Gentlemen I am on fire. Two engines finished in as many weeks. Admittedly I have been working on them longer than that but getting them done is still a big deal. This time it is #51 a K-27 made by Accucraft. At some point I will get notes posted on the misery of dismantling one of these but for now I will simply bask in the joy of having another engine on the roster.
Wow Boomer!
Do we get to see a group photo of the line up/ roster?
That is quite and engine! Great job!
Your gonna hurt yourself
ATTA Boy, Boomer.(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)
Looks great! Did you change your green or is it the photo?
John
Huzzah!
I like the # this year
Edit: cause I planted “balls seed” in my garden this year for you
Sean
I am currently using this picture on the website but yes I will be doing an updated one as the family has grown. Will try to get that done in the next couple of weeks.
The K-27s are both painted in sage green. This is the trim color for the other engines. I used it as the main color on the passenger cars and thought it a better choice for the engine. That should not have been a problem as I never intended to own a second K-27. When I found the Accucraft for sale for $1300 I could not pass it up and eagerly spent the step kids inheritance.
I was going to paint #51 with the apple green leaving only #50 for passenger service. But the passenger train is the heaviest thing I pull so I felt I should have #51 in that job. Thus it too had to be sage green. Now with two mud-hens I was not going to stirp #50 down so I invented the company decision that they would both be Sage green. It has since become the color used for the mainline engines with the mining logging and branch line engines done in apple green…suffice to say I had painted myself into a corner.
So that is my story and I am sticking to it.
Boomer,
How does the Accucraft run compared to the Bachmann? I’m really not happy with my Bachmann’s performance (my second one, no less) on 8’ diameter curves and I believe the Accucraft might run better for my operation. I’ve always dreamed about an Accucraft one – if you got that one on eBay, I actually think I might have been bidding against you (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)
Robbie
I have only bench tested my engine on stationary rollers. I have run the Bmann K-27 extensively and I have seen my friends Accucraft K-28 (identical to the K-27 except for cosmetic differences) run. Of course the Accucraft out performs the Bmann but that does not mean it is better. Here are the main differences:
Bmann:
19 volt Pittmann motor
All brass gears. I do not know the ratio but I am sure there are plenty on here who do.
Will pull about ten AMS cars on a flat grade.
Accucraft:
24 volt Pittman motor
All metal gears in a transmission housing. The K-27 and K-28s both come with 19 - 1 gear box (often mistakenly identified as a 19 volt motor). You can buy a replacement motor/gearbox that bolts in with 38 - 1 gears for $120. This makes a huge difference in performance. It is not a pleasant experience to replace. I also had to buy $40 worth of Wiha nut drivers to fit the brass bolts AMS uses.
Will pull 15 to 25 Accucraft cars on a 1-3% grade.
And what I feel is the biggest factor in smooth operation with both engines. They need 8’ radius not 8’ diameter curves to perform smoothly. So a big BS flag on both manufacturers for making that claim. Just because they will do it does not mean they will do it well.
Is the Accucraft worth $1500 to $3000 compared to the Bmann at $800? Both are nice looking. Both have plenty of fragile details. Both pull plenty of cars unless you have over 1000 ft of rail and can run really long drags. If I had to do it all over again I would skip the Accucraft and use the LSC Brain trust to tune up the Bmann version.
That is my experience and recommendations.
