Piko Reading Camelback

[markoles]

Hi guys,

 

OK, the time is coming when Piko's Reading camelback locomotive should be arriving.  Any of you guys order one?  With a wife starting a new job, I'm holding off on buying anything for the trains (and I need to upgrade a 2k2 board to a P8, and get another REVO steam starter kit, so no new locos for Mark).   I've been hearing bad things about the drive train on the Piko x-6-x drive.  Here's hoping they make continuous improvements. 

 

Anyone?

[enginear joe]

 I did try several brands and try to keep an open mind. There's just a few brands I won't buy (2 or 3? cheap ones). I really don't know about Piko and haven't gambled on them yet. I don't hear much about their equipment good or bad??

I go for modern equipment the most anyways.

[markoles]

Getting notifications that these are arrived at dealers!  Anyone getting one??  What is the QSI sound card / decoder worth?

[benshell]

I haven't heard anything good or bad about Piko drives, but I will be very interested in seeing how these locomotives sell! (Since I'm quite interested in new steam locomotives!) Are you considering getting one and putting in a QSI Titan? The 6amp QSI Titans are $200 and with the newly released Q3 steam files the quality is incredible. I was never very impressed with the Q2 steam chuff sounds, although it was still better than most alternatives.

[markoles]

I like the chunky, funky look of the Reading camelback.  The finish looks good, and the detail level appears to be geared more toward rough handling (aka, the details are large and do not appear easily broken).  With two small kids, that's an important feature for me.

 

The Reading camelback comes with the Tsunami sound installed in the tender on this and several other of the 0-6-0 / 2-6-0 locos that Piko has just released.  My friend, Joe Sova, posted a video on his facebook page, and from that video, the sound seems ok.  I suspect it is one of those 'have to see it in person' to appreciate it. I do like the fact that the sound is already installed and that I can easily trigger the whistle and bells.

 

I'd expect that I'd end up having to do some surgery to get a REVO to work, but I could see it happening a lot like my LGB Mikado, where I am running the REVO to control the motor and trigger the sound inputs on the main LGB sound board.  I do not get the correct number of toots or the headlights to work properly, but as I am typing this, I am wondering if I couldn't take another look at this and use the PWC- Linear converter I have to run the LGB board.   Hmm.......

[Kevin Strong]

If I recall the 0-6-0 that I reviewed correctly, the electronics plug in fairly neatly, meaning that if you were to want to remove the DCC stuff and replace it with the Revolution, it shouldn't be at all difficult to trace the wires and make the appropriate connections. Piko uses single-pin connectors for light and motor connections, so it should be a simple install. (I just put the Revo in an older non-DCC-equipped Piko 0-6-0 for my son.)

 

That having been said, I like the sound of the Piko/Tsunami board much better than the sound from the Aristo board, so I'd be tempted to leave that in place. It gets a bit convoluted, though, as you would need the PWM - Linear converter to feed power to the DCC board. It does not like PWM at all. That, and you're going to have a lot of "dead time" on the power because the Piko board needs at least 6 volts to run the decoder. You can set the start voltage on the Revo to deliver the requisite voltage as soon as you hit the up arrow button to increase the throttle, but if you go to change directions, you've got to wait for the Revo to drop below that level, down to zero, then back up to 6 volts the other way before the sound and lights will power up again.

 

I do hope they've beefed up the kingpins on the wheels. On my 0-6-0, they're plastic pins just snapped in place. After 5 or so years of running around my tree without issue, I got the loco out on the railroad for Andy to run, and within the first day he managed to snap three of the pins out of the wheels. A little super glue fixed them and they've been running well since, but that's definitely something I think Piko should improve (if they haven't yet).

 

Later,

 

K