I really like the looks of the engine but am a little concerned about the monster long haul tender that looks bigger than the engine. I run 036 curves and am worried that it will be kind of clunky. Thanks.
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IMO… don’t buy it. My outside loop is O54 and I have issues with the drawbar/tether still. My inside loop is O36 and I really don’t think it would make it halfway into the curve without derailing.
Scott, Railking engines are designed to run on O31 curves. Looks are the subjective part. IMHO, the bigger the equipment, the more clunky it looks on the tight curves. I have several Railking Imperial engines and I find that some look ridiculous navigating the tight curves BUT for those of us that have limited space, we can still run something like a BigBoy. It's a trade-off.
This is a pic of my last Christmas layout. The engine is an MTH M1a Mountain with a long haul tender. It's the best shot I have of a long haul tender on an 036 curve. For reference, the tender body length is around 10.5" to 11" depending on where you measure. I don't think it looks bad on the tight curve, but that's me.
Tony
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It is definitely and O42 minimum engine. Sadly, I think you should avoid it.
It's a great engine.......mine is 20+ years old with about 3400+ miles on it and in the shop for the 1st time.
Peter
Thanks for the great feedback. To Max's point I don't want that kind of tether trouble. The PS3 drawbars work well enough but these are stressed by sharp turns I have had wire failures.
Early in the hobby I acquired several big RK Imperials that definitely ran well on 036 but had quite a bit of overhang and over time didn't look quite right right jackknifed on the curves. Today I prefer the shorter RKs with smaller tenders or scale size Legacy or MTH premiers that are switchers or relatively short. I do remember that right after this engine came out is was reviewed in OGRR magazine and the review was definitely critical of the giant tender.
A wild idea is to take the stock tender apart and transfer the electronics to a shorter tender. However, I would be throwing away the tender I paid for.
I used to have one. It is a beautiful engine and well proportioned. I only ever ran it on O54 curves and I still had issues with the drawbar working loose. I ended up selling it and buying the scale Lionel version. I couldn't imagine running it on anything less than O42.
Hopefully I can help on this. I recently purchased the imperial decapod a few months ago. Here is some pictures and video of it running. This is with the shorter draw bar and 031 track. Looks weird,but no issues with draw bar popping. I would recommend the longer draw bar for long term tight curve usage. As far as the tender vs engine size , I recently came across a video of the decapod prototype. Surprisingly ,they're in proportion w\ the prototype. I really enjoy this engine. It was my first brand new steam engine. Looks really good with MTH scale premier ore cars. Hope this helps!
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@Stinky1 posted:I used to have one. It is a beautiful engine and well proportioned. I only ever ran it on O54 curves and I still had issues with the drawbar working loose. I ended up selling it and buying the scale Lionel version. I couldn't imagine running it on anything less than O42.
I guess I'm lucky having the S2 version with the wired tether. It's running on Ross O63 on my inner loop.
Peter
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