Aristocraft 2-4-2 Rogers. This was a sale item at San Val. An Aristocraft 20 foot tank car trails behind.
This was a pretty good addition to the line but alas - the front motor gear stripped. I really enjoyed it so perhaps I will get another. Instead of fiddling around with it, I put it on eBay and she got sold "as is" to be a diplay locomotive to someone.
I had made some modifications. The sound tender was a lost cause after some very short run time. The wheels on the Rogers also crud up fast but I couldn't complain about the cost. Many have replace these wheels with newer wheels.
After taking this apart and actually getting it back together again...it wouldn't have taken to much to fix it...
As typically found on Aristocraft older products, the couplers/.rolling stock sit too high. I don't use Aristocraft couplers [USA & Bachmann]. The fact is that the Aristocraft rolling stock will not match up in coupler height with USA and Bachmann. SO modifications are in order. A nut place between the USA coupler and the mount on the back of the Rogers tender is needed to lower the coupler. Some people lower the rolling stock. I am not that ambitious.
These 20 footer Aristocraft offering are pretty cool. The price is right. I would have preferred it would have come with metal wheels so I took off the Aristocraft and put on 2 metal Bachmann. I also yanked off the Aristocraft couplers
as much of my rolling stock is USA and Bachmann. Some rust spray paint and a little bit on the under carriage of the tank car and it's ready for the mountains.
This loco looks a lot more worn now after I took some paint to it. Plus, after cleaning the wheels about a half a dozen times, I finally got the crud off it now...it must have been the "blackening" Aristocraft used on the wheels.
This engine is perfect for the narrow 4 ft. diameter curves on any railroad.
