Screwy Nick Posted April 10, 2014 Share Posted April 10, 2014 I have several live steamers, mostly Accucraft, don't own any Aster. The Accucrat's needed tweaking, but once 'adjusted properly' they do pretty well. I'm sorry you've had nothing but grief from your Roundhouse, I've read where they are run for several hours at the manufacturers facility before shipment. Both of my Roundhouse locomotives performed flawlessly right out of the box. Have you contacted them about the problem?? and if so what was their response?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markoles Posted April 10, 2014 Share Posted April 10, 2014 Nick, I had a 1994 Roundhouse Liberty Belle. Never could get it to run right. I sold it in 2010 to a guy in North Jersey. It was related to me later that the throttle valve was actually just a ball valve. This explains why I never could get it to run right. A ball valve, when cracked, will vent 50% of its volume. It needed a throttle, got a ball valve instead. I had worked with Roundhouse directly for spare parts and they were great on the phone. It's for the best. Maybe someday in the future I will be back with live steam. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Screwy Nick Posted April 10, 2014 Share Posted April 10, 2014 THANK YOU FOR YOUR RESPONSE, live steam is really fun, give it another try. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markoles Posted April 10, 2014 Share Posted April 10, 2014 Nick, I have a live steam OO Scale Mallard (yes, electric live steam). When my kids are bigger and out of college, I may reconsider live steam. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Screwy Nick Posted April 11, 2014 Share Posted April 11, 2014 Electric Live Steam, I've only herd about them, have never seen one. I assume track power?? what is the amp draw?? Sounds great. Is there some place I can go to read more about your specific locomotive?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markoles Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 Not sure if you can see this video, But this is my Mallard running on the kitchen floor in a test run I did in January: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10202965504488653&set=vb.1535050491&type=3&theater Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Screwy Nick Posted April 18, 2014 Share Posted April 18, 2014 it said 'Not currently available' could also be cause I don't have a face book account. thank you for your efforts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Posted April 19, 2014 Author Share Posted April 19, 2014 Mark, That is interesting as didn't know you were a live steam guy...That's great!! Yeah I pick on Accucraft but they do try...And I like their trains but I like upsetting Mr. (_*_) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markoles Posted April 22, 2014 Share Posted April 22, 2014 Chuck, I even worked on the real things in Strasburg, PA, once upon a time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Screwy Nick Posted April 26, 2014 Share Posted April 26, 2014 The fair judgement of the Fairymead is on the Live Steam page of this forum. Enough things wrong with it to scare away those that have no idea how to turn a wrench. Since I expected the problems they came as no surprise. I didn't mention how thin the metal of the cab is, not much thicker than a pie plate around the windows. Time will tell just how bad they do get, but I won't be one to purchase it to find out. How about the new Climax that bends drive shafts and axle shafts while running. They shipped all the owners of those JEWELS new ones to replace in the US. Guys in the UK are left swinging. How flimsy could they have been made if a little live steamer could bend them. The guys in the UK straightened them out only to have them bend again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Posted April 27, 2014 Author Share Posted April 27, 2014 Nick Jr, WOW! Now what's up with that?...bending the drive shafts?...real nice design there The one I like about Accucraft is no more parts unless you order them when you pre-order an engine? How are you supposed to know what parts you'll need in the future? No thanks Accucraft...I'll stick with MTH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Screwy Nick Posted April 27, 2014 Share Posted April 27, 2014 Do you mean you can't 'predict' that a part will be defective from the factory or wear out in a short period of time??? No spare parts is what I got from one of their newest distributors, they must be ordered while the locomotive is still in production. Adjust your crystal ball for FREQUENT FAILURE LOL. From what I've read in other locations, Regner has also lowered the quality of their product. I got a Lumberjack several years back, pretty much fell together and ran just great after a minor breaking in time. Poor guy just got one and it had a boiler problem and now he posted pics, the gears are barely meshing. Looks like he's getting a lot of hot air and no action. He'll have to fix it himself seems to be the final outcome. Customer Service is a thing of the past for many manufacturers and dealers, I'm sorry to say. Those of us who are not afraid to delve into something, or have the electronic or mechanical knowledge will be the only ones to really have any lasting pleasure from the stuff available from certain manufacturers, or find a reputable repair facility. I do know ONE! Unfortunately he doesn't do live steam, mostly MTH. I'll now kick the soap box under the table and get down to enjoying my trains, hope to post a video on Live Steam page later today. Joe, I photo shopped the curlers out, she didn't look any happier, so I put them back in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Posted April 27, 2014 Author Share Posted April 27, 2014 You mean like this?? The Great Carnac says "Gears & Motors" Opens envelope and reads "What parts to pre-order with my GP60" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Screwy Nick Posted April 28, 2014 Share Posted April 28, 2014 You have a talent of finding things on the internet. YES THAT'S IT. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markoles Posted May 6, 2014 Share Posted May 6, 2014 Wow. Well, I suppose that twisted drive shafts and other failures are an indication that engineering is sort of a loose term, thrown around. OTOH, it could be a case of scaling down doesn't always work. In other words, there's safety factors in larger diameter shafts that won't translate in to scale size shafts. And had accucraft used a larger diameter rod or harder material, they'd have been flambayed by the would be users. Why don't we use 332 scale carbon steel rails for our outdoor railroads? Real railroads use steel, why not us? The answer is because the real rails corrode 1/8", and in our scale, that's going to be more than our rail web thickness. So we're stuck with brass, aluminum, stainless and other materials that don't fall apart. Sort of like why I don't mind oversize flanges, if they keep my trains on the tracks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Screwy Nick Posted May 6, 2014 Share Posted May 6, 2014 I don't know about larger shafts, the Shays use a square brass shaft and it seems to hold up quite well I also rebuilt a Chaney Heisler, he remade the engine/trans fixed so as not have to flex with curves. I made the square sliding drive shafts to accommodate the curves, NEVER had a problem with either the Shays or my Heisler. I think the looseness of the drive allowing curves and not the material was the cause of the problem. If they had used fixed trans and square interior sliding shafts like on their shays I think the problem could have been avoided. I haven't herd if the guys in the UK found a fix for theirs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Posted June 7, 2015 Author Share Posted June 7, 2015 Well it's been over a year since I started this topic without much really changing with Accucraft/ AML. Only real news is that the brass 1:32 passenger cars maybe getting closer BUT Accucraft sent a letter to all those folks that pre-ordered @ $250 per car and stated they will not honor that price! You have to now pay $300 per car! I've been in large scale since about 2000 and before that o gauge for 10 years and have never ever heard of a toy train manufacturer not honoring a pre-order price What's next?? When the GP60's get close to shipping they'll do the same? Oh sorry as we can't sell these for $380 as you'll now have to pay $456?? What kind of integrity or lack of does this company have?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benshell Posted June 8, 2015 Share Posted June 8, 2015 Well it's been over a year since I started this topic without much really changing with Accucraft/ AML. Only real news is that the brass 1:32 passenger cars maybe getting closer BUT Accucraft sent a letter to all those folks that pre-ordered @ $250 per car and stated they will not honor that price! You have to now pay $300 per car! I've been in large scale since about 2000 and before that o gauge for 10 years and have never ever heard of a toy train manufacturer not honoring a pre-order price What's next?? When the GP60's get close to shipping they'll do the same? Oh sorry as we can't sell these for $380 as you'll now have to pay $456?? What kind of integrity or lack of does this company have?? Well, as I posted on other forum, I haven't gotten this letter (and I do have 10-cars on preorder at $250/each), but I'm really frustrated to hear this. I guess they don't want my $2500, they want $0 instead. I was already on the line about whether to get these or cheaper MTH cars. We still haven't seen what the Accucraft cars even look like but from the pre-production samples they seem to be really lacking detail. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Posted June 8, 2015 Author Share Posted June 8, 2015 That's good to hear!...that maybe the email is a rumor Personally I like brass/ metal models has they have a certain look/ feel to them that can't be duplicated in plastic...but I don't like the high prices esp. 6K for a PRR T1 Here's a video of the pre-production cars and they look pretty good! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Posted October 17, 2016 Author Share Posted October 17, 2016 Now some 32 months has lapsed since the beginning of this thread and still no AML GP60 or 50' Hy-Cube boxcars...Infact there is no more AML Website!! http://americanmainline.com/cgi-sys/suspendedpage.cgi In the last few weeks Accucraft "merged" with Aster....so maybe the AML 1:29 side of things is gone?? The person responsible for pushing the 1:29 line Fred Levine?? passed away awhile back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjltuk Posted October 18, 2016 Share Posted October 18, 2016 AML site works OK for me: http://americanmainline.com/ mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Posted October 18, 2016 Author Share Posted October 18, 2016 Well slap my *ss and call me Sally as it works for me too now! Must have just been down for a few days! Still no new offerings though... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Posted October 17, 2017 Author Share Posted October 17, 2017 Well here it is dang near another year to the day of my last post and still no AML 1:29 50' Hy-Cube Boxcar nor a GP60 to be seen! Others on a dying forum elsewhere stated something like "go big (1:29) or go home" referring to MTH 1:32 scale ...well it seems Accucraft doesn't quite agree with that as they've about sold out of the 1 Gauge passenger cars...and still no new 1:29 offerings...Infact they merged or bough out Aster which is all 1:32! Speaking of MTH RailKing One-Gauge products it seems that they're here to stay....contrary to those "rumors" from a few years ago...Infact about all of the MTH One-Gauge stock is sold out! Even a midwest dealer has recently seen the MTH light and became a dealer this past year...kind of ironic as he once posted elsewhere that he thought the MTH One-Gauge passenger cars were too short and rather generic looking...the world is full of hypocrites! My how things have changed...BooHoo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Posted October 17, 2017 Author Share Posted October 17, 2017 Just realized that this thread is about nothing. Nothing new that is...The Seinfeld Show has been called "the show about nothing"....So I guess this is the thread about nothing....LOL In about 4 months this topic about nothing will be going on 4 years since the first post...Just how long does it take to make a boxcar mold?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Posted December 2, 2017 Author Share Posted December 2, 2017 Well it appears that the AML 50' Hy-Cube boxcars are shipping! Only took 4+ years yo make AML Hy-Cube Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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