Which legacy engine is best? Camelback or ten wheeler?

In style, I prefer the legacy 10 wheeler, both locomotives are nice. You can make up a nice train with the 10 wheeler, get a matching scale caboose and have fun. Happy Railroading Everyone

Aren't they both 10 wheelers though?

Jon

I highly suggest the ten wheeler. In total there are now 3 different Legacy releases out there. IMO the best bang for the buck is either the first release in the 2010 signature for its road specific crew talk and towercom (only limited to 2 roadnames: C&O and Canadian Pacific) or the most recent release with the 5 different bells and whistles.

I've attached some YT videos for reference. The first one is an overview I made of the first legacy run's Canadian ten wheeler in 2017. Below that in the Top 5 video I also talk about the Canadian 4-6-0 and what specific features makes the model stand out.

The next one shows a running session of the recent release legacy camelback striding along my layout. Note there is an electronic "bug" in this run as triggering a certain bell on the camelback creates a loud static sound. This topic is further discussed here: https://ogrforum.com/...-sound-quality-issue

I have both, a camelback and a couple of the recent 10-wheelers, either one is a fine choice.  Operationally, they're both pretty much the same, since they're both really 10-wheelers.

@KOOLjock1 posted:

Aren't they both 10 wheelers though?

Jon

Yes, the Lionel offerings are both 10 wheelers.  I was thinking the same thing!  Granted not all Camelbacks were 10 wheelers, but the vast majority made in O gauge are.

I have both. I prefer the camelback simply due to the chuffing. When running the 10 wheeler at medium speed you can’t hear the chuffs. The background noises dominate the chuffs which can’t be heard. Other than that both run perfectly.

I got the Camelback from the 2021 catalog for my first Legacy model and love it. I would like to find a newer 10 wheeler with bluetooth as well. When the 10 wheelers came out in the 2020 catalog I wasn't looking for Legacy models. I have to say if the 10 wheeler was in the 2021 catolog along with the Camelback I probably would have gotten it. Rod brings up a good point with the chuffing sound incase thats a concern to you.

Brad

Maybe buy a Camelback sound board for your 10-wheeler?   I also noticed my Strasburg 10-wheeler doesn't have nearly as loud audio as the Camelback, I'll have to look into that.

Well, for me, it depends on what area you are modeling.  That Camelback is going to look funny in front of grain boxcars in your southern Illinois scenery, as well as climbing a Rocky Mountain pass, not to mention in a "west coast" yard along side oil fired SP and ATSF power. But...that depends on how much you are a stickler for scale modeling.  Anthracite coal trains into Philly?, probably at home.  The generic ten wheeler, unless Belpaire firebox road specific, or oil tender,, did double duty labor everywhere.

@colorado hirailer posted:

Well, for me, it depends on what area you are modeling.  That Camelback is going to look funny in front of grain boxcars in your southern Illinois scenery, as well as climbing a Rocky Mountain pass, not to mention in a "west coast" yard along side oil fired SP and ATSF power. But...that depends on how much you are a stickler for scale modeling.  Anthracite coal trains into Philly?, probably at home.  The generic ten wheeler, unless Belpaire firebox road specific, or oil tender,, did double duty labor everywhere.

Thanks so much everyone for feedback. Honestly I just like having cool things, I get matching rolling stock to the locomotive but if the outside track has UP and the inside has Southern its fine with me.

One other point to mention, I have all the semi scale locomotives (Jr Berk, Jr Mikado. Baby K4 etc) so I was hoping to find something that would fit in size wise (I have the A5 but it towers over everything else!)

Lastly getting most for the money, of there was features one had that the other different, that would be great to know, it seems like they are pretty similar with the camelback hacking a backup light and better chuffing.

Extra point, I think there is a 2-8-0 that came out in 2021 v2 catalog, anything that would make that leaps and bounds ahead of the other two?

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Maybe buy a Camelback sound board for your 10-wheeler?  

Trust me, I’ve thought about that.

@miller3 posted:

Extra point, I think there is a 2-8-0 that came out in 2021 v2 catalog, anything that would make that leaps and bounds ahead of the other two?

Are you talking about the H10 with the swinging bell, whistle steam, etc. from the 2018 Catalog?  It is a nice locomotive, I have the PRR model.  It does lack the programmable bell/whistle feature, but I can live without that anyway.

@miller3 posted:

Extra point, I think there is a 2-8-0 that came out in 2021 v2 catalog, anything that would make that leaps and bounds ahead of the other two?

Well the 2-8-0 from the 2021 vol 2 catalog I don't think has delivered yet. I think they are not due until July of this year.

Looks like they run on o31 track and have whistle steam so thats definitely one to consider for me as I am using o31.

One thing about the Camelback is I have heard nothing negative about them except the complaints about the blue comet version being too bright.

That's important to me since there have been many quality control issues with certain models.

Mine has been great so far.

Brad

I never understood if there was any benefit to the camel back design. My understanding was that there were accidents where drive rods or eccentric rods broke through the cab floor and killed crew members.  Did it make sense to have the crew separated? Where they hand fired?

Never saw that the New York Central used them. Did the Pennsylvania? What was the point?

The Camelback was developed to allow the use of larger fireboxes like the Wootten firebox.  Yes, apparently more than one crew-member met his maker due to rods came through the cab.  Apparently the larger firebox allowed them to burn the cheap and crappy coal and still have decent power.

The crew was separated and I believe all of them were hand fired.  The only way you knew the fireman fall off is when the speed fell off because of no fire.   The poor fireman was pretty much out in the open, must have been a pretty unpleasant job!  I imagine in the summer sitting right next to the boiler like that was probably pretty warm.

I believe PRR indeed did have camelbacks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camelback_locomotive

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

The Camelback was developed to allow the use of larger fireboxes like the Wootten firebox.  Yes, apparently more than one crew-member met his maker due to rods came through the cab.  Apparently the larger firebox allowed them to burn the cheap and crappy coal and still have decent power.

The crew was separated and I believe all of them were hand fired.  The only way you knew the fireman fall off is when the speed fell off because of no fire.   The poor fireman was pretty much out in the open, must have been a pretty unpleasant job!  I imagine in the summer sitting right next to the boiler like that was probably pretty warm.

I believe PRR indeed did have camelbacks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camelback_locomotive

Thanks Gunrunner!