Model Railroading > Picture review of Intermountain CSX GEVO - Boxcar schem

Some folks have asked for a picture review of the latest run of HO Intermountain AC GEVO's in the CSX YN4 Boxcar scheme.

The pictures tell the story but I feel that IM did an outstanding job with the paint and detailing. Well executed and very tight. The only place I felt it got abit sloppy was the installation of the Antenna arrays on the roof of the cab. The unit runs very smoothly and the lighting is the best in the biz IMHO.

Now.............. with that stated, these engines do have these junk motors(WMD's) and they do not pull well at all.

Data from the Micromark pull meter only gave this engines a 2.1 oz result which is quite low versus the latest run of Athearn GEVO's which test out at 4.8 oz's.Over 2X better then IM. Those Genesis motors are quite strong and very smooth. They are my 2nd favorite motor next to the infamous Kato motors.

I am posting a video to demonstrate this. Enjoy the pictures.

Bruce

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Lastly the video. It tells the WMD story. I did disable momentum on the Loksound on the IM unit as I had none on the Tsunami in the Athearn so they were equals in reaction.

Bruce

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Thanks Bruce, the unit looks great ...........pull ???????

Shades of a Olde Timey RR days where they used to put steam engines nose to nose, good video Bruce Thanks !

Ed Stewart
Jacksonville, FL

Bruce if you wouldn't have explained what you were going to do i'd swear the CSX was a dummy… Steve

Thanks for the info Bruce. Do you have any idea how these newest IM's compare to the earlier run IM ES44DC's? The ones I have seem to pull okay, so I'm wondering when and why they changed motors.

Isn't tractive effort a function of weight? I'm guessing the IM Gevo is much lighter. Can the IM spin its wheels?
Paul

The weight of the 2 engines is almost identical.

Athearn - 1.2 lbs
IM- 1.1 lbs

I already tried adding weight to the IM for curiosity sake. It made no difference.

This motor has no torque. This is the issue. You can add all the weight you want and it probably will hurt the unit.

The IM's wheels will not spin on the track. They just stall(No torque in motor) so u can not clean the wheels.

Folks, please tell IM to go to the newer motor. If u do not, we will be stuck with these junk motors for a long time.

Bruce




pmack Wrote:
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> Isn't tractive effort a function of weight? I'm
> guessing the IM Gevo is much lighter. Can the IM
> spin its wheels?
> Paul



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/27/14 04:59 by brfriedm.

The Athearn unit pulls the IM unit around like its a freight car. Thanks Bruce

hartrick24 Wrote:
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> Bruce if you wouldn't have explained what you were
> going to do i'd swear the CSX was a dummy… Steve

Thanks Bruce. As a result of this, I will be canceling all 6 of my reservations for new IM power for my layout. I refuse to pay that kind of money for sub par equipment. Athearn, here I come.

I pondered picking up an NS unit, but will decline based on this. Thanks for the video, Bruce. As said, the model looks great. If only the model manufacturers behaved like the real railroads and merged. Then we could have an Athearn-mountain GEVO that ran strong, looked great, and had LED lights. Any chance to incorporate the new Athearn Genesis remotor kit into this unit?

-Sean McCaffery

I have two Intermountain CSX Gevo when I first got them I was not too impressed with them they did just like the video. So I started changing CV's take the forward & reverse trim CV 66 & 95 = 255, start-up delay CV 124 = 0 sound at power up CV32=2, CV403=32, CV13=0 movement delay CV48=216.
With these change they pull very well even spin the wheels, if you hold them. You can also tweak on the load control CV53 & CV54 = 100
I also changed CV29 for DCC only.

They do look very nice and run very good so I have warmed up to them.

Can u post a video showing this? I have worked with over 30 IM GEVO's and none will spin the wheels and none pull well. I have worked with every CV under the sun. Bruce

200chuck Wrote:
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> I have two Intermountain CSX Gevo when I first got
> them I was not too impressed with them they did
> just like the video. So I started changing CV's
> take the forward & reverse trim CV 66 & 95 = 255,
> start-up delay CV 124 = 0 sound at power up
> CV32=2, CV403=32, CV13=0 movement delay
> CV48=216.
> With these change they pull very well even spin
> the wheels, if you hold them. You can also tweak
> on the load control CV53 & CV54 = 100
> I also changed CV29 for DCC only.
>
> They do look very nice and run very good so I have
> warmed up to them.