Model Railroading > Fox Valley Hiawatha

Greetings,

Just saw my HO Hiawatha from Fox Valley, WOW is it beautiful. I don't have my camera at work so I will have to bring it tomorrow and get some photos. Stay tuned for the photos.

Andre

Beautiful passenger set. I have one left for sale. Not sure I want to sell it, might just keep it. Any suggestions on which sound decoder would be best for a 4-4-2? Never heard the whistle. Any help here? Thanks, Bob The Train Guy

Agreed that it's a great model. From what I've read elsewhere, most people are choosing to put in a Tsunami medium steam decoder. I also believe the whistle to use is the 4449 airhorn sound.

Cody from Model Railroader has some coverage on this model train with video coverage on one of his weekly shows. It wasn't that long ago.

As promised here are a few photos.

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A few more

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And one last one, this is the tap Lounge, I did not take all of the cars out of their boxes, they all looked to have the same quality and detail. I thing I did like is that there are very clear instructions on how to open the loco, tender and cars to install lights and such. And two things that I am not to happy with, first the diaphragms leave something to be desired and second the trucks on the cars do not pick up power from the track for lighting purposes. Over all I am very pleased the loco runs very quietly as well as smoothly. There are traction tires installed on the rear driver so it should pull the complete train with out any problems.

Andre

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Went to their website to see what this set would cost, and I was surprised how affordable it was. The MSRP for the engine and six passenger cars was $599, that's not too bad in this day and age. Wonder how it runs?

Well when I ran it on our test track it ran very smooth, the tender picks up power and the second driver has traction tires on it. They include very clear instructions on how to get into both the locomotive and the tender. Has an 8 pin plug for the DCC decoder as well as a planned spot for the speaker. Now on to the two things that I did not like both the marker as well as the classification lights do not work, nor is there an easy way to make them work. Other than that little problem I love mine.

Andre

I just received my FVM Hiawatha today and posted some unboxing pics and close-ups here: http://www.rcgrabbag.com/archives/fox-valley-models-hiawatha/. I'm waiting on a QSI Revolution-U decoder from Tony's Train Exchange. I had a chat with them about the sounds and they say they just got done putting the sound file together, and can include an air horn as a secondary whistle. They don't have the specific air horn for the Hiawatha, but can include a "generic" one. Attached are a couple of pics I snapped earlier today.

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After looking mine over there are three things that I wish that Fox Valley had done different on this train. First I wish they had made the marker and classification lights working, second I wish that they would have provided electrical pick up in the cars for lighting and such, and third I think a better job on the diaphragms would have been appreciated. On the marker and class lights I still have not thought that one through, on the lighting it looks like this will be a good candidate for the Easy-Peasy lighting from Rapido, and third I am planning to replace the diaphragms with American Limited.

Andre

You would think that even if don't make working marker and class light that they paint them with clear coat to make them look like lenses or use jewels... Manufacturers take a hint.