A little green in the photo helps. Don't hate me cuz I don't have my track properly ballasted. The back yard is covered in "pea" gravel, some 20 Tons of it that was hauled in by yours truly. The soil here is very clay like. In a heavy rain, it becomes the consistency of thick paste. My neighbor buried his large boat trailer up to the axles in it once. The gravel is there to keep the back yard a place we can go after a rain. As a matter of fact, most of the track is ballasted now with 1/4- DG. The area shown in all of these photos has been reworked with new track and ballast. The big shrub shown in the photo on the left was cut down and removed. |
Geep crossing. |
More LGB Mikado... |
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A little green in the photo helps. Don't hate me cuz I don't have my track properly ballasted. The back yard is covered in "pea" gravel, some 20 Tons of it that was hauled in by yours truly. The soil here is very clay like. In a heavy rain, it becomes the consistency of thick paste. My neighbor buried his large boat trailer up to the axles in it once. The gravel is there to keep the back yard a place we can go after a rain. As a matter of fact, most of the track is ballasted now with 1/4- DG. The area shown in all of these photos has been reworked with new track and ballast. The big shrub shown in the photo on the left was cut down and removed. |
As aof Christmas eve day, the Mikado has run about a solid 4 hours. I have lubed in officially once. Small applications of oil on all the moving side rod parts and on the axles. I took up the magnets [it comes with two] as the Aristocraft Hook n loop kept catching on them. The photo on the right shows the Mike pulling up to the water tank. Figures are by Preiser |
I didn't realize that that the cab vents actually opened till about 4 days after I had the engine! Poking and prodding this engine always brings a surprise or two. The volume control is NOT easily accessible. It is on the circuit board which you have extract from the front of the loco. I have yet to examine that aspect of the loco. The instructions to how to do this seem quite comprehensive. |
There are some dissappointments. The Bell and marker lights for one. The bell is ok - too gold but the marker lights where merely solid cast plastic inserts. It seems that some jeweled or even working marker lights would be more appropriated. Aristocraft has some small marker lights - I may see if they can be at least plugged in the holes [I am not cutting anything on this loco!] The Whistle that is tripped by the placement of the LGB magnets - the standard 2 long, 1 shourt, 1 Long grade crossing is not present. Apparently this is a feature that is on the F7. Was this an oversight? |
The Mikado sits in front of the station over Christmas. |
Comparison photo for the LGB Mikado pulling 40 ft. 1:29 boxcars. These are the real 1:29, 40 ft. boxcars to give a comparison to the LGB. I know the boxcars are too modern for the Mike [especially the BN USA trains car] but someone wanted to see how the 1:29 cars stacked up against the LGB. I had 35 cars on this Mike and still couldn't stall it out. I have a slight grade also. Powerful puller. |
