Mallet 2-8-8-2

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Overview

This is a great new loco from Aristo. It pulls well and tracks even better than the Mikado, which uses the same motor blocks.I believe this is true due to a single boiler applying weight to 2 articulating trucks. In the Mikado, you have a single long wheelbase that rocks fore and aft on poor track.

Be sure to consider improving the power pickup, it made a lot of difference on my loco.(even though the design theoretically has pickup on all drive wheels, you may find this is not working, see the "Prime Mover Basics" page.)

The QSI install is pretty easy, but you need to add another wire between the loco and the tender to run sound, or you can do what I did, and put the sound in the boiler, much more realistic.

It is very easy to take apart to get to the wiring, see the disassembly section.

Since it has the "new" gearboxes, it has the propensity to have drivers come loose and the chance of destroying the valve train components and sometimes even the gearboxes, so you need to check the tightness of the drivers on the axles periodically. This is a common and documented problem. If you follow my tips in the Prime Mover Basics page, you can make this a very reliable drivetrain if you take the time and effort.

Sub-Pages

Click the links below to go "deeper" into details on the Aristo-Craft 2-8-8-2 Mallet