Bachmann Announces N NYC J3a Hudson

[SkipGear]

I was wondering if these would be showing up soon.
 Skipgear, what are your impressions so far?
 Joe D

I haven't had time to do thorough inspection yet. Pulled it out for a facebook post for the shop. The detail is as good as anything they have done. My only worry is the draw bar clip seems very soft. I think that it may be able to pull itself apart with a long train. Will dig deeper on Saturday when I get back in the shop. Who knows I might bring one home with me.

[jdcolombo]

Uh-oh.  The NKP had Hudsons - four of them on the roster until nearly the end of the steam era.  The tenders were very different, but the engines were very similar.  Have to add elephant ears, though.

If these are in the same quality group as the EM-1's or K-4's or Consolidations, I'll probably pick up a couple.  If they end up like the Berkshires, no thanks.  The Berks were a major operational disappointment.

John C.

[propmeup1]

There's a NKP hudson at the St. Louis rail museum. I seen it in Aug. It's under the shed.

[Point353]

Uh-oh.  The NKP had Hudsons - four of them on the roster until nearly the end of the steam era.  The tenders were very different, but the engines were very similar.  Have to add elephant ears, though.

If these are in the same quality group as the EM-1's or K-4's or Consolidations, I'll probably pick up a couple.  If they end up like the Berkshires, no thanks.  The Berks were a major operational disappointment.

John C.

You could doublehead the 4-6-4 with the 2-8-4:

[Angus Shops]

But don’t you want spoked drivers? I was eying them as the basis for CPR Hudsons; I did a comparison of the basic dimensions but was stumped by the drivers...

[draskouasshat]

ooooh that's purdy!  I like that mechanism...... hmmmm more Santa Fe kitbashes - now don't frown 

sorry to piss in your cheerios but its pretty much as pointless for Santa fe kitbashes as the old CC/Kato mechanism. its a 79" boxpok driver. not an 84" like the 3460 class needs, and a different disk design than the 34XX class 4-6-2 and 4-6-4 had.
i might pick one up just to have one but we will see.

Drasko

[draskouasshat]

Tony, any chance of getting some calipers on the drivers?

[SkipGear]

Brought one home from the shop tonight. Will get some closeups and measurements soon.

[SkipGear]

Details:

Driver tread - .45" = 72"
Driver Flange - .498 = 79.7"
Driver Wheelbase 1.45" = 232"

Driver #1 side rod driven
Driver #2 side rod driven
Driver #3 geared (Brass)

Diecast boiler
Full cab interior
Diecast Trailing Truck
 NO Traction Tires.
Flanged axle bushings (very nicely done).
All wheels live tender
No wires on drawbar, all connection between loco and tender through harness.

Runs very smooth, chuff timing is horrible, needs tuning. Speaker is very loud, steamboat whistle.





Do not remove the steam chests unless you are ready for a fight. It is quite a challenge to get the valve gear back together. The one I brought home seems to have the steam chests running up hill. I fiddled a bit with them and got them better but it's not perfect yet. I did not notice this on the the others at the shop.

[peteski]

Interesting.  Thanks Tony.

What a mish-mash of stuff.  The trailing truck looks like something from early Kato (Con-Cor).  I'm surprised (but not disappointed) at the use of brass gear on the driver axle, but the teeth look rather coarse.  I also see the other non-geared driver axles have fluting (one fewer part to inventory I guess). 

Diecast boiler is good from a weight perspective, but will be hard to modify (like those Model Power locos).  The valve gear looks rather crude (the linkages close to the cylinders).  They look like something I have seen on early ('60s or '70s) Arnold rapido locos.  I'm also surprised about lack of traction tire. While we all turn our noses up at TTs, in N scale steam those are pretty much required for any appreciable pulling ability (unless the shell and chassis were made of depleted Uranium).

And as you mentioned, the steam chest looks really tilted.  Does this model also have "chupmunk cheeks", like the the recent PRR loco from Bachmann (its cylinders stuck out way too far).  The wheel tread looks rather wide (compared to the recent Kato locos). 

I do like the separate handrail on the boiler - that looks close to scale.

[SkipGear]

The boiler is completely separate from the mechanism and comes off with one screw so building a new boiler would actually be very easy. Maintaining the weight you would be replacing, not so much.

The valve gear appearance really is not an issue. The linkages on a J3 were pretty heavy duty in real life. Not a NYC guy so I won't form an opinion on that.

Need to look at the steam chests on the others when I go in to work today to see if mine was an anomaly.

[jdcolombo]

But don’t you want spoked drivers? I was eying them as the basis for CPR Hudsons; I did a comparison of the basic dimensions but was stumped by the drivers...

Yes.  I didn't realize they had Boxpok drivers . . .

John C.

[Mark5]

Thanks for the pix Skipgear!

Good that you can see through the spokes. 

[peteski]

Thanks for the pix Skipgear!
Good that you can see through the spokes. 

Yes, that is a good thing (for a change).

[propmeup1]

Mine is in the mail still. Was shipped over a week ago from NY to DE. It stalled somewhere in Philly which mail has been a nightmare there right now. Forget Baltimore mail. It's totally screwed down there.