one to run properly?
It's when you come to the mechanical aspects that it really falls down. By far the worst problem, in my experience, is the pickups. Although it has pickups on all wheels, the pickups are so badly designed and there is so much sidefloat in the wheels that it is extremely difficult to keep the pickups in contact with the wheels - hence the loco moves a few inches then stops. The wheels also have a tendency to slip on the axles and lose their quartering. It's a partucular problem on mine, which is the 4-4-4-4. The 4-4 + 4-4 versions may be a bit better as the two groups of wheels are not connected by coupling rods.
I've also found that there is insufficient downwards spring pressure on the bogies, hence they "float" and derail.
One area, however, that is good is the sound. Mine is DCC sound. It sounds magnificent (when running)! You start the two auxiliary engines - loud .Then start the four traction engines - very loud! Of course this is the only area of the loco not made by KR - it's a Loksound 5...
In short, I was very disappointed. It's a quirky model which I'd love to get running properly. I may manage, but when I can buy a loco from Bachmann or Accurascale (for example) which I can just plonk on a layout and run without problems, why should I have to spend hours getting a KR one to run properly?
