To the Bach-Man: Re: Spectrum Steam

[gmcrail]

I have 7 of your beautiful Spectrum steam locomotives:  3 Baldwin 2-8-0s, 2 USRA Light 4-8-2s. a USRA Heavy 4-8-2, and a Baldwin 4-6-0.  These are great-running engines, but being detail-oriented (or why would I buy these beauties?) there are a couple of things that you need to talk to your Chinese builders about: 

First, and most obvious (to me), the builder's plates and trust plates of all of the Baldwin locomotives, though very well done, are printed in a "negative" image -that is, they are gold where they should be black, and black where they should be gold.  Locomotive builder's plates are cast in brass, with lettering and numbers raised.  They are painted black, and the raised lettering sanded off to show the brass.

Second, the eccentric cranks on the fireman's side of the Light 4-8-2s, and the 4-6-0 engines are pointing in the wrong direction.  When looking at the main driver, with the side rods down, the eccentric crank should be angled approximately 10 degrees forward of the axle hub.  The cranks on the engineer's sides are oriented correctly.  It appears that during assembly, when the assembler was putting together the main driver pair, the assembler put two right (engineer's) side wheels on the axle, instead of the left and right. With most steam models this would be a simple screwdriver fix - loosen the crank, shift it counterclockwise, and tighten.  However, with these models, the fix requires filing off the lugs that hold the crank in position, and then using the standard friction method to hold the crank in the proper position - i.e: tighten the crew to hold it.  By leaving the crank in its as-delivered position it is possible to cause the eccentric rod to be jammed in an upward position, instantly jamming the valve gear and stopping/preventing the engine from moving.

These issues are by no means deal-breakers for me.  The first is merely cosmetic, though uncorrected, the second might actually be an operational problem.  However, they are annoying, and since you have gone to such great length to improve the quality of your products by several orders of magnitude in the HO scale lines, I'm sure you will wish to address these issues.

Thanks for your attention;

Gary M. Collins
gmcrailg@gmail.com     

[the Bach-man]

Dear Gary,
I'll pass long your concerns.
Have fun!
the Bach-man

[Doneldon]

Gary and B'man-

This is such an excellent use of this board. I appreciate seeing it and I applaud the courteous interaction.

                                                                                                                                                 -- D

[ebtnut]

In the case of the 4-8-2, the eccentric should be ahead of center.  For the 4-6-0, though, the eccentric should be behind center.  The difference has to do with how the steam from the boiler is fed to the valves.  Slide valve locos had "inside" admission, meaning that the steam was fed to the center of the valve box and then admitted to the cylinders via the sliding D valve.  On piston valve locos the steam was admitted to the ends of the valves and then the cylinders, making them outside admission.  The admission sequence determines whether the eccentric is ahead or behind center. 

[gmcrail]

Now that's something I did not know.  Thanks, ebtnut!  In that case, the 4-6-0 has the eccentric crank on the right side in the wrong position - it's in the middle - that is, the crank is lined up with the hub.  Well, that I can live with -  for a while, at least... 

Gary M. Collins
gmcrailg@gmail.com