Considering a new switcher

Travellar

New Member
Right now, the only switcher locomotive I've got is also the cheapest, having come in a $60 set. I've got this one right now,
Bachman Standard 0-6-0. Anyhow, it's finally begining to show some of it's limitations on my layout, mostly due to it's relatively short electrical contact area (the tender doesn't pick up and transfer juice for anything!). Short contact area+operating over switches most of the time=frequently stalled locomotive.

I was kind of considering thier Spectrum 2-8-0s, but I don't know if a 2-8-0 would be an accurate switch engine.
 

Kanawha

Member
Travellar, like many mainline steam engines, 2-8-0's were reduced to switching duty as newer and more powerful locomotives came on the scene. In the case of the 2-8-0 this was around 1910 when the first 2-8-2's and 4-8-2's were built. So if you are modeling say, 1920 or later, then a 2-8-0 as a switcher is definitely prototypical. And in a pinch, railroads use just about anything anywhere. Hope that helps!
 

Cannonball

More Trains Than Brains
I just ordered a Spectrum 2-8-0 the other day and waiting patiently for it to get here. (OK.... maybe not patiently but I'm waiting. ;) ) I sent back an 0-6-0 standard that I received last week. I couldn't get it to even pull 4 cars and a caboose around a flat oval. There's no way that thing would take a grade of any sort. I'm really hoping the 2-8-0 performs considerably better.

I can't see it as a switcher since 2-8-0 seems rather large to me but anything's possible from one railroad to the next.
 

60103

Pooh Bah
The only locos I would rule out as switchers are articulateds and passenger engines. The articulateds are a bit big and complex while the passenger jobs are built more for speed than pulling power. However, in the late 50s I did see a Royal Hudson come into town with a freight train and proceed to switch a couple of sidings.
One feature that would affect how the crews liked an engine for switching would be the reverse -- how much effort it took to go from full forward to full reverse (the two settings most used for switching) as this would be done almost constantly. Fortunately, this detail is all but invisible.
 

berraf

Member
I sent back an 0-6-0 standard that I received last week. I couldn't get it to even pull 4 cars and a caboose around a flat oval. There's no way that thing would take a grade of any sort.
That sounds incredible wall1
Is this Bachmann loco so bad generally or was it a failure to just this one?
 

MCL_RDG

Member
My Dad, you know...

...the fellow who got me into this- and who still plays with trains around Xmas Holiday,

*****LONG RUN ON SENTENCE****

Anyway, he got one of 'em 0-6-0s in a set and I want one- runs sweet- pulls a bear's head out of its butt and just is- well great! I want one. I had/have an old Atlas 0-4-0 that I spoiled/destroyed as a kid- too much paint- took it apart- tried to make it smoke. I loved running it with 5 Rivarossi 86' passenger cars around a card table- all the way from NY to Philly. Took an hour at least~~~~~~~~~~~ Good thing there was the obligatory dining car.

The smoke never got out of it, but there it sits waiting for the rebirth.

I got lost in my revelrie...Heck- The Bachmann 0-6-0, runs like a, well you know the old Indian joke?

Uh.

Mark
 

ddavidv

Member
The Spectrum 2-8-0 I have pulls like, well, a locomotive. ;) No problem pulling a dozen or more cars on the flat. I haven't used it on any grades (none on N-trak modules). It runs well over switches. The only problem you will have with it for switching is the front coupler isn't functional the way it comes. There is a way to put a MT on the front but I haven't done it.
 

Travellar

New Member
good to hear the 2-8-0 crosses switches nicely, that's my biggest concern really.

As for pulling power, the 0-6-0 never lacked that! It'll pull all day long, with no problems till it looses electrical contact over a switch or something. The only thing I've got that'll outpull it is my 2-6-6-2, which could probrably out-pull every other engine I've got, linked together, up a grade!
 

60103

Pooh Bah
Wasn't there some use of articulateds as hump engines?

We may be getting off topic here but...

In England the LMS introduced Beyer-Garratts on the long coal trains. At Toton the trains were sorted on a hump yard. The B-Gs replaced a pair of 0-6-0 locos. The practice had been that the pair of locos would push the train ahead over the hump and the go over the hump themselves and out a loco track. So they went ahead and did the same with the B-G; there was a sharp vertical bend at the peak of the hump and the engine crew didn't realize it until one set of drivers came up through the cab floor.
 
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