1990 Rail Chief & Hudson Questions

The 18005 1-700E scale Hudson matches the set perfectly, and it can pull the 4 cars easily, at least in my experience. Despite being conventional, it's a very smooth runner.

I ran the set on O-60 curves and nothing went wrong, though I wouldn't recommend running the cars on anything tighter.

I've run the Rail Chiefs on 0-63 tubular track without a problem. I would think virtually any decent locomotive would pull them just fine, but you want to be sure the wheels and axles are oiled since it doesn't have needlepoint axles. I pulled mine once with an ordinary postwar Hudson, but the coupler kept slipping off because of the height difference. 

Thanks to all for the input. My layout if I ever get it done will have a Gargraves outer loop of about 64" so it sounds like I'll be Ok. For now, I'll just run it on the loop at the shop to make sure it is in good working order.

Steve

Just took the loco & tender out of the box and also unwrapped (no boxes) the coaches. Gorgeous set, but I notice the lead car looks like it should be attached to the tender by a draw bar. My tender only has the knuckle coupler. I assume I will need to get creative here and make one. I was surprised the loco ran through my existing 031 curves with no difficulty. The coaches.............no way, as expected. I was also disappointed in the sound quality, but only because we are spoiled by the quality of modern electronics. In 1990 this was probably considered amazing. I'll need to make up a draw bar and take it to work and run it there.

Steve

Guess you're in the same problem I'm in. I guess since you didn't have the box, you didn't get the removable knuckle coupler that came in a tiny ziploc bag.

And yes, 23 year old sound systems do sound their age, but I still like the old RailSounds 1.0 from my youth.

Mikado

I do have the baggy with the scale coupler, but it does not couple to the lead car that I can tell. I made a draw bar by modifying a Marx 333 draw bar. Tested it on the layout at the shop and it works very well.

Steve

It's definitely a great set.  It was my first forey into a high end set.  It has both scale and nostalgic elements.  A real winner for sure.

Hopefully the castings on the passenger cars last better than the originals!

Enjoy!

I purchased the Rail Chief cars in the last few weeks also. I have the coupler in the bag. A loop to connect to the cars and a knuckle for the tender. I have not installed it yet.

I have a MTH Hiawatha set with the same cars. The cars do not run on O54 track. The vestibules bind. The O60 must be the bare minimum.

Here is mine out for it's first run since I acquired it. This was our yearly "big" raffle prize at our TCA division. I bought a lot of raffle tickets

Steve