Got this baby at home tonight. Per Thanos request I just had to tear it open (totally your fault). Before opening I slightly shook it and just a little rustling and it sounded ok. Clean off the dining room table and place a white sheet to catch any stray parts.

Opened and initial magnified examination, looked in good shape. The screws used to fasten BB to the board were not loose, but not tight either and just a few twists to remove the BB with the convenient foam tray holding BB securely from the transport board.

Unfortunately packing to move to a new house in early January, so had to unpack train stuff and set a layout up. Set up two tables with 6 X 5 foot footprint. Set up a simple oval about 5 X 4 feet using the mobile station to power the beast.

Several quick test laps to check out the overall functions and very impressed. Sounds are great, but need to be adjusted a little lower from factory settings. I absolutely love the squealing brakes.

Decided to test the pulling capacity of the BB. Unfortunately using 24130 curves so might have some issues here. Here is what the beast has managed to pull.

Pacific Fruit Express 45680 - 3 cars
NYC Hopper car Set 45801 - 4 cars
Pacemaker Freight car set 45648 - 3 cars
Torpedo car 48291 - 1 car
Montana Union Coal and Steel Set 46140 2 sets - 8 cars
Box car set 47785 - 2 cars
Bakers Chocolate Car 4864 - 1 car
Heavy Duty Car - 48295 - 1 Monster car
UP caboose 45702 - 1 car

This gives a total of

One Locomotive
One tender
Thirty Four cars
One caboose

There were some weighty cars included in this test train. In fact the Caboose was almost in the way of the front of BB. However there was just enough room for the BB to take up the slack.

When power was applied I had to adjust some couplers that were pulling loose but that was settled. BB had to be on a straight track to start without wheel slipping. I adjusted the start delay to max and the beast easily pulled the whole shebang. No noticable power loss even when the 42895 Monster car got sideways in a curve.

The BB has met all expectations, the sounds are teriffic, the details are astounding, and the pulling power is off the chart. I cannot wait to set this up with the Central station !!

The only issue that I have with BB, is where are the telex couplers ???[:(][:(]

In short Herr Adams, you are forgiven for your problems that were delivered to my home this year !!!

I am wondering about a pulling test between BB and BR53K ??? Does anybody know how to test the pulling power of a locomotive before wheel slippage occurs ?? This might be interesting.

Mmmm! Pull tests! Now we're talking!

Thanks for that great test [:p] !!!

John

Hi Guys!
If you are having a pulling contest, try out an E94 3022, 3022, 3422 (the one I have) You may be in for a big surprise. This tank can pull!
Happy Marklining,
John

Welcome to the forum jerdenberg. We will await your future reports.

Hi Jeroen, welcome to the forum!

That's a real test!

Santi

HueyCE, Santi,

Thanks for the welcome!

Next in my planned line of intended testing are an old V200 with Uhlenbrock 72500, and -- in analog mode for the time being -- my 1969 4048 BR 01.

Frostie: does your BB slip if you set it in motion at speed step 1? Mine barely creeps forward, but does not slip, even with the longest string we can muster and no slack. If so, where could the difference come from I wonder?

No slipping - while the number of cars that I used are not as numerous as some, I have used some weighty ones. Mt testing wa slimited due to layout space requirements.

I have the 37990, how about double-heading two bib boys together. Did this happen in actual use ?

Hello,

I'm planning my layout and I do have a BB. Is the minimum curve radius I should include so she runs smoothly without derailing? I thought I saw somewhere that there was a minimum, but I can't recall what it was.

Planning on C and/or K track.

Thanks!

Norbert, as an articulated Mallet she runs without a hitch even on "standard" curve R1 (K- or C-track equally) but looks definitely mightier on bigger radii ...
BTW, when you go to our Forums "models" section and then to "loco reviews" you can read our Dave Pryor's excellent test report on BB (you'll find it under "37990"). He also found out old M-track could cause her some troubles.

John

On the very left side of your screen there are red buttons. It's the 3rd button from above - "Models & modeling"

John

I tested my start-set big boy on an all m-track carpet layout with lowest radius turns possible (Basically everything Marklin recommends you DON'T do), and it ran without any problem whatsoever. It was a temporary layout of course, and not very big, so I didn't have the option to add a billion cars =)

What's an Industrie-Kreis?

Since Martijn is using m-track, the Industrie-kreis in m-track is no. 5120, Radius 286 mm.