Hi all,
I received a letter from Jens Bang today, along with a video of his Big Boy.

John,

In part…"I have had some major problems(with the Big Boy). Yes problems.
Electrical failure, sound failure and side rod failure.
Also it only travels about 1/3 of the way around the layout and stops running…Jens.

TOG

At the price he paid for it I hope he has USAT issue a call tag for UPS to come and get it and send it back. Raymond4449 elswhere had to send his back as it had problems.

Yes.
It’s sounding more and more like these are shelf queens.
Released before beta testing.
Lemons.
With their weight, they are not properly crated, and USA will not make a dime on these with all the back-and-forth shipping costs they have to absorb.

They shoulda made a Northern instead.

Knowing Jens, he won’t send it back. He’ll tear it down and completely re-do it his way.

TOG

Unfortunately that ultimately hurts everyone. USAT needs to know they screwed up and rectify it. Otherwise they just keep doing the same thing over and over. I agree that the thing is just too heavy and because of that it will always be a problem locomotive and best used as a shelf queen.

I think that by now we have seen that large locomotives, steam and diesel, are nothing but maintenance headaches. For those that want to run their trains with minimal problems the 4 axle diesels and smaller steam locomotives have proven the best bet.

Warren Mumpower said:
Unfortunately that ultimately hurts everyone. USAT needs to know they screwed up and rectify it. Otherwise they just keep doing the same thing over and over. I agree that the thing is just too heavy and because of that it will always be a problem locomotive and best used as a shelf queen.

…

Jens could take pictures as he rectifies the problems and send them to USAT with a cover letter.

On the too heavy: maybe we need track that is Code400 in order to do the Big Boy justice?? :lol: :lol:

And Charlie would read that letter the day after Lewis admits that his locomotives can be less than perfect.

I am surprised we have not heard of problems with the Big Boy spreading rails…especially in curves.

Not always , but most of the time , the saying , … run fine , last long time ,…means it , IS NOT , from China .

And yes I have Annies , that have ran great from day one , still , years later .
But it sure took them long enough to get it correct .

I would be really sick , to buy something that is like the reports I have read about the big boys .

I think a lot of the problem is weight…not China. Jens has a USAT Hudson that just runs and runs and runs. He’s never had a problem with it. But the Big Boy with all it’s weight and then he adds 100 cars and things just give out. There is a lot of strain on the gear train to move that much weight.

At the BBT web site , http://www.barrysbigtrains.net/gallery/
there are two videos of Barrys drives in use , one video is 2 Bachmanns pulling 73 cars , the other video is one Bmann pulling 43 cars .
Intersting comparrison of the big boy pulling and operation reports , compared to Barry’s drives made in his garage workshop with a plastic body on the drives .
Kinda funny when you think about it .

Dennis Paulson said:
At the BBT web site , http://www.barrysbigtrains.net/gallery/ there are two videos of Barrys drives in use , one video is 2 Bachmanns pulling 73 cars , the other video is one Bmann pulling 43 cars . Intersting comparrison of the big boy pulling and operation reports , compared to Barry's drives made in his garage workshop with a plastic body on the drives . Kinda funny when you think about it .

Hey Dennis,

Tell us what’s funny about it, we wanna laugh too!

BTW did you run into ducks lately? Or where did you learn to quack?

Fish bit great today

Ken Fillar said:
Fish bit great today :D

Sure Kenny, if you like fishing, hey why not, eh?

Did you try to get a USAT Big Boy around your "generous " curves today?

Warren Mumpower said:
I think that by now we have seen that large locomotives, steam and diesel, are nothing but maintenance headaches. For those that want to run their trains with minimal problems the 4 axle diesels and smaller steam locomotives have proven the best bet.

Why is that? Are they too heavy?

I would say that 100 lbs is just a bit on the heavy side. I also recall that Aristo’s SD45’s had tons of problems until people wised up and took most of that weight out of the tanks. Improved their reliability a whole lot and really didn’t affect pulling power that much. I won’t be the least surprised if some of those with minimum curves for the Big Boy find that after it’s run on their layout for a while that it will start laying the rails over in the curves…or just plain wearing them out in short order.

I like the way panic spreads and everyone has an opinion, or proclaims doom - without any first-hand knowledge whatsoever. I agree that the Big Boy is a very heavy locomotive; but, hey, is that a surprise? The prototype ran on rails that were super-built by UP, and had to be maintained practically after each pass of the Big Boy - especially on incline curves under normal loading. It is also easy for someone who wouldn’t come up with the money for one anyway, to say that they are sure glad they didn’t buy one! Plus the fact that we all know that the first ones out of the barn are always kinda loopy. let’s let a little more dust settle before we start looking for a tree and a rope and a horse to put USAT up on, shall we?

Let me start off with the niceties. Welcome aboard LSC. Discussions here can, and do get hot and heavy. There’s a lot of experience on this board…and a few differences of opinion…

Since I was one of the ones who “spread panic and proclaimed doom” I shall explain something. I feel I am as qualified as anyone to say what I did. I have many hours of run time on Jens layout. I also have first hand knowledge of the locomotive we have been discussing. I also have first hand knowledge about the overweight SD45’s. I own 5 and have run the oldest pair hard on Jens’ layout. I am familiar with the dynamics of long heavy trains and have seen first hand the reliability of too heavy locomotives. There comes a point where weight causes more problems than it cures. The first generation SD45’s suffered from too much weight and I believe that reliability would greatly improve with the Big Boy if it would shed a few pounds.

ya know, Warren, sometimes I just wish that you wouldn’t beat around the bush so much and just come out and say what you mean. :lol:

I gotta be politically correct you know.

Besides, Bob won’t let me call you a moron… :lol:

Oh, c’mon, Warren, you say the nicest things.

I know… And then Tony G. sends me e-mails wanting to know what’s going on…:lol: