Miscellaneous Motive Power

Just a place for some misc information on manufacturers

K-Line

K-Line was a company of Maurk Klein (the "K) and Robert Grubba, and they made some respectible Lionel compatible trains. They were also successfully sued and forced to stop selling products that used Lionel technology in 2005. (They actually paid Lionel's chief engineer to develop versions of Lionel systems and other features, mostly sound, speed control and transformers).

Worthy of mention is the little 1:32 speeder car, sold by K-Line, then sold by USA Trains, and recently in 2019, sold by Bachmann. (clearly Kader was the manufacturer all along).

MTH (Mike's Train House) motive power

MTH makes a line of 1:32 locomotives and rolling stock.

The scale is normally quite accurate, but there are often concessions to tighter curves, like pilot superstructure that pivots with the truck, etc.

There's some unique features, some toylike, and some very nice. They are known for their great smoke units and synchronization of the puffing. The electronics are a proprietary system called DCS. The speed control is by an optical tachometer, normally attached to a flywheel. This allows precise speed control, and the system knows the actual speed of the loco, once calibrated.

The also offer operating couplers. The weels and axles are stainless steel.

The sound systems are very nice, although there seems to be not as many different recordings as you would be led to believe.

I'm not completely knowledgeable, but it appears that not all models are manufactured every year.

The 2010 RailKing catalog lists:

 GE Dash-8 (has pilot/snow plow attached to truck, not body)

Erie Triplex 2-8-8-8-2 (very nice looking, and the whistle smokes and is playable), it has 2 motors, wonder if all trucks are powered.

Hudson J3a 4-6-4 (a nice loco and a mainstay apparently)

VO-1000 diesel (a nice model for switchyards) 2 motors, proto couplers 

ALCO PA diesel (I believe the B units are dummies) 

EMD F3/F7 diesel (don't know which prototype it is closer to) 

GG-1 electric (the pilot and coupler is part of the motor block, not part of the body)

Bachmann Motive Power Main Page

(remember: links to sub-pages at the bottom of this page)

click to jump to the bottom

Overview

Bachmann makes many different locos, and is, as far as I can tell, the largest manufacturer of trains worldwide.

Trains are made by Kader in China and Bachmann itself is owned by Kader.

Kader recently bought Sanda Kan, who made USA Trains and Aristo-Craft.

In 2009, there was a rumor that Kader will purchase LGB from Marklin (who is bankrupt and bought LGB). Nothing came of this. It was probably because some LGB molds were in China. LGB got them back (unlike Aristo) and LGB now also produces in Hungary.

The most famous "G" scale Bachmann loco is the "Big Hauler" which is in it's 7th version I believe, and close to 1:24. The "Big Hauler" sets of battery powered, and later track powered old time ten wheeler and cars, loop of track and tiny transformer are pretty well known.

After this success, Bachmann started making a quality line of basically exact scale 1:20.3 narrow gauge rolling stock. It's definitely not cheap toy like junk, but great detail and fidelity to scale. It's also no longer inexpensive.

Be aware that the older "Big Hauler" locos and cars are not very well made or sturdy, and this includes the trucks and wheels.

The "new" locos like the 2-6-6-2 Mallet, K-27, and Forney are pretty much exact scale and are good locos. As with any loco, there are some mechanical quirks that may need to be corrected, but overall good locos.

Here's a link to how to replace the gear on the main drive axle for the 4-4-0 or 2-6-0 , which is the most common problem with these locos: http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/board/index.php/topic,19904.0.html

DCC in Bachmann locos

Another step forwards is the incorporation of plug and play sockets in the newer locos, although there have been some variations. The K27 has backwards chuff switch polarity, and needs some external circuitry. The C-19, 2-6-6-2 mallet though are truly plug and play with QSI Titan decoders. The installation takes about 10 seconds.

This socket is a reasonable evolution from the Aristo socket, but NOT completely compatible on the J2 connector.

Older Bachmann locos have pretty messy wiring, where not only are the track pickups hard wired to the motor, but often the track pickup wires are "tapped" for lights or other things BEFORE those wires get to the main circuit board.

Given the size of the circuit board and how difficult it is to "untangle" the wiring, as well as errors in the schematics from Bachmann and wiring errors I have personally found, I normally recommend disconnecting the circuit board, and ensure the individual wiring step by step.

An additional suggestion is that if the DC/DCC switch is left in the circuit (especially in the plug and play locos), put a dollop of hot glue on this switch so it cannot be moved. A well know modeller ran a loco off an open drawbridge, and it fell 2 feet. The DC/DCC switch was dislodged in the fall, and this caused damage to the decoder in the socket (in DC mode the motor is connected directly to the track, which is the cardinal sin in DCC decoders, it creates a dead short across the output transistors).

Bachmann DCC socket:

Here's the Bachmann socket, with J1 and J2 numbered as the Aristo socket it came from.

Notice J1 has 12 pins, but the Aristo J2 had 10 pins, and the Bachmann has 11 pins (12th position should be "keyed out")

Above is the adapter plug that can be purchased from Bachmann, you can see the J1 and J2 names, and where pin 1 is on each.

Note that the lighting details beyond the headlights can be anywhere, for example on the Bachmann 2-6-6-2 Mallet, function 3 (J2 pin 8) is the cab light, and firebox flicker is Function 1 (J2 ping 10). I have not validated the other connections in Bachmann locos. As usual, "trust but verify" with Bachmann wiring!

Sub-Pages

Click the links below to go "deeper" into details on individual Bachmann locomotives

Aristo-Craft Motive Power Main Page

(remember: links to sub-pages at the bottom of this page)

click to jump to the bottom

Quick links to major topics on this page:

(note, Aristo-Craft went out of business at the end of 2013)

• General comments
• Aristo-Craft FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)
• The Aristo-Craft Socket
• Who makes Aristo-Craft products? A short history
• Miscellaneous Aristo-Craft part numbers
• An unofficial Aristo-Craft "in development" page

This section is tips and modifications for your Aristo-Craft locos. There's a lot of little things that you should know, and will help you enjoy your locomotives, check the submenus on the left for individual Aristo-Craft locos and some other topics listed.

Note: If you read nothing else, you should read the two sections linked belowon the most commonly used motor/gear drive mechanisms. This will help you to know what to expect, how to avoid problems, and how to repair them:

Prime Mover Basics - This is about the new "prime mover" type of modular gearbox, used on all 3 axle diesels, and the GP40
Original Style Diesel Trucks - This is about the original gearbox, still used in all 2 axle diesels except the GP40

Why 1:29? An explanation from Lewis Polk

A refresher on why Aristo-Craft chose and championed 1/29^th Scale when it began making G Gauge trains in 1988: 1/29^th is precisely three times the scale of H.O.'s 1/87 if you divide H.O. by 3. This was the scale that made electric trains popular in the U.S. in the first part of the 20^th century with Lionel's Standard Gauge trains, Ives Trains and others. When we wanted to compete in the G Gauge world we wanted something exclusively American when the only competitor was L.G.B., which was using a meter gauge for European trains not appropriate for an American look. Lionel, etc. used a wide gauge for their 1/29^th trains as stability and center of gravity was a major issue for them. Scale to gauge was not a consideration and thus they used a 2-¼inch gauge 3 rail A.C. track system.

Our problem was that L.G.B. (a trademark of Marklin and LGB of USA) had sold millions of miles of 1 gauge track and it wasn't viable marketwise to try to introduce a new gauge. Aristo-Craft was dependent on the installed base of the L.G.B. layouts already established in both Europe and the U.S. Nat Polk (our founder along with Irwin Polk) influenced the marketability of using 1 gauge track, noting that in England that 98% of sales in the OO scale market were different in about the same ratio as our 1/29^th scale on 1 gauge track would be. If OO was a huge hit in England running on H.O. gauged track, Nat felt it would not deter the market in the U.S. if our product was precise and constant to 1.29^th scale.

20 years later, Nat Polk was proven right and Aristo-Craft has made a success of their chosen scale in the market place. Not only that, Aristo-Craft has sold millions of miles of track in the 20 intervening years and confirms why Nat was a pioneer leader in the train marketplace in America.

Consistency of scale and fidelity to scale has been our hallmark, yet the value for dollar spent is still amongst the insustry's best.

We still maintain that Lionel knew what the wow factor was in choosing this size an while a certain small percentage are scale only observant, the vast majority of G Gaugers just want to have fun. We contend that our trains look authentic and run better than most with our patented gearboxes and that the market is large enough to cater to all factions.

General Comments on Aristo-Craft quality/suitability:

I would say that for the person that does not mind tinkering, Aristo-Craft motive power is a good deal for the money, but you must tinker with them, and there are some obvious and significant quality control issues in certain areas. This is true for many of the products in G scale.

Aristo-Craft suffered from many of the same problems others have with manufacturing in China. It seems to me that their issues were on the "worse" side, especially since other G scale manufacturers using the same factories have higher perceived quality (for example USA Trains). Over the years there have been "evolutionary" changes in products, unfortunately they have been in the majority cost cutting that has affected quality and reliability.

But, there is a lot of detail and fidelity to scale. Hats off to that department in Aristo-Craft, and it seems to be the strong dedication of one person, I believe "Michael J". The decoration (painting and road name identification) is some of the best. Once "tinkered with", the locomotives are reliable, and the new gearboxes are tough, and current production is all ball bearing.

Note: I also recommend you read about the wiring and installation of the QSI in the Mallet and Mikado sections, there some common issues and fixes detailed there.

link to exploded parts diagrams: http://www.aristocraftforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=21338

better, direct link to where they are stored: http://www.aristocraftforum.com/exploded_parts/

Aristo-Craft Motive Power FAQ

"my loco does not run on track/battery/rc properly"
"smoke came out when I hooked up battery power"

As much as I hate saying negative things, many Aristo-Craft locomotives are wired differently, or just plain wrong. Normally they run OK on DC, but when you add RC or DCC or even one of Aristo-Craft's own plug in Revolution receivers, you can encounter problems, sometimes catastrophic.

Watch out for wiring in steamers especially, two common problems are miswiring in the tender, and the wiring of the track/power switch in the loco. Be sure to check out the Mikado section for an explanation and fix.

Also, the tenders on the Mallet usually have pickup wires to the tender wheels, but they are usually not connected to anything. Again the Mikado and Mallet sections tell you how to improve this.

In the diesels, the "MU cables" (the wires that run "through" the loco and come out as 2 pin JST connectors by the couplers) often have a "polyfuse" circuit breaker inside in the middle of this power "bus". These usually cannot handle more than one loco, so if you actually MU 2 locos, they usually trip the "polyfuse" circuit breakers and stop. A simple solution is to bypass these, but then you have removed some important protection.

My best advice: ANY modification to the loco, or the use of the "battery"/"MU" cables requires checking with a voltmeter. There are just too many experiences with melted wires and circuit boards documented on all the forums.

"my loco does not pull enough cars"
"my steam loco locks up in reverse/forward"
"my loco keeps breaking side rods"

The "Prime Mover" modular gearbox system has several design weaknesses, and common assembly problems in my research and experience.

The most obvious is exhibited by the drivers slipping on the axles. The drivers are mounted on a tapered shaft. The fit is usually poor from the factory, and often red loctite is gooped on to try to bandaid this. Slipping drivers are annoying on a diesel, but can be fatal to connecting rod gear on a steamer. There are simple fixes to this, but time consuming. (There was an update to add a steel insert to the steam loco drivers, it did not help).

"my loco will not run on dirty track"

Another weakness is the power pickup. In the original "prime mover" design, the ball bearings on the axles used were all metal, so the power went from the wheel through the bearing to a metal clip and the wiring. Since then, "hybrid" bearings have come into use, where the balls are ceramic. This has an advantage, lower friction and heat, but NO CONDUCTIVITY, so Aristo-Craft has a very involved arrangement to pick up power and it is normally not tested/assembled properly. I have seen up to 50% failures in conductivity in brand new locos.

Additionally, for some reason, while Aristo-Craft freight car wheels are made of a non-ferrous (won't rust) material, Aristo-Craft diesel loco wheels are made of cheaply plated steel. In moist climates, they will rust once the thin plating is worn through:

The only solution is keep the wheels dry, and clean with abrasive.

The Aristo-Craft plug & play socket

Quite a while ago, in 2001 Aristo-Craft took suggestions about using a socket in their locos for a plug and play interface for DCC decoders and began implementing it.

Aristo-Craft has used this over the years for some of their proprietary R/C receivers. Digitrax made a DCC decoder to fit. In 2008, several more DCC decoders were made, and Bachmann copied it for several of their locomotive, though they made some mistakes in the pinout. (there are people who say that Aristo-Craft implemented something different than what was published)

There are 2 rows of pins, but only one is wired up (12 pin), the other is used for mechanical support (10 pin). On the 12 pin connector, the pin assignments are:

• right rail pickup
• right rail pickup
• motor (+?)
• front lamp control
• smoke unit
• positive output
• ground
• smoke unit
• rear lamp control
• motor (-?)
• left rail pickup
• left rail pickup

Aristo-Craft locos come with a dummy plug installed in the socket to allow DC operation. It has the following jumpers:

• 1-4 (connects right rail to motor lead and enables front lamp)
• 9-12(connects left rail to other motor lead and enables rear lamp)
• 5-8 (this is usually true, this was there to facilitate decoder contro of the smoke unit)

PDF file from Aristo-Craft site on the socket: http://www.aristocraft.com/techinfo/dcc%20rcc%20pin%20connectors/DCC.PDF

Important note:

The Aristo-Craft socket is NOT always wired the same, nor is the "sound" socket. There are tremendous wiring variations where wire colors are swapped, but bigger problems with sockets that you assume are standard.

Quite often, the motor is wired in reverse polarity. Sometimes, more dangerous, the track pickup wires and the motor leads are swapped. In DC mode with the shorting plug installed, things still work, but when you use a decoder, the track pickups are not directly connected to the motor, and everything goes nuts, if you don't burn up the decoder.

The headlight and backup lights are not always independent, nor controlled by the socket. The sound socket may get voltage from the motor, or from the track pickups. This may make your sound card go to full speed. This problem has been reported in the E8 quite often. Often the socket pins are connected to voltage regulators.

Tips for lowering / dummy diesel locomotives

Rockwall Canyon Jeff says that you can use the LGB ball bearing wheelsets to sit in the sideframes of the RDC's to turn them into non-powered dummies. Further, he says if you unscrew and reposition the sideframes up on the subframes, you can easily lower these locos so modified to look better.

Who makes Aristo-Craft?

Update: Aristo-Craft closed it's doors and is no longer. This information is just for "history".

Early on, Aristo-Craft stated that Aristo-Craft products were made by a J. P. Morgan company: "The management of our supplier is a JP Morgan company called CCMP who control Sanda Kan".

In reality there was an Asian company seeded by J.P. Morgan. (i.e. the company is NOT the JP Morgan we know in the USA)

The real info:

• Most Aristo-Craft products were made by Kader Industries. (track was an exception as well as the Train Engineer)
  
• Previously, Aristo-Craft products were made by Sanda Kan, in late 2008, Kader bought Sanda Kan. 
• J.P. Morgan Partners Asia owned Sanda Kan between 2004 and 2008

• J.P. Morgan Partners Asia bought Sanda Kan for $188 million in 2004.
• J.P. Morgan Partners Asia was a Hong Kong company.
• J.P. Morgan Partners Asia became CCMP Capital Asia, completely independent of J.P. Morgan Partners Asia, which is NOT the same as J.P. Morgan USA.

• As of late 2008, Sanda Kan is wholly owned by Kader, the largest manufacturer of model trains in the world. Kader owns Bachmann also.

Aristo-Craft's slow removal/erosion of features:

The debate of why Aristo-Craft went out of business will rage as long as I'm alive I expect.

One thing that could have been a factor is the continuous "removal" of features, clearly cutting costs. I've listed a few examples. People were getting less for more money, and these cuts affected quality and reliability. In addition, assembly quality was worse, see the prime mover section on how poor assembly causes poor power pickup.

• Older steamers had pickups on the pilots -- gone
• Older steamers had pickups on the trailing truck -- gone
• Tenders no longer do not have pickup from all 4 axles -- now only 2
• Tenders used to have pickup from each wheel -- now only one wheel per axle
• Wires are not placed in the holes in the circuit board before soldering. -- In fact all Aristo-Craft wiring is crappy, not bad, crappy.
• The assembly of the prime mover gearbox is such that often 50% of the wheels do not pick up power.
• No weights included with E8
• Weights now cost up to 5 times what they were
• Weights now 1/2 the weight of before (same size but zinc not lead)
• World's cheapest metal in screws (insanely easy to strip the heads)
• Poor plating on wheels
• Plastic? The common problem with different batches of Aristo-Craft track ties, where certain batches just decompose in the sun -- (oops, we forgot to add the expensive UV resistant chemical)....
• No UV protection on ALL turnout throwbars

Aristo-Craft Patents

There much "chest thumping" by Aristo about patented products, which was pretty funny considering the original copying of other manufacturer's products.

Doing a little investigation, many of the patents were "ornamental", meaning only the appearance was patented.

Here's the famous patent for the smoke unit, which is ornamental only: https://www.google.com/patents/USD469132

Here's the prime mover patent, again ornamental only. https://www.google.com/patents/USD437334

Here's one for a "switching system", which includes the turnout and switch motor. How the patent office allowed a patent for a turnout that is of typical construction is beyond me, but perhaps reading the patent closer shows something unique: https://www.google.com/patents/US20100072327

Mr. Song also made a cool device to hook a wheelchair to a vehicle: https://www.google.com/patents/WO2014088152A1

Aristo-Craft Packaging:

Looking at the cars I've owned, I've come up with this list of six versions of REA/Aristo-Craft packaging, listed from oldest to most recent.

1. The oldest box I've found is gray with REA logos, says "Joint Venture" on the back, has "Made in Korea", and has the Milwaukee REA address on the end panel. It is a boxcar box and lists four boxcars on the end, with a box checked to indicate which car is inside. The car inside has old style couplers (with spring visible from the top), has the old style door latch without a spring, and has gold rectangular QC stickers. A long white styrofoam piece is used to keep the trucks straight.
2. The next oldest is a gray box with REA logos, "Joint Venture" on the back, and "Made in Korea." It still has the Milwaukee REA address on the end panel, and the cars available are all listed and a box is marked to indicated which car is inside. The car inside will have the improved couplers, improved door latch, and round white QC stickers. It will still have the styrofoam piece to keep the trucks straight.
3. Around 1990 came the next version, which is a gray box with REA logos, says "Polks" on the back without the "Joint Venture," and is "Made in China." The paperwork inside is sometimes dated 0590 or 0690. The trucks on these cars are a medium gray rather than black or dark gray. The white styrofoam strip is now done away with.
4. The newest gray box design switched to the Aristo-Craft logo and dropped the REA logo. Polks is mentioned on the back without "Joint Venture" and is "Made in China." Trucks may or may not be the medium gray.
5. The black box. I have seen paperwork inside dated 1992 or 1993. I think this was used through about 1995.
6. The yellow box. This packaging was announced in the Aristo-Craft Club newsletter in December of 1995. Still used for current production

Miscellaneous Aristo-Craft part numbers:

Here is a short list of Aristo-Craft parts I have ordered over the years, just to have a convenient place for them:

(note, when you try to search parts, you MUST put ART in caps at the front of the part number, no dashes... like ART29 )

pacific brake hangers (need number)

polyswitches - (need number)

• 21400-22 - Mikado pilot - (2 each)
• 21500-108 - mikado contact wires - (4 each)
• 21500-109 - equalizers (clamps for contact wires) -  (4 each)
• 21500-114 - hex head screws large -  (8 each)
• 21500-115 - hex head screws small -  ( 6 each)
• 21500-121 - washers for pacific -  (6 each)
• 22200-45 - rs-3 speaker
• 22200-46 - screws for rs-3 speaker
• 29098 - freight truck metal wheels and BB (simulated??)
• 29099 - modern freight trucks, plastic wheels
• 29100 - modern freight trucks with roller bearings (simulated)
• 29101 - freight truck with plastic wheels (arch bar/ betterdorf)
• 29101-96 - Mikado bell -
• 29102 - caboose truck, metal wheels (not leaf spring, appear to have carbon brush pickups one axle)
• 29103 - passenger truck (modern??) 3 axle with 6 wheel set (can't find online currently)
• 29104 - plastic wheels (2 axles)
• 29105 - rogers loco small wheel set
• 29106A - rogers front drive wheels
• 29106B - rogers back drive wheels
• 29107 - trucks passenger (wood) (old time?) metal wheels
• 29108 - pair of trucks for long tender, with pickup wires
• 29109 - pair of trucks, 2 axle, heavyweight passenger
• 29110 - pair of trucks, 3 axle, heavyweight passenger
• 29111B - metal wheels - 4 axles
• 29111BB - metal wheels, 12 pack of 4 axles??
• 29111C - metal wheel set for club cars (??)
• 29111D - metal wheels, black w/o hub (needed for roller bearing trucks?
• 29111S - 4 axles, metal wheels silver
• 29112 - springs for freight trucks (pack of 50)
• 29113 - black springs - 0.600" long x 0.310" OD - lighter gauge and "softer" than 29119, for passenger trucks (maybe 50?)
• 29114 - springs for diesel trucks
• 29115 - pair of trucks for slope tender
• 29117 - passenger trucks for streamliner (pair?)
• 29118 - diesel bushings
• 29118P - older style diesel bushings
• 29119 - black springs for streamliner
• 29119S - silver springs for streamliner, RDC, RS-3, etc. - 0.635" long x 0.34" OD
• 29119B - black springs for RDC, RS-3, etc. - 0.635" long x 0.34" OD
• 29120 - truck (looks like bolster and coupler tang) "delton to aristo". pair (used on delton trucks to match aristo height)
• 29123B - ball bearing wheels, 2 axles (have tabs to solder for power pickup)
• 29130 - wheels for RDC (and other 2 axle?) - no traction tires - pack of 2
• 29131 - wheels for RDC (and other 2 axles) with traction tires - pack of 2
• 29132B - inner gear box w/o wheels (2 axle diesel?)
• 29132-164 - spring for prime mover -
• 29132-163 -ball bearing for prime mover -
• 29134 - commonwealth 3 axle truck (pair) (used on steam tenders)
• 29135 - wheels for 3 axle diesel (and GP40) - pack of 2
• 29138 - stainless steel wheels for 3 axle trucks (6 wheels)
• 29139 - stainless steel wheels for 2 axle trucks (4 wheels) (not gp40)
• 29140 - bb wheel inserts for freight ??
• 29141 - consolidation flanged wheels (each) (new style with metal insert?)
• 29150 - new profile diesel wheel (2 ea)
• 29190 - body mount kuppler (pair?)
• 29191 - body mount kuppler (10 pair)
• 29192 - body mount kuppler (100 pair)
• 29193 - drill and jig (for mounting kuppler?)
• 29196 - stock aristo knuckle coupler (1 pair) E8
• 29197 - stock aristo knuckle coupler (1 pair) Dash 9
• 29200 - stock aristo knuckle coupler (1 pair)
• 29201 - knuckle coupler RS-3 / lil critter
• 29205 - knuckle coupler (1 pair) SD-45
• 29206 - knuckle coupler FA (1 pair)
• 29345 - RS-3 speaker
• 29351-20 - one wheel for an FA-1, will fit all other modern 2 axle diesels (except GP40) (old numbers?)
• 29351-20-TT - same as above with traction tire. (old numbers?)
• 29353 - universal assembly for FA-1
• 29354 - axle w/gear for FA-1
• 29355 -22 - one wheel on SD45 exploded parts diagram - should be same for all prime movers
• 29366 - PCC power truck
• 29403 - misc screwsassortment
• 29411 - ball bearing set (10) for std (freight?) listed as 3.1x6x2.5 Bearings
• 29520 - male plug 8 pin
• 29521 - female plug 8 pin
• 29607 - short MU jumper cable, 2 pin female both ends
• 29608 - 2 and 3 pin connectors on a cable (sound cable)
• 29700 - chair kit for long caboose (6 pieces)
• 29703 - double chair set (of 4)
• 29704 - new roof walk for freight cars
• 29706 - new lowered floor for rolling stock in brown w/header
• 29708 - long caboose roof walk/new
• 29709 - snow plow dash 9
• 29710 - big plow for snow plow car
• 29721 - snow plow GP40, SD45

Some Aristo-Craft history of products, both promised and delivered

A short chronology of Aristo diesel production:

1988 - Aristo FA1

1992 - Original Pacific loco

1993 - Aristo accqired Delton (actually from Caledonia), gets the C16

1996 - U25B shown in 1996 catalog

1996 - RS3

1997 - Lil-Critter

1998 - CenterCab

2001 - SD-45

2001 - RDC-1 shown in 2000-2001 catalog

2001 - or about, original Pacific with old style drivetrain

2004 - Dash-9

2004 - New Pacific with prime mover gearbox, metal siderods

2005  - 4 August - Consolidation - first mention

2006 - RDC-3 - originally talked about

2007 - E8 - delivered

2008 - summer - 0-4-0 Live steam - promised

2008 - August - GP-40 second run - promised

2008 - late - RDC-3 - promised

2008 - late - E8 - second run - promised

2008 - late - Consolidation - promised

2008 - GP40

2009 - late - PCC Car- promised

2010 - SW-1 switcher first promised - never made

2010 - January - 0-4-0 Live steam - Delivered

2010 - summer - Aristo-Craft RDC - promised

2010 - July - RDC-3 - delivered

2010 - October - Aristo-Craft RDC - delivered

2011 - January - PCC Car delivered

2011 - Consolidation - delivered

Aristo-Craft Kuppler - promised and proposed as a"standard" and then a small production run made, nothing followed

• Announced in 2008, it was to appear 2009
• There were 6 sets each sent to dealers about February 2010. I was able to buy 2 sets of them from Trains West in Albuquerque.

2-4-2 Rogers Live steam - was promised late summer early fall 2008 - no update since 12/22/2007

• "The 0-4-0 is due this summer, 2-4-2 is due late summer/early fall.", George Adams, Aristo-Craft forum, 12/22/2007

GG-1 - postponed (good!)

SD9 - promised many times, even has an ART number, shown for years on the St. Aubins sale page

• never made, but advertised by St. Aubins, ART-23500 series
• Aristo-Craft eventually stated it will never be made

Streamliners - lowered with interior detail and led lighting - promised mid 2008, they made only one run, ATSF around beginning of 2008, second run PRR only, arrived October 2008

• in 2007 catalog, shows new production style with interiors, ball bearings, lowered
• promised mid 2008 in forum 6/3/2007
• 6 road names shown on advertisement of Garden Railways
• Only ATSF were made, no other road names
• "We ran lowered streamliners with led lighting, ball bearing races and seated passengers.", , 9/2/2008, this is the thread where Aristo-Craft also says: "We work off of reservations made by our customers ......... the dealers. We do not need one to one orders, but an indication there is an interest. So far the interest in other than ATSF streamliners is minimal and so we wait. Place an order with your dealer and let him place an order with us and you will see the product. No interest ....no product as we don't have room here to keep product hoping for some interest."

Streamliners - Interior and/or lowering kits for old streamliners - has not happened, promised (effectively) twice, latest promise is no later than early 2009.

• "The next time we run Streamliners we will make kits, It will be sometime next year once the current run sells out." , forum , 6/3/2007
• "The next time we do run these we will run some lighting kits or early next year either way", , Aristo-Craft forum, 9/4/2008
• So, the "next time" has come and gone twice, early 2008 ATSF, October 2008 PRR, and still no kits to update older cars.

Streamliners - smoothside dome/diner - no dates

here's some part numbers:

• 33306 Coach (not in stock) - will it be re-issued?
• 33406 Observation (not in stock) - will it be re-issued?
• 33506 Baggage (new) - promised in new products (was old full dome #)
• 33606 Dome/Diner (new) - promised in new products

These were from the "2008 New Item List", a word document posted on the forum on 1/3/2008.

• advertised in the 2007 catalog
• "Yes, we will bring back the older ones too with interiors like we did with the smoothsides. The engineering designs are done for the new ones,  but our plate is pretty full and I can't give you a date right now. Whats required our stamping tools, not molds per se, but there is a lot of work to do.  When it's imminent I'll comment here.", Aristo-Craft forum, 1/4/2008
• "We are working on a Dome/Diner combination, but it will not be a full dome length.", , Aristo-Craft forum, 1/29/2008

SW1500 switcher:

EMD SW1500 switcher, ART-22400, as identified in the Aristo-Craft Trains 1996 Catalog "1996 New Products" section on page 54.

"all purpose" well cars (european)

• in development 2007 catalog
• mentioned on the forum that they would considerUS sales/prototype

Tank cars, new road names:

Promised and in the 2008 catalog:

• GATX
• UTLX
• General Molasses
• Stauffer Chemical
• Corn Industrial
• Redpath
• BCR
• BA Oil

October 1st, 2013

Since 1935, we have provided service and innovation to the Hobby industry. In this latest downturn, we cut back staff to the minimum required to survive. Then the government battle over the debt ceiling drove the consumer market down even further.

We’ve managed to stay in business, but the continued depression for the consumer has caused us to fall into debt that is unsustainable. We have put several million dollars into product development over recent years, but the need for customers to cut back on non-essentials has caused this investment to be lacking in returns.

We have seen leisure activities like golf courses plunge in popularity, as funds for such recreation have dried up. It seems to be the same for hobby time investments. Our products are no longer inexpensive as they were in the 1930s-era Depression. The cost of manufacturing along with minimum production runs and long lead times has caused a lack of ability to continue as a sustainable entity. It’s no longer a business!

It has been a pleasure to help our creative consumer base to enjoy their hobby and we have no regrets in doing so. Our business grew every year until the 2008 as the recession caused a shrinking of the mindset to stay active in our large-scale model train arena. We know that smaller scales have remained viable, but the higher cost of Large Scale trains and the space required to run them have not maintained their share of the market. Our airplane R/C portion of our business was lost when our patented frequency changer was lost to the 2.4Ghz portion of the marketplace, with no frequency compounds needed any longer.

For 80 years, the Polk family has made a fair living in the Hobby industry. I can’t help but remember the scores of co-workers that have helped make this organization as special as it was. Thanks to them all, but notably: Gil Rose, B.M. Song, J.K. Kim, Sam Kimm, Tom Flynn, Cliff Crane, Charlie Binder, Marvin Binder, John and Sherry Shievdayal, Aixa Lebron, Joe Bamberger, David Newell, Walter Matuch, John Mikesh, Navin Shievdayal, Marguerite Hubert (Rose), Michael J. Vickey, Jonathan Polk, Scott Polk, Fred Polk, Irwin Polk, Nathan Polk, Maryann Polk Bob Calandra, George Adams, Michael Hauptmann and so many others, it would take a book to list them all. While I can’t list all the hundreds that were part of the team, they remain in my heart and mind.

Our humble thanks to our loyal customers. Our apologies for not being able to keep this almost 80-year-old business going. It’s a heartbreaker for us all.


All the best,

The Polk Family

Sub-Pages

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NW-2 Cow & Calf

Overall:

Thankfully, there are no traction tires on the wheels. I will probably remove the sliders and see if they still run well. Have not tried the smoke units yet. I think the locos could stand a bit more weight. I have a cow and a calf so far. Many railroads use a cow and one or more calves. 

Interestingly, the NW2 and the S4 never came with traction tires, and also the typical brass bushing/bearings on the axles are not present, the axles ride in a plastic saddle that is part of the motor block.

Nice level of detail, and the typical tradeoff, nice small details, but easily broken, note: the small plastic loops for the coupler cut bars are easily broken.

In order to change the headlight bulbs in the NW-2 you have to remove the headlight lens which can be difficult to remove.

The railings press into little plastic cups that are glued to the frame with small, fragile pins on the bottom.These are easy to break off.

These locomotives have the same "cracked axle" syndrome as virtually all other USAT locos. Parts are easy to get. Fix the axles as usual, but there's less clearance in the motor block, so if you use thick tubing, you might have to grind some plastic away from the axles.

 Kadee Couplers:

Truck mount: trim off the tang, leaving about 1/16" of the thinner tang projecting from the thicker part. This allows you to use the existing hole that held the hook and loop. You can use the screw from the hook and loop. This is for 831 couplers.

Kadee also recommends cutting 5/8" off the tang, and you also need to cut 7/16" off the gearbox shank, and  trim a slot in the lid 11/32" wide and 5/32" deep to match the sides of the pivot arm. This will allow closer coupling, and should work on curves under 8 foot diameter.

For larger curves, over 8 foot diameter, you can use the 787. I have not tried this yet, to see if it gives close coupling. 

Click here for the Kadee installation sheet

Disassembly:

The fuel tank comes off with 4 screws, and only goes on one way. You do not need to remove it unless you want to.

First there are 8 screws to remove from underneath. As with many USAT diesels, some are best accessed with a slim philips head screwdriver between the sideframe and the motor block, after twisting the block into the best location.

First remove the 2 deep set screws where the 2 red straws are, they are easy to reach.

Now remove the 2 deep set screws at the front of the loco, the leftmost 2 with the yellow straws in this pictures. By turning the truck to align with the screw holes you can reach between the motor block and the sideframes.

Now for the final 4 screws. These are in the approximate location of the middle set of 2 straws. There are actually 2 screws near each other on either side of the loco centerline. Two screws are deepset and they attach to the body, these are the middle 2 yellow straws. There are also 2 smaller, short machine screws. These attach to a metal bracket that holds the front of the cab down. These smaller screws are not deep set, and have machine threads. They are quite short.

The front of the loco has a tab that engages the chassis, so carefully lift up from the cab, not the front end and as you swing it up, the tab in the chassis in the front will disengage.

Wiring variations:

It appears there are 2 variations, an early version and a later version.

The difference seems to be in how the trucks are connected to the circuit boards.

In both cases, there are a total of 6 wires from each truck:

• 2 for the motor
• 4 for track pickups (2 internal to the motor block and 2 picking up from the ends of the axles / journals)

Early Version

The picture below shows the 6 wires coming up from below:

2 - yellow and green are the motor wires, (note they are in a 3 pin JST connector)

2 - red and black from the track pickups in a jst connector at top right

2 - another red and black from track pickups but soldered to the green board at right

Below is another variation, where you can see similar wiring but without the 3 pin header shown on the board above.

Again, the red and black track pickup wires come up and are soldered to the board from below, and the other red and black pickups come up to a jst connectors and eventually go to the same place on the board, thus connecting the track pickups for the end of the axle and the internal power pickup together.

You can also see the green and yellow wires coming up from the motor block, but then the 3 pin jst with the unused center blue wire solders to J6, J7, J8

(picture courtesy Dan Perrott)

So to wire to the loco without cutting wires, separate the 2 pin jst connectors and plug a male and a female into the 2 open connectors, you will now have 4 track pickup wires for that truck, and two reds and 2 blacks.

Then for the motor connector, get a female 3 pin JST and just wire the outer 2 leads for the motor.

Now you wire this up carefully, since I did find that one end of the loco had the 3 pin JST wired in reverse (!!)

Newer versions of the NW-2 are wired like most of the USAT locoslocos, JST connectors for both the motor and track pickups.

In the picture above, all the wires are red and black!

The track pickups are to the connector at the top of the picture, since there are 2 point of pickup in the motor block, there are 2 wires "per rail" so 4 wires total.

The connector at the bottom is the motor wires, since there is only one motor, then only 2 connections.

DCC Install:

There's several ways to do this. The "traditional" DCC install is to basically disconnect everything, ignore the circuit boards, and change all lights to LEDs, and you would also do something about the smoke unit.

Another way is to let the original board handle the power for the lights and smoke unit. I call this the "quick and dirty" installation. This is where you feed the track pickups as usual to the decoder, but then use the decoder motor output to basically feed the entire loco like it was on DC, i.e. the decoder motor outputs to to the main circuit board where it was taking power from the rails.

Quick and dirty installation

As I have mentioned elsewhere, this is very easy and quick to do, since no soldering or cutting of wires is necessary. But this method has the disadvantages that you don't have constant lighting, and cannot control the lights individually. Also, running the smoke unit might overload the decoder output. Finally, some locomotives have voltage regulation circuits for lights that go absolutely nuts when powered by PWM (pulse width modulation), especially Aristo ones. In this case you may have to change to LEDs, or do a normal full decoder install.

To proceed on the quick and dirty:

Look at the wires/connectors from each motor block/truck. Each truck has 2 connectors, but there is a difference. One of the 2 connectors has 4 wires in it, 2 red and 2 black. The other connector has just one red and one black.

The connectors with the 4 wires are the power pickup from the wheels. This is because there is an internal wire touching the axle, as well as a wire on the journal where the axle tip touches.

Buy matching connectors so you can plug into the trucks and the main board. (allelectronics.com)

1. Disconnect only the connectors that have 4 wires (this is one for each truck). Now take two of your new connectors and plug them into the "loose" wire from each truck. Now you have 4 wires that represent the power pickup to each truck.
2. Now is the time to realize that USAT uses two identical trucks, and they are “reversed” from each other. So on one truck the red wire is the right rail, and the red wire is the left rail on the other truck.
3. So, you have 4 free wires/leads from the new connectors you just plugged into the motor blocks. Let's assume your new wires are red and black. Since the pickups are reversed in polarity between the front and rear trucks, you need to take the red wire from the front truck and twist it with the black wire from the rear truck. Do the same for the other 2 wires. Onve you have done this, you now have 2 leads (each made of 2 wires of different colors twisted together), one for the right rail and one for the left rail. (by consolidating the pickup wires between the trucks)
4. Now is the time to get out our ohmmeter. Connect it to one of the twisted pairs you just created, and check all the wheels on the loco. You should find continuity between the wire pair and all the wheels on ONLY one side/rail, tag this set either right or left.
5. Test the other pair. If it does not have continuity for ONLY the other side/rail.  Put a little piece of tape on this pair and mark it also. Now you have the right and left track pickup leads ready to connect to the decoder. Connect them to the proper terminals on your decoder
6. Now it is time to feed the decoder motor output to the main circuit board (notice that we never disconnect the motor lead connectors between the main board and the trucks)
7. add a new connector to EITHER of the two "empty" connectors that go to the main board, either will do.

The two wires from this new connector plugged into the main board go to the “motor” output of the decoder. Don’t worry about the polarity. Connect them and if the loco runs backwards, then you switch these leads.

I need to emphasize again that you ONLY disconnect the 2 connectors that have 4 wires in them.

To recap, what you have done is disconnected the track pickups from the USAT main board, and fed the track pickups to your decoder. Then you have fed the motor output of the decoder to the main board, thus powering the lights, smoke unit and of course the motors.

Note that the lights will work like a DC loco, vary in brightness with speed, and you cannot control them separately.

Speakers:

There are 2 places to put speakers, like many USAT diesels.

Fuel tank:

The traditional location is in the fuel tank, under the loco and is held with 4 screws. It is "keyed" so that it can only go back on one way. The space inside is 1-1/8 inches deep. There is a circular relief inside the bottom that is 2.65" in diameter.

It's easier to select a speaker with no mounting flange, but I have often sanded off the mounting flanges on a speaker to make it round. I use a disk sander to accomplish this.

Visiton speakers are a good fit, good sound for shallow speakers.

I've used the Visaton FRS-7 (grinding off the flanges) with success. It's 31.8 mm deep, exactly 1-1/8". It has good response down to 200 Hz, and useable about down to 150.

Ferenc Joó reports that the Visaton K64WP will fit with no modifications and is almost as loud as the FRS7 even without an enclosure. It's not going to give you the lower frequency response, really don't expect much below 300 Hz.

Top Grill:

Ferenc reports that the Visaton K50 speaker will fit well, and is very thin, but really needs some kind of enclosure behind it.

Since I normally use QSI, I have the prime mover sounds come from the fuel tank, and the higher frequency sounds like bell and horn come from the "top" speaker, so often I do not need an enclosure there, since it acts mostly as a tweeter.

Results:

 Here's a nice video by Ferrenc Joo, who installed a Titan in an NW-2: