Model Railroading > Walthers Plymouth ML-8 Switcher Review

Hi guys. I'll leave the "in-depth" reviews to the professionals, but here is my first impressions of the Walthers Mainline Plymouth ML-8 Industrial Switcher.  I usually purchase the "Proto" line as the Mainline series is a little lower quality (my opinion only - your mileage may vary) That being said I'm pretty impressed with the overall quality.  It has a Soundtraxx decoder but is a "NO SOUND" decoder. Even though I personally prefer sound in all my locos, operating this loco with no sound is actually quite nice as making small switching movements does not lend itself well with sound delays.  The REALLY BIG feature is the "keep alive" function!  This little engine never stalls going through switch turnouts or poor track work (which I have some...blush). The keep alive operates flawlessly.   It has a working directional headlight/taillight that works well but is just a tad too "blueish" looking for me.  Will probably use some tint on the lens....  Operation is flawless right out of the box.  The video shows all speed at speed step one (1).  You can actually couple and uncouple in one tie width!  You'll see a little more length in the video as I wanted to show some separation. List price is $149.95 but street price is in the $120 to $130 range.  Over all, I'm pretty impressed!  Gonna quit yakking now and go out to the layout and play with it some more!    Mark   <><  

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Looks good.  But the price still scares me.

KG

How is its pulling power?

Pulls 5-6 properly weighted boxcars around 18" radius and thru #4 turnouts with just a very slight slippage.  I use it for yard switching 1-3 cars at a time and it works great. Super slow speed coupling and no stalling or stopping.  Really fun to use.  Mark  <><