What did you order or the post deliver? (Worldwide Models)

[railsquid]

An ex-LNWR 0-8-0 from British niche manufacturer Union Mills.

 

Union Mills G2 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

[Welshbloke]

Ooh, I need one of those! Have a book with a photo from 1948 showing one hauling a goods train out of the yard here.

 

How does yours run? My sole Union Mills loco isn't as good as the reviews, it's very lumpy at scale speeds.

[railsquid]

2 hours ago, Welshbloke said:

Ooh, I need one of those! Have a book with a photo from 1948 showing one hauling a goods train out of the yard here.

 

How does yours run? My sole Union Mills loco isn't as good as the reviews, it's very lumpy at scale speeds.

 

It's satisfactory, though not brilliant at slow speeds, and does tend to jump instantly from 0 to say 15 with, OTOH it was second hand and may need a bit of maintenance.

[Welshbloke]

Mine is much the same, it won't trundle around at a scale 25mph with a 1950s goods train. As I've cleaned and lubricated everything I can I suspect the motor to be the problem.

 

Meanwhile the Minitrix 9f I acquired recently jumps into life then settles down to a reasonably scale trundle. Need more coal wagons for it as I only have four at the moment!

[railsquid]

Mine trundles acceptably slowly, it just lacks fine control at the very bottom end of the range.

[Welshbloke]

Did a bit more research on the Union Mills locos. It seems that they're now using a better motor and that the Mashima 1015 will fit older models as an upgrade. Couldn't get that but I have ordered an equivalent from a UK Ebay seller for £7.50, the reviews were promising and it's intended as a straight replacement for the discontinued Mashima unit.

 

Also found that one worm drive on my J39 is just spinning around the motor shaft, which would explain the poor haulage and lumpy running! I'll leave it alone until I have the new motor, as if that fits the mounting cradle I'll swap both worms over to it. They're brass, so I'm expecting to need a heat gun to remove the other one and fit it to the new shaft without risking bending something. I have a hot air paint stripper and long nosed pliers to hold the parts with, it'll be fine.

[serotta1972]

Got me another TRA Train - DR3100 Diesel Multiple Unit courtesy of Paul (Railtunes) and his friend who just came from Taiwan.  It has a beautiful metallic finish.

 

[cteno4]

Paul is a good friend to have! And a very nice chap to boot,

 

jeff

[Yavianice]

Mirror mirror on the wall, which is the most colorful train of all?

 

Why, I reckon it might be this beauty that I found in the mail, the japanese built TRA (Taiwan) TEMU 2000 in TaiTung colors, that I got with help of the super friendly and super helpful YiXiangCCD store, who was also very generous in installing interior light on it for free. I must say the detail on this train is very great. It also has closed couplers which I am not sure are standard. The high resolution livery looks exquisite, there are small details (such as the steps in between cars), destination signs and emergency window break points are all already applied.  Now it is just waiting for my 700T order, so I will have two trains from Taiwan to run simultaneously.

 

 

 

Edited April 23, 2018 by Yavianice

[cteno4]

Wow! Excellent! That is up there in the top 3 of the loudest painted trains! Do you mind the crass question of what it ended up setting you back? While I loath the thought at getting into more exotic trains I do so love the painted trains. Good bad our club member that moved to Taiwan a year or so ago just relocated to Australia! But I think they will keep going back and forth. I was hoping Philip would get into tiwanese trains while he was there.

 

great the shop was so helpful. Nice to see they are happy getting the trains out internationally.

 

jeff

[serotta1972]

This beats the Osaka Power Look train, even with the regular livery I find the headlight off putting but this one even more so with the heavy mascara. 😀

[serotta1972]

Yavianice, what brand is this model? Im also anticipating the arrival of the 700T.

[Gryphr]

I have to say, this is definitively one of the prettiest "painted trains" I have seen so far.

[chadbag]

Sunday USPS brought by an eBay package (I thought they only did Amazon on Sundays...).  It had a Minitrix ICE 3 3-piece set I got on eBay on a best offer deal.   It is nice, though a starter set (no lights in the cab cars).   Shown here also with Tomix E3 and KATO W7 for comparison purposes.

 

I also got a package today from @Yavianice that contained 3 Fleischmann DB IR cars and a Fleischmann NS Plan W car.

 

[Yavianice]

18 hours ago, serotta1972 said:

Yavianice, what brand is this model? Im also anticipating the arrival of the 700T.

 

This is a "Real Steel Workshop" product

 

The TEMU2000 is available in different liveries, namely:

 

- Standard TRA livery (white red)

- Year of the Monkey livery (same as standard, with monkeys)

- OH!Bear livery (Taiwan's answer to Kumamon doing various activities)

- TRA 130th anniversary

- TaiTung livery (that I have)

 

produced by either Real Steel Workshop or TOUCH! Rail.

 

Will add pictures when I get approval from the shop. 

 

20 hours ago, cteno4 said:

Do you mind the crass question of what it ended up setting you back?

 

List price is around $10500 TW or $364 US. I was first looking into purchasing the train from a vendor in Japan, but it's much more that way. Even HLP prices are higher than buying it retail from Taiwan and shipping it over.

 

I also made a quick youtube vid of the train. 

 

 

7 hours ago, chadbag said:

I also got a package today from @Yavianice that contained 3 Fleischmann DB IR cars and a Fleischmann NS Plan W car.

 

Glad it got to you intact, enjoy!

 

Edited April 24, 2018 by Yavianice

[oenckie]

I bought CAT set from @Yavianice.

Looks very special with that green color.

 

Very nice, and a cool train next to the Minitrix version in the older color.

 

 

[cteno4]

18 hours ago, Yavianice said:

 

List price is around $10500 TW or $364 US. I was first looking into purchasing the train from a vendor in Japan, but it's much more that way. Even HLP prices are higher than buying it retail from Taiwan and shipping it over.

 

ouch, i expected that though! I will try not to stray. ive made it past the 700T a few times over the years now... maybe ill be weak though at some point...

 

cheers

 

jeff

Edited April 25, 2018 by cteno4

[chadbag]

A couple eBay packages (last from Germany for a while).   A used older model (with NEM651 port) HobbyTRain BR110 engine.  This came with a wired in Trix decoder of some sort (based on manufacturer code).  I tested it with my NCE PowerCab start set and it worked fine.  I will explore the decoder more and re-program etc. before I pass judgement and decide whether to replace or not.  My understanding is that D&H makes/made the Trix decoders so if I can get it all figured out I'll probably just leave it there...    The locomotive was kind of a "mistake", meaning I put in a low bid but did not expect to win.  But I did.  (Which is fine -- you cannot have too many locomotives)

 

Also some cars from a shop in Munich - a used Fleischmann QuicPicc car in Red/Creme (with lights -- but I need to add a function decoder and some sort of lighter or something to spread the light), an older Roco low open freight car, and 4 new Minitrix container flatcars.  Mostly with open "wood product" containers except the Swiss one, which are closed containers.

 

The locomotive has a "Profi" coupler on one side, and the QuicPicc car has Profi couplers.  Almost everything else I have is Arnold Rapido so I'llprobably switch, even though the Profi look better.   I just want everything to work together and don't want the hassle right now of switching everything over to Profi or (on the Japanese side) to better looking knuckle couplers.

 

Edited April 25, 2018 by chadbag

[Claude_Dreyfus]

I had a day out at the German Railway Society's 'Global Rail' (a show I have attended in the past with Kanjiyama) today. There was a decent selection of layouts on show, however for me a highlight was on a couple of the sales stands. From these, some new additions to my H0 DR collection were to be had.

 

First up is a Roco BR50 in DR epoch 4 condition - a lovely model, which easily takes a chip. In addition, a rake of Brawa BMH carriage in orange and cream livery, were obtained. The carriages were an absolute steal at £15.00 each. 

 

Here is the entire ensemble being given a workout on a friend's layout.

[chadbag]

This came a few days ago, but I just got around to testing and photographing it.    A used Arnold "Köf" type switcher.   From a US eBay seller (GPS97) that I have done business with before.  Runs a little hesitantly but probably just needs a cleaning out of the motor and some lubrication.   There is a DCC decoder upgrade article on 1zu160.net for this.  Just have to figure out how it comes apart (as the article starts with the top off).

 

 

 

 

[Kiha66]

Turns out there are a few modelers under 25 im my area.  We spent the day visiting all the local hobby shops.  I picked up a decoder for my EF58, and then found a western Pacific caboose for only $5.  Not a bad day out. 

[chadbag]

Just now, Kiha66 said:

Turns out there are a few modelers under 25 im my area.  We spent the day visiting all the local hobby shops.  I picked up a decoder for my EF58, and then found a western Pacific caboose for only $5.  Not a bad day out. 

 

 

Young farts... 

 

What decoder did you end up with?

 

[Kiha66]

1 minute ago, chadbag said:

Young farts... 

 

What decoder did you end up with?

 

I was going to get the special decoder made by NGDCC that fits it exactly, but it turns out that the the digitrax DN163K0a actually fits very closely.  So I saved a lot of shipping and I just need to trim the length of the LED legs slightly.  I'll post pictures of the install if that might help people.  The decoder is actually close enough that It may not even need to be soldered in, so I might be able to switch between DC and DCC boards as I please.

[chadbag]

1 minute ago, Kiha66 said:

 

I was going to get the special decoder made by NGDCC that fits it exactly, but it turns out that the the digitrax DN163K0a actually fits very closely.  So I saved a lot of shipping and I just need to trim the length of the LED legs slightly.  I'll post pictures of the install if that might help people.  The decoder is actually close enough that It may not even need to be soldered in, so I might be able to switch between DC and DCC boards as I please.

 

Cool.  Yes, please document your journey in the DCC area, with lots of pics.

 

On my EF58s I am going to use the TCS version (K0D8-A) of that so I get the RailCom I am standardizing on, but a demo with the Digitrax should definitely help me anyway.  Thanks.    (I am waiting until there are flash eBay coupons to buy the TCS decoders so I can find the least expensive and get another 15% or so off).

 

[Kiha66]

Yeah, $34 for the decoder was a little pricy but it meant no shipping and also supported a local shop (the last trains only one in the area).  I'll probably get any other decoders online later to save a bit more.  Have you checked bob the train guy?  He usually has a much lower price than even eBay on sale.