A new steamer has arrived on the Lancaster Central.


R

RBMNfan

Member
A Mantua 2-6-6-2 mallet. Man this thing is huge for a branchline locomotive. Test train with 10 cars. Mostly runs smoothly up the branch from He..
6% grade and 13" radius curves.

I expanded the number of industries on the branch and with two large industries the 0-6-0 pulling two cars up the grade at a time was becoming tedious. Now I can follow the traffic patterns dictated by the car card routing system. The coal fired​electric plant can receive a long block of hoppers.
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I picked one up brand spanking new a few months ago. I had higher expectations for it. In my experience, the trucks just don't stay on the track. Particularly on switches. I suspect that they need a boatload of weight on them to keep them from floating all over the place while in motion. Has anyone else had this issue?
 
My experience with the new Mantua is also that they don't always want to stay on track. I sent a 0-6-0 back to Train World the other year because of that issue. I couldn't even break it in on the mainline without it derailing every two feet.

This locomotive is interesting to me. I like it for the most part. It tracks ok. Doesn't derail on a constant basis. It does seem to stall on turnouts. A web review claims these locomotives short the frog on turnouts. I haven't fully investigated the issue. I do wish they had used more wheels for electrical pickup. That was stupid. But I can fix it.

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since im a articulated freak lol i have causally looked at these locos, i hope that they arent as derail prone as im hearing
 
If you have smooth trackwork the biggest concern is the old school electrical pickup. It sometimes stalls on turnouts, even on the smooth and level mainline.

I am running mine over trackwork originally designed for the Mantua 0-6-0. The track represents nominally maintained trackage. I probably will have to rework the one curve to get it to work smoothly. I don't really know how tight that curve is.

My industrial trackage is intended for careful operations simulating track in the mud.

Modeling the roaring 20's
President of the Lancaster Central Railroad
President of the Western Maryland Railway
 
RBMNfan said:
If you have smooth trackwork the biggest concern is the old school electrical pickup.
Click to expand...
Is that the one rail from the tender, other rail from the locomotive arrangement?

A Mantua 2-6-6-2 mallet. Man this thing is huge for a branchline locomotive. Test train with 10 cars. Mostly runs smoothly up the branch from He..
6% grade and 13" radius curves.
Click to expand...
As I recall the prototype (Uintah RR) were designed for the equivalent of 15" radius curves and the ruling 7.5% grade. Of course the prototype was narrow gauge, but still... a most interesting locomotive. I too have been thinking about purchasing one.
 
This is a saddle tank locomotive. Each engine has picks up a polarity. So 3 axles are picking up each side and possibly the pilot trucks are picking up the same polarity as the engine it's attached to.

Unfortunately it stalls on turnouts often. Curved #8s and regular #4. It's the only locomotive I own that doesn't have pickup from at least all the driving wheels.

I did have to run it for a while to break it in. Maybe I should do the old school breakdown and oil routine.



Modeling the roaring 20's
President of the Lancaster Central Railroad
President of the Western Maryland Railway
 
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