Roundhouse / Accucraft

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freelander

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Hi all, hope you all had a good xmas and got what you wanted for xmas and more, I am looking at getting a new steamer and was looking for some advice or pointers in what you would want to purchase if you were in the market, my thoughts are for the Roundhouse Lady Anne with R/C or a loco from Accucraft. maybe a Sea Lion or W&L. besides the looks and performance of the locos I would like to hear from you guys who have experience off after sales, customer care and general help from the suppliers.

All the best for the new year to all readers

freelander
 
Just be aware that the Sea Lion is to a much larger scale than most of the others.
 
My thoughts are for a Lady Anne or Silver Lady (R/C). I have both R/H and Accus.

The performance from both makes is excellent.

I have not had need of R/H aftersales but I am told it is very good.
 
You can't really go wrong with any of the Roundhouse locomotives. The Lady Anne has been a long established locomotive in the Roundhouse catalog and is suitable for both the novice and more experienced owner.
Personally I wouldn't consider an Accucraft locomotive. I've seen far too many of them at the CFR where the owners have had problems with them. My opinion is that quality control can be lacking.
 
I have a Lady Anne. Excellent loco. Works really well for me even though I have no previous knowledge of steam locos. I just followed the fairly simple instructions and away she went.
The radio control packed up at 13 months so I took it to Roundhouse and they fixed it for free even though it was just out of guarantee. They gave it a check over and found a little fault that I didn't know I had and they fixed that too. I see Roundhouse as a good company that cares about its customers. If I ever have the cash to buy another live steamer it will be Roundhouse again.
 
I must heartily concur with the comments about Roundhouse. The real issue however must be "do you have a prototype theme" if you do and a Roundhouse (prototype based loco) fits that great. If not then the Lady Ann is a good generic NG Locomotive to go for. With a little bit of fettling can be made to look quite different if you are up to it.

Personally I have no experience of Accucraft so cannot comment except to say that others comments will be valid. However they do make some interesting prototypes.
JonD
 
I have both roundhouse and accucraft live steamers and both are in my opinion excellent products. The only exception being a pair of Accucraft Ruby's which I just cannot get on with! But am loath to give up on. As for customer support I have had good service and help from both company's. Accucraft is local to me and there parts supply is excellent with knowledgeable staff.
 
Thalthough the Sea Lion is 7/8 it is a very small loco and from what I have seen at my club the lady Anne is a better performer.
 
Hi, I have a Roundhouse Lady Anne and you can't fault the reliability, and back up from the factory. But don't dismiss Accucraft, I have several they are generally much more prototypical, not having slotted head bolts for example and are good runners. Some like the Lyn and Leader are excellent smooth low speed runners if you can get them secondhand. Accucraft used to be better value, but with the weakness of the pound they're getting more on par with Roundhouse Can't comment on the Sea Lion although I'd like one. If you want real quality and lucky enough to find one secondhand Cheddars' like the Samson are the best engineered loco's I've ever seen! Best of luck!
 
A lot depends on your line if it is dead flat then either make of loco will perform if you have gradients, I think that
Roundhouse is the better option, I know that Accucraft engines run at higher pressure but tend to run out of tractive effort quicker than Roundhouse.
Accucraft engines can be driven more prototypicaly than RH ie you can notch up on the reverser, the valve gear on the RH engines is nothing more than forward or reverse with no ability to notch up on the reverser, so you have to slow run on the regulator.
Radio control is useful for gradients unfortunately the trend for supplied RC seems to be going to digital control where the trim buttons have to be programmed in as opposed to manual control, this means that if you need a bit more on the regulator / reverser or you just want to crack it open you have the fine control. Manual control RC is still available from RC suppliers for cars, boats and aircraft.
If RH were to build an ideal loco then in my opinion they would need to add the following to their engines
60psi boiler
working valve gear
a lubricator that feeds the cylinders after the steam has been dried in the fire tube this would do away with the problem of blocked steam pipes
an opening smokebox door

Hope some of this is helpful

Shaun
 
Rhos Helyg Loco Works said:
Can I ask, please, which models of Accucraft loco you can notch up the reverser?
Click to expand...
Might be a misnomer but their Lyn can be controlled by the reverser alone. Just crack open the regulator and the speed can be controlled, proportionately, by the reverser both backwards and forwards. My Lyn was supplied that way, by GRS, with r/c on the reverser only.

I remember trying to explain this to some poor guy who's Lyn's r/c on the regulator had failed. He would not even try it and lost a whole day's running needlessly. Max.
 
As noted above, although Sea Lion is built to a scale of 7/8ths"/ft, she does match more generic 16mm rolling stock, because the prototype is so small. The coupling height is compatible with 15 and 16mm rolling stock, though I haven't got photos of mine coupled to any, as I'm a bit of a purist and have different couplings for 15mil and 7/8ths stock!:nerd:

The small wheels make Sea Lion very controllable, and with r/c on the reverser, it is possible to drive her either on the regulator or the reverser.

I have always found Accucraft to offer outstanding after sales service: rapiid, and often free of charge, even when rectifying things I have done, such as blocking a steam pipe!

I have no experience of Roundhouse locomotives, as I model the railways of the Isle of Man.
 
We now appear to be onto Controlability of live steam. I for one can completely recommend SloMo's as 2 of my Roundhouse locomotives are so fitted. Thus looking at suggested Roundhouse improvements my wish list would be:-

SloMo
Chuffer Pipe
Better gas control valve
Peter Spoerer Control System
This would probably add some £300-£500 to the price of a RH loco. A not inconsiderable sum.

I personally feel that Shauns improvements to RH listed (uncosted but possibly more or perhaps the same cost as mine) above are pretty irrelevant (to me) given my first wish. The SloMo on its own has tamed the running and into the bargain given more pulling power due to the ability to more finely control slipping.

To be fair to RH they are all pretty good runners from the box, the reliability and customer service should not be underestimate. Plus they are all built in Doncaster, does it get much better than that?
JonD
 
Rhos Helyg Loco Works said:
Can I ask, please, which models of Accucraft loco you can notch up the reverser?
Click to expand...

I have a Superior which has piston valves [pv] as opposed to slide valves [sv], so I assume that all Acc engines fitted with pv and a pv reverser are able to be notched up [ in a loose sense ]

Shaun
 
TLR said:
I have a Superior which has piston valves [pv] as opposed to slide valves [sv], so I assume that all Acc engines fitted with pv and a pv reverser are able to be notched up [ in a loose sense ]
Click to expand...
Thanks. I'm glad you added those last four words in brackets. The valve gear on Superior (and Edrig, Ragleth, Lawley, etc.) is fixed and not adjustable. Reversing is performed by a piston valve underneath the smokebox with the piston, basically, setting which side of the cylinder valves receives steam first and so setting the direction. The piston is controlled by the reversing lever (manual or radio control) and by moving the lever it is possible to throttle the steam supply by only partially opening the piston valve's ports, hence why these locos can be driven purely on the reverser. This is not "notching up" the reverser in the true sense as found, for example, on a full size loco as it is only the steam supply that is being changed and not the valve events.

If you had said you had an Accucraft loco with full working valve gear, such as the Decauville 0-4-0/0-6-0, NG15, Baldwin 4-6-0T, L&B 2-6-2T, etc., then real notching up may be possible. I've never investigated it and it may be that they are set up for running best in full-gear, as per Roundhouse locos, but I don't know.
 
Well you cannot actually 'notch up' because the requisite part of the valve gear is not there on either Accucraft or Roundhouse. On the older design piston valve Accucraft loco (such as Leader, Superior or Ragleth) the reverser may be used as a reverser regulator, while the regulator itself may be used as a 'steam stop' valve. On my old Pearse Countess (which had a similar fit) this was very handy for shows because one could run on the regulator/reverser while utilising what is nowadays the regulator to limit top speed without affecting haulage.. I do however, know exactly what you are getting at Shaun. I have a Ragleth here that has been in pieces from new due to other commitments, and I will almost certainly use this system with R/C on this loco. I will be fitting a DJB whistle and don't wish to have too much in the way of servos and bell cranks on this loco cos I hate the cab filled with bits. I will also be fitting DJB draincocks. I do like my whistles and bells...

Any of the generic locos will be fine – and indeed the Lady Anne will work fine – but it is getting a bit long in the tooth now and oilers in the cab doorway together with the really basic bodywork have put me off one of these for years. I would hang on a couple of days and see what the new one is. What I can say is that it will be enormously popular ;-)
 
whoops! I am no longer editor of GardenRail being now retired. I must check out how to delete the address box!
 
Top righthand corner tag - 5th icon in. Go to 'signature'.
 
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