Which Loco In Roster Is Your Least Favourite ?

AustrianNG

AustrianNG

Director of my railway
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Have you got a loco you wish you hadn't bought ?
I have - the Piko Kamel - for reasons I have described before (aluminium wheels that get filthy, poor quality pick up skates and poor meshing with the worm drive of the power bogies).
There has been a minor improvement - I changed the skates to LGB ones which has improved the locos running qualities. A power buffer would also help.
Anyway this is it

Since I bought the loco Piko have changed the wheels to chrome plated ones......


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In My present G scale period I am afraid i have to mention an LGB ( Marklin) loco, The recently released V100 Diesel,
OK it is fairly inexpensive considering it has factory fitted decoder & sound , But I was totally unimpressed by the lack of detail and what detail there was was Moulded On, The 3 lights at each end were poor and very difficult to see in any light other than 'Quite Dark' they are fed by a single LED ( ie one at each end) the light being tranferred to the individual lenses by clear plastic periscopes.

In my previous G scale period my least favourite was the Bachmann K27, this will surprise some, but my reasons are, it was simpky too big for the line! and in the time I had it , it was unable to complete a complete circuit of the extensive continuous run, simply due to there being far too many clearance issues for the loco, ( despite the line being 95% R3 & R5!
I must admit that it was an impulse buy, as a well Known retailer was selling off his last 2 or 3 K27s for around £400.00 which was around 1l2 price
 
Least favourite would be an early Big Hauler, but the thing only cost me £15. It works (just about) but doesn't see the light of day much.
I've also got a Keystone 2-6-2 with tender in army camouflage colours. I bought a complete set some time ago for a bargain price (less than £60), mainly for the freight cars which aren't too bad (always intended to repaint but never got round to it). The loco works ok but doesn't get run.
 
AustrianNG said:
Have you got a loco you wish you hadn't bought ?
I have - the Piko Kamel - for reasons I have described before (aluminium wheels that get filthy, poor quality pick up skates and poor meshing with the worm drive of the power bogies).
Click to expand...
There are no Piko vendors in our country, but if there were, people would be entitled to return the loco for repair or refund. "Unfit for purpose" would apply here. This would even apply well outside the official warranty period. Can you not do that?
 
If I had returned the loco after a week - yes I guess a refund would have been feasible, but I have fitted a Lenz decoder and weathered the loco so I have gone past that point.
With chrome plated wheels the loco would be transformed, but it's a runner and it does have presence in spite of its shortcomings.
 
Can't say I've had a "least favourite" but I have had one that just didn't work for me - the LGB track cleaning loco. Noisy, never cleaned properly and I had to de-chip it on arrival as I hadn't noticed it was an MTS version when bought - I run DC or live steam. Still, thankfully, I sold it on without loss. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Max.
 
Regrettably it's a Mk1 Bachmann Lyn! It's the loco that led me into the garden railway thing, but the first one I had just plain gave up, so The Lady Wife bought me a second one. This has DCC and sound, but just 'waddles' around, stopping every now and then and totally incapable of hauling anything.

Luckily, I acquired (by dubious means!) a new Mk2 Bachmann Baldwin which is a completely different beast.

I just wish I could get that original Southern liveried Lyn to work even as a light engine!
 
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Gone now, but I had a Bachmann industrial mogul a few years back. Beautiful little locomotive, but would hardly pull anything more than one or two average size freight cars. Admittedly, I do have some grades in the layout. But every other locomotive I have has no problems on them.
 
My last loco purchased has been a total disappointment - it is the Marklin Nicki & Frank S (24266) I have owned the loco almost 12 months and had about one hour total track-time out of it. It has spent more time in the post back-and-forth to the supplier etc. with still no resolution to the problem. Having attempted to change the default address from 3 to 10 using my LGB universal remote to programme it somehow it screwed-up the loco's settings. Re-programming of the loco by other people with a better understanding has still not resolved the problems. Among these problems it has are lighting voltages that will not remain at 5v, jumping to 17v and blowing bulbs and ditto the supply to the smoke unit which has burnt itself out and melted into the smoke stack! Not bad for a loco costing £800! Yes, I too wish I had never bought it!
 
Re the 24266 Frank S.............This loco has the Marklin MFX decoder acording to the product description.
There have been a couple of comments about problems found with this decoder using certain Digital systems, There were some comments with the V100 Diesel, one of which I had but experienced no problems (Using Massoth System)

If the supplying retailer or those you used to 'reprogramme' the decoder managed to get the loco to function correctly, then would this not indicate a system problem that you have?
It may be worth you posting a question on here in the Help section maybe someone will offer some advice
I have had 3 of this loco type over a few years starting with the original pre digital Blue version all of which were perfect performers, and just acquired no 4! A 23622 Black with digital sound 10 years old but stored since original purchase (apparently!)
 
Now, not having the paperwork to hand..
Whichever CV sets the protocol, read back the value. - Bet it is 11.
From your paperwork, set for DCC ONLY. - From memory, 2.
Read back. - Bet you get 3 !!!
MFX is now OFF.

To set the address:'
Do NOT use the set address function on a Navigator..
For short addresses, set CV1 directly.
For long addresses, set the bit in CV 29 first, then do the math, and set CV's 17 and 18. - Oh, and one of them starts at a large number, you add your calculated value to!

Regarding voltages for lights.. It is NOT CV50 on these decoders. - That is normally the problem!

Case of familiarity breeding contemp.. You DO need to (try) to RTFM for these..
 
Excellent post Phil. Thank you - a point of reference.
I have one loco with the newer MFX decoder. To date I have left on original factory settings.
 
Maybe not my least favourite but certainly the least run. It has an elderly LGB decoder without anything like back EMF or the like. It slows down on corners, even larger rad ones and detects voltage drop that even my largest locos breeze over. Its also a bit 'yellow'.
In the long term, its due a paint job, either black or that odd sand colour used by the HSB. And if I am feeling flush, it may get a newer decoder when I upgrade something to sound. And the rear coupling fell off!
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Thats a simple one to reply to,worst one?,,,Piko 0 6 0 starter set switcher,plastic crank pins,cant remember the times I had to fix it,not used anymore,box in shed,where it will stay!!!!!!
 
002.JPG Re Stockers 0-4-0 Diesel above, I had an identical one on my very first line, the photo was taken early 80s, the loco body was derived from the early LGB Battery Battery diesel which came in a set with plastic track ( we had the steam version of the set, the body of the 0-4-0 loco went on to be used by LGB for the little 2075 & 2076x 0-4-0T locos.

My yellow diesel quickly got a repaint in lime green!! (no idea why I chose that colour!) it was actually quite a good runner, I think I added additional weight to it, so it could pull several of those little 4W stake wagons shown in the pic,
Note also the small rocks in the wagons......esential to keep them on the track..........Happy Days
 
Least favourite at the moment is my Regner Otto, purely because until yesterday it's been a right PITA to keep running. Bit of tinkering in the shed yesterday may have sorted things out though. Good test run on blocks yesterday so just maybe it will go up in my estimation. It's certainly too expensive to be a shelf queen.

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Bachmann 2-4-2(Lyn) for me too. I brought it in the States, second hand, and brought some bogie coaches for it at a swapmeet here in England.

However, the large overhang meant it would pull the coaches off the rails on R1 curves, so it was quickly put on evilbay. It was damaged during post, so I had to knock some money off for the buyer.

From then on, stuck to LGB Euro theme....
 
Gizzy said:
Bachmann 2-4-2(Lyn) for me too.
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And me as well..........

Mine was a secondhand purchase from one of the GSS Rugby shows a few years back. Admittedly it was only £45 (and someone offered me a lot more than that when I lifted it off the Members sales area.....) but it has never run "right", even after dismantling the thing earlier this year and giving it a good clean and service.
Still temperamental - if it works, it works well, but if not, forget it!

Possibly a suitable candidate for conversion to battery power at some stage, as it is the track pickup that seems to cause most of the problems with it.
 
002.JPG
stockers said:
Maybe not my least favourite but certainly the least run. It has an elderly LGB decoder without anything like back EMF or the like. It slows down on corners, even larger rad ones and detects voltage drop that even my largest locos breeze over. Its also a bit 'yellow'.
In the long term, its due a paint job, either black or that odd sand colour used by the HSB. And if I am feeling flush, it may get a newer decoder when I upgrade something to sound. And the rear coupling fell off!
View attachment 202925
Click to expand...
I just found another old photo of my aforementioned 0-4-0D....(.........replendant in Black livery, this must have been taken a good few years after the photo when it was lime green as it is running on my longest lasting G scale line 2 house moves after the other pic
 
Miamigo259 said:
And me as well..........

Mine was a secondhand purchase from one of the GSS Rugby shows a few years back. Admittedly it was only £45 (and someone offered me a lot more than that when I lifted it off the Members sales area.....) but it has never run "right", even after dismantling the thing earlier this year and giving it a good clean and service.
Still temperamental - if it works, it works well, but if not, forget it!

Possibly a suitable candidate for conversion to battery power at some stage, as it is the track pickup that seems to cause most of the problems with it.
Click to expand...


My Mk1 Bachmann Lyn was a wardrobe queen and definitely my least favourite until recently (yep, it didn't even make the shelf). Track pick-up is definitely a major shortcoming with these. However, just converted mine to Battery R/C. Runs like a dream now. Been run more times in the past three weeks than it had in the three years I've owned it. Also resprayed it while I had it in bits.

lyn.jpg

 
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