Question on Williams Scale Hudson loco

Dave,

I have a Williams scale Hudson. think it runs pretty good. When I first got it the tether wire was too stiff and it would derail often. I cut off the sleeve that covered the wires and the problem went away. The sound isn't as good as the newer Proto or TMCC engines but for the price I think it's worth it. 

Dave, I don't own one of these so can't comment on running but just wanted to point out most including the 773 repro came with a 2426 size tender. Williams also offers a scale hudson with a scale 700T tender. 

That said you should be able to find a K-Line scale hudson in conventional for about the same price and I know these are good runners.

 

Pete

I have the "773" version.  If you're OK with postwar style (high speed) running, it's a nice engine.  You just can't run them slowly without modifying them.  I did the diode chain modification to mine and it runs a lot better and starts at a much lower speed than it originally did.

 

An ERR cruise commander would make it even better

I have one and it is wonderful. Can easily pull 7 scale boxcars,3 milk cars, 2 REA express, and 10 72' scale passengers with ease at realistic speed all day long! Nice big drivers provide a lot of action. Suethe smoke unit is adequate. A+

I'm with Norton, don't buy the the WBB version. Get a nice scale K-line Hudson. It's better detailed and runs much better.

I would get a K-line.

The K-Line is much better detailed and a very smooth runner, but the motor is not the strongest one around. Running a lot of cars for a long period of time can overheat the motor. Under normal running conditions on a normal size layout this should not be a problem, but don't enter any of the K-Line scale steamers in a pulling contest. With six or eight normal size passenger cars and a cooldown every once in a while, you should be fine. I don't have a K-Line Hudson, but I do have two Mikados and two Berkshires. 15-20 freight cars for a couple of hours at a time has never caused me any trouble. The problems I have heard about involve guys who were pulling 40 cars or more, and possibly up steep grades. I'd still buy the K-Line in preference to the Williams, but it's good to know its limitations.

I think 40 cars will warm up most any single motored locomotive, especially on grades.  I pulled 115 cars around with two Legacy U-boats, that's four motors.  They were working pretty hard, especially on the 2% grade!  Doing 1/3 of that with a single motor would be pretty taxing unless it's a pretty hefty motor.

Dave,

 

I have a Williams scale Hudson with the 700T tender.  It is a good puller.  The engine also comes with an interchangeable pilot with the lobster claw coupler for double heading.  It does lack the detail of a quality scale locomotive.  I am adding additional detail and repainting, so hopefully the looks will improve.

 

Bob 

We have a MTH Scale Hudson No 5344 that has PS1 and the early fan smoke unit. It does not run but would be a great project to get operational either by fixing it or installing another control system. It has a large Pittman motor and is very highly detailed. 

Here it is compared with the top-rated K-Line unit. The MTH smokers are vastly superior to both the Williams and K-Line. Side-by-side they are almost identical to the K-Line in size and only slightly less in level of detail too.

If interested, email me off line. I'll be in about 10pm.

 

 

MTH rear           K-Line foreground           Right-click this photo and see the detail better

I've had one for several years. Mine runs great.

 

I had a few issues initially that were easy to fix. first was that there were no traction tires on the front drivers. Larry H. of Williams/WBB, told me that they were having issues with bad neutral path through the drivers, if I remember correctly, and that they were intentionally left off to fix that issue. I added traction tires anyway, because the loco was noticeably lower in the front. I haven't had any issues with the performance of it before or since I added the traction tires. The other issue was that the connector from the tender to the loco had a very stiff heat shrink tubing installed at the factory and the harness was a little too long that would cause the tender to derail in curves. I cut the harness back a little, repined the wires and removed the heat shrink. That eliminated that problem. My tender wobbles a bit because some of the wheels aren't perfectly perpendicular to the axles. It is a little annoying, but not enough to make me want to get rid of it. The smoke unit is poor at best and mine quit within a few runs. I am going to add a fan driven smoke unit at some point. The chuff is annoying after a short while and there isn't anyway to turn it off.

 

This is what I pull with this loco;

<colgroup><col width="47" /><col width="297" /><col width="194" /><col width="138" /></colgroup>

1	HEAVYWEIGHT, GRY, BAGGAGE	2540	WILLIAMS
2	HEAVYWEIGHT, GRY, PULLMAN	2543	WILLIAMS
3	HEAVYWEIGHT, GRY, PULLMAN	2544	WILLIAMS
4	HEAVYWEIGHT, GRY, OBSERVATION	2545	WILLIAMS
5	HEAVYWEIGHT, GRY, DINER	3625	K-LINE
6	HEAVYWEIGHT, GRY, BAGGAGE	5630	K-LINE
7	HEAVYWEIGHT, GRY, COACH	6926	WILLIAMS
8	BOXCAR, GRY / GRY	9213	MTH PREMIER
9	HEAVYWEIGHT, GRY, COACH	4210 (GLEN HURON)	K-LINE
10	HEAVYWEIGHT, GRY, COACH	4*** (GLEN GORDON)	K-LINE
11	HEAVYWEIGHT, GRY, COACH	4215 (GLEN ALLEN)	K-LINE
12	HEAVYWEIGHT, GRY, RPO	2050	WEAVER

 

I also have a RailKing die cast aux. tender that I bought to run with it. It has no problem pulling all of these cars. As a matter of fact, the higher voltage it takes to pull them gets the chuff rate a little closer to believable.

Here is mine - an original Williams.  It is the strongest Hudson I have due to four traction tires on the drivers.  It can pull a long string of MTH heavyweights with interiors where the K-Line and MTH Premier Hudsons start struggling with more than 6 heavyweights.  Do not try to put grease in the gearbox though on the Williams Hudson as extensive disassembly is required.  The MTH Hudson is decidedly easier to grease.  No operational problems with my Williams until after trying to reassemble it after an unsuccessful effort at greasing.  I will look at taking it apart again to try to get it running better.  I should have just left well enough alone and continued to let it run.  It ran well and for many hours without any issues.  The manual recommends greasing after 25 hours - in retrospect, that effort was a mistake.

 

Dave, don't even think about it. Go with the K-line. Don

Yeah.  At the risk of exciting Hot, the K-Line is the sharpest detail if you can tolerate an unwrapped boiler.  Yuk!

K-Line and MTH Hudsons look great but lack the pulling power of the Williams Hudson.  The MTH Premier Hudson is also easy to service and maintain.

 

I think it all comes down to budget. I would love a K Line Hudson but currently have a Williams one.

 

The reason is simple - second hand it was so cheap I could not pass it up. It lacks detail but overall the impression is right and it runs superbly.

 

Next time it will be K Line .........but for now.........

 

MIKE