# aristocraft 0-4-0 switchers



## james bond (Oct 19, 2008)

good evening all,I was in the market for an 0-4-0 switcher and saw one by aristocraft, does anyone own or have any experience with these locos.I wsa wondering how they run. thanks for the help.


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## Madman (Jan 5, 2008)

OK 007. If you can get hold of an LGB switcher, you may be a happier secret agent.


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## PeteRoy (Jan 11, 2008)

I have a couple of aristocraft 0-4-0's in my collection. They are fairly good runners, their sound unit tenders are lame, but as far as the 0-4-0 themselves I have no complaints.


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## altterrain (Jan 2, 2008)

I have one. Unfortunately, its an older model that has plated shiny drivers that get crapped up easily. That was fixed on more recent models. Other than that, I find it to be a little light and geared too fast. I rarely run mine and its slated for a future bash. 










-Brian


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## Jerry Barnes (Jan 2, 2008)

You can get one from them soon that is live steam!


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## Dan Pierce (Jan 2, 2008)

I assisted a friend in getting the 0-4-0 to run better. All we did was add power pickups to the tender and polished the engines wheels. 

Runs flawlessly now. 

I find that even the LGB 2 axle engines run much better with the trailing car/tender having additional power pickups. 

This really helps when traversing switches with track power.


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## lownote (Jan 3, 2008)

I realy lke the Aristo 0-4-0 but it's scheduled t be redone sometime this year, according to aristo, with a new more robust drive train. I've been waiting for the redesigned model to pick one up


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

The Aristo 0-4-0 can be very reliable as long as you don't overload it. 

With a new motor it can pull trees (slight exaggeration), but if you run it heavily loaded for hour after hour, it will overheat the little motor and the motor won't have much torque and tend to stall out until one day it burns out a winding. With 2 or 3 cars, it will run happily for hours. If you do cook a motor, you can change one in about 20 minutes for less than $15. A fresh motor pulled 2 sierra coaches and my tender aournd the asylum layout with 5ft curves for months, but overheated in about 8 hours with 3. I used to run the asylum layout all day almost every day. 

If you have an old one and the wheels are collecting junk, Aristo will overhaul it for like $20 and make sure it has fresh motor, the latest wheels, working smoke generator, new detail parts and so on. Some have complained of the newer wheels getting pitted, but the "pitting" can be easily rubbed off with a track cleaning eraser. 

As Dan points out, extra pickups in a tender help it drastically. This is just the nature of any little 4 wheel loco. 

Here's one of mine dolled up with some green and black paint, class lights from Ozark Mineatures and a scratch built tender. The tender has power pickups. I tore up a gear trying to pull 3 coaches (those are heavy) up a 5% helix later that day. Oops... $20 to Aristo. 










Oh, forgot to mention. Stan Cedarleaf made the 98 decal for me.


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## james bond (Oct 19, 2008)

I think Ill wait for the new 0-4-0 locos to come out. For right now Ill stick with my annies. once again Thanks for the help evryone. allterrain you layout looks great with all rock and crush stone


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## aceinspp (Jan 2, 2008)

I have one that is about a year old and had some up dates. It's a good running loco but you still can make it run better by adding the tender and then add the additional pick ups from the tenderto the loco. Later RJD


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## Bob Pero (Jan 13, 2008)

Very reliable. I too have run jumpers from the tender to the loco for extra pickup. See what George Schreyer has to say about it. 

http://www.girr.org/girr/tips/tips2/040_tips.html


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## Madstang (Jan 4, 2008)

Posted By Jerry Barnes on 11/01/2008 8:51 PM
You can get one from them soon that is live steam!


WHY?????

Bubba


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Madstang on 11/04/2008 11:45 AM
Posted By Jerry Barnes on 11/01/2008 8:51 PM
You can get one from them soon that is live steam!


WHY?????

Bubba





Because!


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

Because it's really cool. Or hot. Or... um... you know what I mean!


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