Picked up this loco off of Facebook Market places couple days ago and today it was delivered. I realize it’s not true to any prototype but I thought it would make a nice American typeloco for moving my home made flat cars full of lumber from the mill to the town lumber dealer rather than using one of my Stainz locos. It has sound, smoke, directional lighting, with track magnet activated bell and whistle. The previous owner said that it ran good but the tender headlamp didn’t work and the smoke unit was untested. When I opened the box I was surprised at the physical size of the loco and tender. The drivers appear the same size as the moguls so it is actually quite large for a 2-4-0. The proportions seem off some and possibly toy like but running on the interior mainly of my layout it should look fine. i noticed there was no knob to adjust the sound so I removed the the tender top to find the sound board out of place and just laying inside the body. Possibly it got jarred loose in shipping but by design it looks somewhat hard for that to happen. I checked the connection for the tender headlamp, tested it with a transformer (it worked) repositioned the sound board, and reassembled it. I also removed the gear case floor plate and greased it up. Couple things I noted were there is no electrical pickup on the tender and the loco, while having LGB markings, has ”made in China” on it too.
Running the loco I was quite surprised and pleased with the sound, especially the bell and whistle. Both have a very pleasing, clear, proto-typical sound. The chuff and steam sound is also clearer than my moguls but it’s voltage activated, not triggered off the drivers. Even though there’s no power pickup in the tender, the engine ran smoothly through my switches with no studdering from momentary contact. The smoke unit worked great with lots of billowing smoke (using LGB fluid, not as much with Bachmann fluid) and the tender headlamp now works when reversing. It has substantial weight and easily pulled my homemade flat cars and caboose sounding great while doing it. It will be a nice , inexpensive addition to my railroad. The engine and tender cost me $120 delivered and I have to say I’m quite happy with it.