I have finally acquired my “Holy Grail” of an affordable K-27! For those of you that haven’t read any of the threads on the Bachmann Forum or over on MLS, I am a die-hard r/c battery afficianado! My personal preference is for RCS control systems from Tony Walsham and installed with Soundtraxx digital sound by Dave Goodson(TOC) at Northwest Remote Control Systems.
My first impression of this engine? Blown away!!! This is one impressive beauty! I pre-ordered the D&RGW #463 from Caboose Hobbies (something I never do!) simply because I HAD to have this engine! In fact, four years ago when it was first “leaked out” by a photo at the Bachmann display at one of the big LS shows, I had resolved to cough up the nearly $3000 to purchase an Accucraft brass model. I was within a week of purchasing it when news of the Bachmann version hit! Knowing how good Bachmann’s attention to detail is (and realizing that a plastic version would save $$$$) I decided to wait and I’m glad I did!
The K is large, no question about that! However, it’s not too large! It didn’t hurt that the new Bachmann Spectrum cars and the new AMS Fn3 passenger coaches happened to show up within weeks of the K-27! The detailing is incredible! I really don’t know how Bachmann is going to raise the bar after this one as the bar is already so high it’s nosebleed time!
Because I had it immediately sent to Dave directly from Caboose Hobbies in Denver, I never physically saw the K before it’s conversion. Dave is the one person I completely trust to go over a model, find the various “problems” and devise fixes for them! He corrected the counterweight problem with his “shim solution” and also modified my K to correct a number of other issues (to see which ones that he has done, go and check the other threads in the General Topics Forum) so when I received my K from UPS it was essentially a “pure” introduction without all the baggage included.
At my request, Dave yanked out the super socket and installed a reed switch and magnets attached to the fourth driver to handle the chuff. He installed a BIG Phoenix speaker in the tender and sealed up the top under the coal pile to weatherproof it. An added benefit is that the tender now acts like a perfect sound box for the speaker! Of the 13 wires going between the engine and tender, he removed five as unnecessary which had the added benefit of allowing the K to back through LGB 1600 turnouts.
One small “glitch” happened during shipping. Apparently, the engine was jostled rather significantly and a chuff contact was broken. No major problem as Dave walked me through the diagnosis and the fix (very simple) and now the engine is performing flawlessly!
It starts with almost no power and runs, if anything, even more smoothly than the Connie (and that’s saying something!) The sound from the Sierra unit is incredible! What they say is true; the quality of the digital sound system is important but the speaker and the design of the soundbox are equally important to get the full acoustic effect! In this case, my K has far better sound than any other locomotive that I own!
I want tomake it clear that I have no beef with those that prefer DCC. I also know that there are those that feel that all of this hi-tech electronic DCC compatable optical computer interfaced stuff is the wave of the future for LS but for me, the tried and true r/c battery KISS principle is still the best! My engine runs great, it runs reliably, it looks incredible and it sounds fantastic!! What more could anybody ask?

Oh man, Im jealous. Mine isnt here yet! shakes fist

Seriously, congratulations. I’ve been hoping for an affordable K for a while now. I’m eager to get mine and start ‘fixing’ all the issues that I’ve heard about.

Wonder when a K36/K37 will come out? Although they should probably do an EBT Mikado first, or there’ll be rioting in the streets.

[V happy for you and your new loco - sounds like the biz, fer sure. Just wish that Mr G lived a mite nearer to us, or vice versa - that 6,000 mile gap makes it difficult to give him any work on OUR trains.

There is, of course, nobody over here like him, and a LOT of folks are going to get pretty peeved with their new acquisitions in fairly short order, I predict.

Enjoy and post movies!!!

tac

Aye, and when the folks moved out of Bolsterstone, we never looked back, eh, what?

Roberto-
Departed UPS Ground this morning.
Tracking number will be transmitted vai e-mail shortly.

Did you know they must have used a Titanium-based paint on the freaking lettering?

I am still trying to get a sunrise herald off.

Curmudgeon said:
Aye, and when the folks moved out of Bolsterstone, we never looked back, eh, what?

Explain, please? Or are you just taking the micky out of a poor furriner?

tac

Okay…Blimey, I’m a Limey.

Yorkshire…Merriman on that side.
The Goodson bit, whilst Brit, isn’t really.
Apparently we came over with the Viking Raiding Parties and stayed.

Why the heck you think I like Guinness?
And HATE Castle Brown Ale?

No Yorkshireman alive would have said ‘eh, what?’

A simple ‘Eh?’ would do.

Guiness is Irish.

You should have said ‘Sam Smith’s’, then I would have known.

tac

Picked up the Guiness while in Faslane.
There is MacNaughton in there, too, a lot of it.
Never could stomach the Castle Brown, tho, and that’s really Irish.
My understanding in the early 70’s was the emblem on the bottle is the same one used over the mental wards in the hospitals.

So, one side is Brit, other side it Scot.
Strange place.
Every time I was there I marvelled at inter-city overnight sleepers on a country as small.