Just as info, the Santa Fe never owned any Y6b's because the N&W never sold any off to other railroads. The mallets that the Santa Fe had were Y3's, The Y3's were an earlier USRA design. While the Y6b's were a further development of the same design, their improvements over the Y3's were quite significant.

I found a 2-8-8-2 mallet for 55 bucks last year at my local train show and swapped out the motor with a 5-pole motor, added dcc/sound ,and now she runs flawlessly . Can haul up to 50 freight cars w/ease too!.

I purchased a Rivarossi H-8 2-6-6-6 16 years ago. It works well, very nicely detailed (lots extra included for the owner to apply). It isn't a naturally strong puller unless it has the traction tires, but mine are still in place and the beast pulls almost as well as my PCM Y6b. I think these are worth maybe $350 now with price adjusted up from the 2006 time-frame. MSRP might be quite a bit more, but I'm not sure they'd be worth anywhere near there.

All of the rivarossi AHM stuff has little to no pulling power due to the 3 pole motors and bad weight distribution, but the newer Redbox stuff with the smaller flanges, can motors, and increased weight actually could manage pretty decent trains. Back when I had all plastic wheels and horn hooks on my trains, my Redbox Berkshire could manage a 20 car train no problem, I wouldn’t be surprised if it could handle 30-40 of my “modernized” freight cars if I still had it

The later versions of these locos gained really beefy can motor.

something to note, there are no ho scale articulateds outside of brass that both sets dont pivot, so its less of a rivarossi flaw and more of a limitation from track radius

My Dad And I bought a used, never run AHM badged version of the Y6b in the early 1970s.We ranit quite frequently on our layout in the attic of our house, The longest straight we had was about 13feet long and then the corners were about 3feet radius, track was Peco code 100. the most cars it ever hauled was 51 Freight cars a mix of Bachmann, Roundhouse Athearn, Varney, and others. It was nearly all the cars we possessed and included some coaches. The train was always on two curves so the tail of the train was 180 degrees away from the locomotive. There were gradients of about 3%. The physics of pulling the train and keeping it on the rail rather than trying to jump the track and take a straight line across corners was a problem but eventually with no pushing though some slipping the locomotive took the 51 cars round the track for three laps without pause. I had to gradually slow down. before going down grade and accelerate as much as I dared to go uphill. The loco ran beautifully. If I ever see an American artic or a Berkshire running I rather think I will be surprised that the locomotive doesn't make the characteristic muted roar of the Rivarossi motor. I have two of the Athearn mikados and i think those are weak.

cab motored big boys with the pizza cutter wheels are terrible basically italian doorstops , the mid 90s when they put a can motor in the boiler & NMRA standard wheels they really started entering the modern era .

4:15 the big boy that pull that 110 car train was a red box era. I own a red box challenger, it is strong, but it not strong as my BWL PRR J1. But the models you brought, recommend to install a second motor, and add weights to them.

Thx for the review. I had my #4013 for probably 40 years, and it's been sitting in a display all its live with me. Since I recently started with Marklin model trains again, I ended up buying a Marklin Big Boy, and was very impressed with the detailing as well as pulling power. So I eventually added a DC oval to my layout, and tried to run the Rivarossi Big Boy. After some oiling it actually ran / wobbled over the oval pulling 6 Trix cars: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ibWDfdWE19_Joqs.htmlsi=56lr_8OwMSerXulh. Since the Marklin Big Boys are so much better, the Rivarossi went back into its display case...

I have a y6b locomotive it pulls up to 33 cars and it has a weight of over 1 pound and my moderl was made in 1977 and it's by Rivarossi

Ich hab den 4015 von Trix, tolles Video danke fürs Hochladen.

I had a dcc riverossi Big boy for a while until the motor just fell out of the engine. Replaced it with an Athearn engine, which is alot better. R.I.P UP 4008, may you rest in pieces

It reminds me of the Tyco line back in the mid-70s when I started out. Every steam engine from 0-4-0 to 2-8-2 had the same motor and gears. the only difference among them was the driver diameter and number and the weight on them. Everywhere else whenever 4 wheels were gathered in a group, you found the same motor, gears and wheelsets. 8 wheel diesels were often half dummies: one powered truck, one idler. This means the F9A was no more powerful than the Plymouth switcher which was actually no more powerful than the trolley car! I also had a 1960s Tyco F9A: two powered trucks, two motors: rigged for more serious haulage!

Your locos have Rivarossi's old hi-amp three pole motor which didn't allow for low speed operation--and along with tall gearing resulted in some truly impressive top speeds. With polyethylene (not rubber) traction tires, they were good pullers--don't know if yours has them since your wheel flanges have been turned down. They were beautifully designed, with real ball bearings, and one brush was copper wire mesh to keep the commutator clean. Very smooth and reliable, but not suitable for today's trains.

its the first model in HO of which are more as a million copies are sold. I agree on the details ; its from 1967 and still good. That is typical Rivarossi. On running? As Dutchman I deal the NS 1100 ... An incredible top speed.. Tons of noise. and needs good maintenance... Even for 1960s standards underperforming (compared with f.e. Fleischmann loks). So yeah on old 60s Rivarossi.. Details good. Running? good objects for DIY on learn or get skilled to get big maintenance (like add digital, new motors, a second motor on the big boy etc)

Got 6yb off ebay cheap and looks brand new must have been lucky. Put in a decoder ex broadway lmt pensy tender and it runs great even at slow speeds. Bought it for pusher service so dont care about pull but it looks and runs great. Out BH.

I wonder if puting weights into them might fix the power issue. You might be able to get a good articulate for relatively cheap by buying one of these, & modding it by putting weights inside and modding the rear driving truck to be static.

I have 5 vintage rivarossi big boys i cut the back of the frame off moved the motor forward added a little weight changed the traction tires to black rubber and used a cheap 3 pole skew wound motor and it pulls 45 cars up a 3% grade. Was it worth it. I thing so . Love your channel

I have a rivarossi y6b and it’s great and can pull about 20 mid weight freight cars up a shallow grade at speed. I added weight to the tender to keep it from falling off the track on tight turns pulling heavy trains and soon I’m going to add some weight to the locomotive to help with traction because for some reason mine doesn’t have any slots on the drivers for traction tires.

I've got one from the 90's, I unfortunately haven't been able to give it a proper load test but it hauled 20+ cars on my tiny home layout with ease. It does hit really high speeds as you said, so maybe if you could regear it for slower speeds it could haul heaps?

30 BUCKS!?

Hey man i preordered the heritage rivverossi big boy and its the same as the original tooling just upgrades on it so i think if you put the time and effort into servicing yours i think it would run realy well

I have had great and terrible Rivarossi's. I have learned to stay away from some early models, pretty much all of them with the the old ball bearing motors. I have two Cab Forwards with the 3-pole can motors, one has the extra gear reduction transmission. and they both run as well as some of the modern quality plastic and brass. I'll say the old 3-pole motors had lots of torque,; but they worked through some very tall gear ratios which often produced the poor slow speed and ridiculous top speeds you mention. Plus, it's difficult to find small can motors with enough torque to replace them without re-gearing the drive. The best bet for good Rivarossi performers are the 5-pole red box items, though.

I own a vintage rivarossi big boy probably from the 70's. I got it from my local model railroad club for 50 dollars. I did get it working but then I suddenly started having electrical contact issues. I am debating if I should sell mine or just leave it as a static display piece.

I saw the real life 4018 in frisco

I have a y6 that I have spent hours trying to get to perform somewhat decently with little success. Between the weird layout of the drive and the weak motor it will never come close to the performance of more modern manufacturers. Which is too bad because it looks decent overall. For now it is just a display piece that can barely move itself around the track. Eyeing a motor upgrade though...

have you ever thought getting them serviced or getting them new motors? that might help your hauling issues, also you might want to consider bullfrog snot as-well. I love these old models and know tons of ways to get them running right!

I had one of these, and the motor was just vile. I tried motorswapping, but the all-metal chassis left no room to do so. It really is a shame.

The Y class has a top speed of 50 mph and that Y went 100 mph maybe you should put something in the body to slow it down and make it more powerful

Gnargnargnargnar based

Your Big Boys must be faulty as mine tow every car that I own even up hills.