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.

I have added one power pickup to the rear truck on the tender. Track power is in the tender at the rear socket. I used the LGB 63193 and modified it with a Dremel in order to mount it on the front of the bolster. This is needed as the wheels are smaller than the ‘standard’ wheel set on most LGB engines/tenders.

Also note that if an idler gear goes bad, it can be replaced from the bottom of the motor block, unlike the Mogul which needs to be replaced from the top of the motor block.

Thanks dan. It seems to be made fairly well and it’s running characteristics are good (slow speed)though it seems to run slower on the same amount of voltage as my moguls. The smoke unit seems to smoke for a long time with a filling, longer than my moguls but I’ll have to actually time them to know for sure.

Dan, are the 63120 brushes the correct brushes for those plastic holders? Years back I bought a bunch of lgb stuff from a guy and there was a lot of brush holders, just no brushes. I was thinking about doing exactly as you did.

63120 is a set of 4 of the 14mm and 4 of the 16 mm brushes.

I do not remember which ones I used in the 63193, but I can tell you the barrel should not protude out of the 63193 should almost be flush.

Yes I do use them and if you add a solder ball to the end of the 14mm you will get 16mm!!!

On another 63193 note, I have found them difficult to solder, my fix is to slightly dremel where I attach the wire and get brqass to show, then solder paste and soldering wires is very easy.

Dan, tried to send you a message but it doesn’t seem to be working correctly with my iPad. I’m going to start a new post about switches and switch controls.