I posted this to a few other forums but thought it might be of interest here too.
Key Imports by Samhongsa, early 80s:
It arrived today. 5500 was the 27th and last Niagara built, the only one of its experimental S2 class, the first to be retired and probably the first scrapped. Arguably the best locomotive ever built for the NYC, it participated in head-to-head trials against diesels and did very well. But steam was done, and the 5500 was doomed by being an oddball so its days were as short as the stroke of its nearly nonexistent poppet valve gear.
I put a T1 decoder in it. Wiring extremely simple and clean. It had some kind of DC lighting circuit in it but it was just one in-line button shaped thing. The main thing I had to watch out for is the bottom motor terminal is perilously close to a spring screw that is grounded to the frame. That's a no-no. I bent the motor tab up a little and put black tape in between. Wired up a 1.5v bulb and resistor. There is plenty of room - the Niagara is the Fat Lady supreme. There's a large cylindrical weight in the forward half of the boiler, but enough room to easily run the headlight wire around it.
Discovered the difference between the 5500's tender and the normal S1B tender... coal bunker is slightly smaller - the humped part is about two feet forward. Would never have noticed without putting them side by side.
Comparing it to my unpainted Key S1B, the lack of differences is pretty striking. The 5500 is a Niagara through and through, almost nothing on the boiler is different. The two striking, instant spotting features are the lack of conventional valve gear - as in, just about nothing, and the Westinghouse compressors hung on the sides. The latter is made even more noticeable by the white edging on the walkways, so the notch really stands out. Gives it a strange, almost SP look - the drivers have the white edging too. Essentially it's in "builders photo" appearance. I will probably leave it alone for now but reserve the right to add a little dirt and do away with the edging later on.
The Canon motor is indeed the ubiquitous EN-22, which just sort of hangs at one speed on DCC between about 10 and 70. Not exactly, but it's weirdly unresponsive. Kind of jerks to a start and then just sort of does what it wants. It is absolutely dead silent. I mean, dead silent. All you can hear is the clickety clack of the 6 passenger cars. Well you can hear the clickety until it hits the high spots, then it sits there and slips. The 5500 is plenty heavy, but struggles to pull 6 Walthers passenger cars. A BLI Niagara can handle 10, perhaps even 12 easily.
We'll see. I am happy just to have it running and tolerating my Kato Karpet Route for now. Headlight looks good. Came with a #5 already on the back end. It may actually run ok with the BLI double headed. The Canon motor is somewhat sympathetic. Oddly I didn't turn off the BEMF on the T1, it's acting like it could use BEMF.
I suspect down the road, this guy is going to be gifted with a Kato motor, and quite a bit more weight. I see no reason why it wouldn't pull a lot better if I got more weight on the drivers. They are sprung and I suspect the lead and trailing trucks have a little lift. But the main problem is that it's nose heavy, very common in brass Niagaras. I can cram a lot of lead sheet up in there, when I take it apart to put the Kato motor in
Oh yeah, it doesn't like the Bachmann switches. Big surprise there. But that's only staging. Mains are all Kato and it handles it all just fine. Oh yeah, flat out floored I clocked it at about 60, slips down to 30 uphill, and runs out to about 80 downhill. It's just all over the place. Whatever I have left in EN-22 motors will find its way to ebay. It's too bad - they are super quiet motors but lack torque and have a very weird response curve under load. I actually think it's not the RPM spec of the motor, it's a lack of torque.
Andy
Key Imports by Samhongsa, early 80s:
It arrived today. 5500 was the 27th and last Niagara built, the only one of its experimental S2 class, the first to be retired and probably the first scrapped. Arguably the best locomotive ever built for the NYC, it participated in head-to-head trials against diesels and did very well. But steam was done, and the 5500 was doomed by being an oddball so its days were as short as the stroke of its nearly nonexistent poppet valve gear.
I put a T1 decoder in it. Wiring extremely simple and clean. It had some kind of DC lighting circuit in it but it was just one in-line button shaped thing. The main thing I had to watch out for is the bottom motor terminal is perilously close to a spring screw that is grounded to the frame. That's a no-no. I bent the motor tab up a little and put black tape in between. Wired up a 1.5v bulb and resistor. There is plenty of room - the Niagara is the Fat Lady supreme. There's a large cylindrical weight in the forward half of the boiler, but enough room to easily run the headlight wire around it.
Discovered the difference between the 5500's tender and the normal S1B tender... coal bunker is slightly smaller - the humped part is about two feet forward. Would never have noticed without putting them side by side.
Comparing it to my unpainted Key S1B, the lack of differences is pretty striking. The 5500 is a Niagara through and through, almost nothing on the boiler is different. The two striking, instant spotting features are the lack of conventional valve gear - as in, just about nothing, and the Westinghouse compressors hung on the sides. The latter is made even more noticeable by the white edging on the walkways, so the notch really stands out. Gives it a strange, almost SP look - the drivers have the white edging too. Essentially it's in "builders photo" appearance. I will probably leave it alone for now but reserve the right to add a little dirt and do away with the edging later on.
The Canon motor is indeed the ubiquitous EN-22, which just sort of hangs at one speed on DCC between about 10 and 70. Not exactly, but it's weirdly unresponsive. Kind of jerks to a start and then just sort of does what it wants. It is absolutely dead silent. I mean, dead silent. All you can hear is the clickety clack of the 6 passenger cars. Well you can hear the clickety until it hits the high spots, then it sits there and slips. The 5500 is plenty heavy, but struggles to pull 6 Walthers passenger cars. A BLI Niagara can handle 10, perhaps even 12 easily.
We'll see. I am happy just to have it running and tolerating my Kato Karpet Route for now. Headlight looks good. Came with a #5 already on the back end. It may actually run ok with the BLI double headed. The Canon motor is somewhat sympathetic. Oddly I didn't turn off the BEMF on the T1, it's acting like it could use BEMF.
I suspect down the road, this guy is going to be gifted with a Kato motor, and quite a bit more weight. I see no reason why it wouldn't pull a lot better if I got more weight on the drivers. They are sprung and I suspect the lead and trailing trucks have a little lift. But the main problem is that it's nose heavy, very common in brass Niagaras. I can cram a lot of lead sheet up in there, when I take it apart to put the Kato motor in
Oh yeah, it doesn't like the Bachmann switches. Big surprise there. But that's only staging. Mains are all Kato and it handles it all just fine. Oh yeah, flat out floored I clocked it at about 60, slips down to 30 uphill, and runs out to about 80 downhill. It's just all over the place. Whatever I have left in EN-22 motors will find its way to ebay. It's too bad - they are super quiet motors but lack torque and have a very weird response curve under load. I actually think it's not the RPM spec of the motor, it's a lack of torque.
Andy
