Has anyone here seen one of the newest editions yet?
More to the point, has anyone seen the works and taken a few measurements while you’re at it?
Is there any improvement in the wheel contour - had overthick flanges - and check gauge - was too narrow ? And what about those axles and the plastic sleeve and gear inside the gearbox? - would crack, go wobbly, fall apart.
Still hopeless?
Or have we at last got something solid there? Maybe even something worth buying because built to last, built within tolerances (there’s a switch). In the end, what I’m looking for (Aren’t we all?) is really good bashing raw material. Something worth spending time on.
Or maybe you could direct me to a review - an honest one, with no axe to grind. I haven’t seen anything so far but a few puff pieces. Anybody? Thank you.
Hope beats eternal in the human breast…
On the other site there is a lot of talk about it. Try this link. The review starts on page 4
http://www.mylargescale.com/Community/Forums/tabid/56/aff/17/aft/129093/afv/topic/afpgj/10/Default.aspx#309990
Actually, there have been a few comments around here too…not too impressive, but until you have one in your hands; you will never really know the truth…
Several guys have them around here, but they are the originals…they seem to keep running well, but have been heavily bashed to look like a working loco, and radio controlled with batteries…in the tender.
My recent acquisition 0-4-0 switcher is older so I will can’t really help. I would really like to know if anyone else with the latest version 0-4-0 is still suffering from the axle slip problems.
Greg please do say more. If you don’t want to say publicly PM/email me. Also I may want to bounce some repair ideas off you.
I have been sworn to secrecy until Aristo has had time to reply.
A number of us have ALWAYS given Aristo the time to reply and fix stuff before we let others know…
Most people do not realize how many “chances” Aristo has been given to “come clean”.
Greg
…and if you believe Aristo will ever “come clean” about anything, I want some of that stuff you think others have been smoking, as well, please. 
Oh, I’ve had quite a few of them in my hands all right Fred - at least the earlier iterations. I haven’t had a chance to confirm first hand some of the stuff I’ve read here and there about how much better the new one is. And frankly, now after following the thread on the other forum, thanks to Shawn’s lead above, I’m not going to rush out and get one.
The first problem was the sintered wheels on the first edition. Thankfully that was corrected at some later point. But way too late for the poor suckers who suffered through the sintered wheelsets. After that, as I see it, there remained two major problems with this engine: first, the fat flanges, another early error, which, absurdly, survived the changeover to the second-edition wheels. This error resulted in the narrow check gauge. I needn’t tell readers here what calamaties that lead to wherever guardrails were encountered.
Finally, and in my book, worst, and absolutely the stupidest of all, were the two-part axles with the knurled ends forced into a plastic sleeve & gear casting. This would split, the axles start to wobble, and the wheels fall off. If you were lucky at this point the siderods wouldn’t stab into something and snap, or worse, jam up the entire mechanism and fry a motor coil for you. There must be an awful lot of these turkeys around, and I wouldn’t buy a used one that’s for sure. They seemed perfectly good until you put them on the track and applied power. Then their days were over.
If Fr Fred has seen a few reliable ones around his place, I suspect that their mechanisms have been extensively reworked to overcome these weaknesses.
I have myself fixed several of these puppies. At first it felt like more trouble than they were worth. After all if these obvious things need fixing, what unseen weaknesses and shortcuts might lurk beneath, I wondered. Anyway, nowadays I have the fixes down to an art. I wouldn’t bother with a sintered-wheel version, however. unless you were going battery power. For track power, stick to the shiny-wheel versions.
In my effort to make a silk purse out of this sow’s ear, my first job is to turn down the flanges so I can get a check gauge within tolerances - that is to say a wheelset wide enough to negotiate switches without tripping over the guardrails.
My second job is to reinforce the plastic gear/tube center casting that holds the two wheel/axle assemblies together. I reinforce the tube by encasing it in a couple of lengths of brass tubing held in place with JB weld epoxy. Then I insert a little disk of styrene into the bottom of the plastic holes before pushing the axles back in there, to hold them out enough to get the correct (wider) check gauge.
The whole mess is held in place with more gooey JB weld, and the wheels are now pushed in by hand to the right depth, then quartered and made parallel with a couple of homemade jigs.
But seriously, folks, is this any way to run a railroad?
Anyway, from what I’ve read so far, I think I’ll stay away from the newest edition. Thanks everybody for your input here.
And Greg, I laughed at your CRAM lunch day note on the Revo thread. You sure the last letter shouldn’t be a “P”?
John,
be careful, any more userful tips and you may be accused of product bashing. Seriously, this is how many have fixed those USA Trains troublesome axles and yet suprisingly no one ever accused any one of product bashing when the topic was a USA Trains fix. Now switch the same fix to a Bachmann or Aristo product and suddenly the ‘brown shirts’ are out in force protecting the master.
Well, Tim, of course we’d all like to have better relations with this company. And I imagine it’d be a very nice thing for Bob to get a little advertising revenue from them as well. I’d like that for Bob too. But the sad fact is that we’d probably just laugh. This is not a situation of our making, let’s all remember. We’re just the consumers, not the producers, so who started this. A lot of us are feeling ripped off.
I’d love it if I could buy trustworthy products from AristoCraft with full confidence. I’d love it if they could advertise here for example without our laughing our asses off. I’d love it if I could actually believe the spin. So tell me when is that ever going to happen?
Tim Brien said:
John,
be careful, any more userful tips and you may be accused of product bashing. Seriously, this is how many have fixed those USA Trains troublesome axles and yet suprisingly no one ever accused any one of product bashing when the topic was a USA Trains fix. Now switch the same fix to a Bachmann or Aristo product and suddenly the ‘brown shirts’ are out in force protecting the master.
Tim there is a fundamental difference between posts relating to USA Trains complaints and fixes and Aristo ones. No one launches into an abusive tirade against Mr. Ro, his company and staff whereas that often occurs with Lewis Polk and his company.
As a European, whose life was shattered by Hitler and his brownshirts and other henchmen I have to say I find your comment to those of us who support and are happy with our Aristo products to be most insulting and highly unwelcome.
It is blatantly obvious that a few of you have historic grievances with the company but it is not beyond reasonable expectations that many of the posts be less offensive.
Reading all this I’m having second thoughts about replacing the motor, I’m beginning to think I would be better served by epoxying the wheels but leaving the wheels motor free and adding power trucks to the tender and just push the dam thing along.
Alan Lott said:
SNIP
Tim there is a fundamental difference between posts relating to USA Trains complaints and fixes and Aristo ones. No one launches into an abusive tirade against Mr. Ro, his company and staff whereas that often occurs with Lewis Polk and his company.
Alan,
That is quite possibly because the cracked gear problem is basically the only problem USAT have ever had.
When it was discovered and pointed out to Mr Ro he immediately acknowledged the problem and fixed it for later production runs. Plus spare gear/wheel sets were made available.
All without the spin and hyperbole AC users continually get.
Would anyone care to make a list of the faults USAT have had compared to the faults AC have had over the years?
Well they may have fixed the gear but not the spliced axle which still tends to be a problem. Have they every tried to redesigning and make it more better? Nope so it’s no better than AC. Maybe they all should do as car makers and have recalls. Later RJD
Tony Walsham said:
Alan Lott said:
SNIP
Tim there is a fundamental difference between posts relating to USA Trains complaints and fixes and Aristo ones. No one launches into an abusive tirade against Mr. Ro, his company and staff whereas that often occurs with Lewis Polk and his company.
Alan,
That is quite possibly because the cracked gear problem is basically the only problem USAT have ever had.
When it was discovered and pointed out to Mr Ro he immediately acknowledged the problem and fixed it for later production runs. Plus spare gear/wheel sets were made available.
All without the spin and hyperbole AC users continually get.
Would anyone care to make a list of the faults USAT have had compared to the faults AC have had over the years?
I really don’t think there is enough web space to list all the defects and Quality issues from
Aristo rite down to the new 040’s wheel falling off and the great new D cut wheels were told they had.
I just keep it short and let people know the facts buy Ro watch them go, Buy Pulk sit and sulk.
I have to agree with Nick.
R.J. DeBerg said:
Well they may have fixed the gear but not the spliced axle which still tends to be a problem. Have they every tried to redesigning and make it more better? Nope so it’s no better than AC. Maybe they all should do as car makers and have recalls. Later RJD
Odd. How is that a problem? Sure makes it easy to A) correct gauge, and B) to install NWSL wheels.
Exact same system used in early Aristo, down to the exact same gear.
So…are you bashing Arsito or USA?
Or Sanda Kan/Kader engineers?
The whole world awaits your answer.
TOC
Mr DeBerg.
How can you make something more better?
It is either better or it isn’t!!
Tony Walsham said:
Mr DeBerg.
How can you make something more better?
It is either better or it isn’t!!
The same way you can make a “more perfect union.” Just ask Ben Franklin and Tom Jefferson.
If its good enough for them, its good enough for me.
The quantity of faults made by a given manufacturer really is really no excuse for the abuse that arises in posts by a certain few. The abusive and quite rude comments ere what my post referred to, not the quantity or veracity of problems.
Tony you were the first to comment and highlight my post altering its intention. Personally I think that as you are, even if only a small way, a competitor with Polk Hobbies/Crest your comments are not very professional. None of the other people, who are in a similar line of business and who post here and elsewhere, make such comments about a competitor in such a very public place. They may have their thoughts but they keep them within the confines of their business operations.
I have seen this rudeness towards Aristo ( and another person and Bachmann) on this and another Forum for some years. There are many like me; and not all are Aristo product owners, who feel that it is time to review the wording of posts.