op, all lgb plastic bodied locos run on R1, and many of the aster/metal models too. running on r1 was a design mandate for lgb models. The very earliest red moguls (those with 1 piece flexible boiler grab irons) do bind slightly on r1. But run they do. This was corrected by adding middle axel swing on later versions.
my u classes run fine, fwiw.
Tac, have you had issues with your wpy mike?
its gorgeous, but have heard they are not well engineered. Always wanted one.
I guess you missed the whole story back on mylargescale a few years back, so I'll give you a short run-down.
I bought my first loco from Laurenz Schug in Detzem, Germany, as he had them in stock, the the dealer/importer in Leighton buzzard - at that - time, did not.
I put it on the track and 'fired it up'. There was a ten or fifteen second movement, then a rattling grinding noise, then all motion stopped.
After some deliberation, I I took it to Leighton buzzard, where the importer gentleman, wanting to make things better, offered me the choice off the pallet-load. I picked #373 - part number of the loco, itself #73, as I felt that was a good omen.
Getting it home, I put THIS one on the track. It lasted around thirty seconds before it seized up solid.
I took it back to the distributor - distinctly unhappy - this was a £2500 model in 2002....... He told me to leave it with him as he was off to the Nuremburg toy fair over the next few days, and had a number of them to which my loco would be added for LGB's attention. It seems he did better than that. He dumped them on the LGB stand in front of one of the Richter brothers and demanded that they get fixed.
Well, as I made clear in a write-up a short while later, it was all very well for LGB to make a bendy 8-coupled mechanism that fitted the French 141R and the Santa Fe mike superstructures that were made of plastic, which weighed about a pound. But it was a whole different kettle of fish with an all-metal Aster-made body, that weighed around nine pounds. The original drive was a hollow splined coupling off the end of the motor which took a splined shaft from the gearbox. This was self-destructing literally within seconds of the motor being energised, as I had proven - twice. I produced an engineering drawing and assessment of the chassis in situ in the model, showing that the down-force on each end of the articulated chassis added an unacceptable level of stress to the drive train - itself already fragile, leading to early failure, as had happened twice to me.
Some time passed until its return from the LGB factory. Attached was a letter from Herr Johannes Richter, advising me that he guaranteed it. I'll dig out the letter and post it in this thread when I get a minute.
Notwithstanding all of LGB's 'repair work' the damage had been done - confidence had been lost in a VERY pricey model that had involved THE principal manufacturer of prestigious Gauge 1 models, Aster Hobbies, who were substantially less than happy, to say the least, especially when large numbers of these models were remaindered for around $500 or even less. It soured the relations between the two companies, each world leaders in their particular genre, for years.
There have been a number of 'fixes' over the years, most, if not all, involving re-motoring and a lot of internal work to the drives - none of which I have done. As you can see on the movie, it works very well, even if the chuff is half what it ought to be. The MTS system still works, too, if you have the equipment [we do]. AFAIAC, the only downside is the odd scale - 1.22.5. The real thing runs today on three-foot gauge on a line that is mostly in Canada's Yukon Territory, and pre-Flu, attracted around a million passengers a year, thanks to the home terminal being situated in Alaska's cruise liner port of Skagway.
And
