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

[railsquid]

  

19 hours ago, Kamome said:

Wow, I never thought these things would materialise. And a lot more for a 4 car set than we enjoy with Japanese trains.

 

Fortunately it was at the "early bird" price with the massive post-Brexit referendum sterling discount, so apart from the half-decade delay, not too bad price-wise.

Edited May 19, 2022 by railsquid

[beakaboy]

On 5/18/2022 at 1:04 AM, railsquid said:

Here's something I ordered in (checks notes) August 2016, which arrived yesterday:

 

Revolution Class 321 (321 401) by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

Came with surprise interior lighting, at least I don't recall it being advertised has having such when I ordered it (mind you the model has undergone multiple revisions and a change of manufacturer since then). Interestingly very similar in construction principle to Japanese multiple units, including chassis-mounted central motor driving both bogies, and pinpoint pickups on all wheels (from underneath it looks amost like a MicroAce unit). Different is the provision of DCC and power couplings, but give pretty good close coupling.

One of the bogies was somewhat tight with no vertical play, which meant it derailed very easily; easy enough to fix as they are screwed in.

 

Not a big fan of the couplings, which are clunky and fiddly to fit together, but not very solid, already had one pop out of the chassis accidentally. A pair of tweezers is supplied to push the couplings together, but that means turning the cars upside down, and is a PITA to do with a 4-car set. They also restrict the movement of the attached bogies, so susceptible to derailments on less-than-perfect curves (though that can be improved with better track laying...).

 

Overall very nice looking model, but I suspect it is only going to come out on special occasions.

lovely looking units. Very smart livery. 

[ED75-775]

Having been trying not to buy much lately (student loan and saving up for all my upcoming model train purchases plus a Japan holiday next year), I couldn't resist an offer from a fleaBay seller in France offering some more Märklin stock that I had been tempted by, and which had the temerity to arrive almost a whole month early:

 

 

The 46034 wagon set from 1998 and the 28456 Berlin Suburban set from 2003; both fit with my plans as the '34 set will expand my Era 3 coal train to ten wagons while the Berlin set ticks several boxes - cute provincial loco (one of the other guys in our local club got me hooked on Prussian loks), and I've personally been to Berlin in 2013.  The seller said he would pack everything well and he more than did so! Apart from the boxes being wrapped in foam and tied shut, the actual box inners were also glad-wrapped to keep things from moving.

 

 

Not quite Rail Gallery Rokko level, but the seller also put strips of cardboard down under the loco wheels and the outer wheelsets on the coaches to stop any movement in transit. The center wheelsets need no such protection, they're spring-loaded so would push on the polystyrene insert without needing packing. They also sit in a sliding sub-frame within the chassis, perfect for negotiating curves in your layout without fear of falling off. I once had a Roco DB version (yes, I once ran non-Märklin stuff on a Märklin layout, the heresy!) that had been converted into a four-wheeler for that very reason. Not that you knew, the footboards do a good job of hiding the missing wheels until you get up close and personal.

 

 

No such level of extra packing on the '34 set, not sure if the plastic pouches were factory-original protection or added later. I'll post some pictures in the What did you run today (Worldwide models) thread once I have get everything running (read: stops procrastinating and just runs some trains). The T13 spent a bit of time on the rails for photography with its coaches, I then took the locomotive off thinking I would have to set the decoder address. Turns out the decoder is a special multi-protocol version of the basic Delta decoder with a pre-set address so the shell didn't need to come off.

 

Alastair

[railsquid]

What do you get if you mix bits of an ED75 and an EF66 together, and sell the result to China? One of these, apparently:

 

Charming 6K class (6K-065) by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

Popped up on Yahoo Auctions and tripped my Rule 1 circuit breaker.

Edited May 24, 2022 by railsquid

[disturbman]

They are nice models. Just be careful with the pantographs, they are very sensitive.

 

Now you need some gondolas to go behind it.

[ED75-775]

On 5/25/2022 at 3:50 AM, disturbman said:

They are nice models. Just be careful with the pantographs, they are very sensitive.

 

Now you need some gondolas to go behind it.

Mmph, beauty in the eye of the beholder, I guess. Personally I like my ED75 un-mixed, thank you very much.

 

Since the heritage rail conference I am on happens to be in the same city as my favourite (read: only New Zealand stockist of Märklin) train store, I decided to pay Geoff a visit and pay for a coach set I'd had on order from the year before. Of course, I couldn't help myself when there was other stuff to be had... long story short, now my wallet hates me. Oh well, it's a one off thing, I won't be getting back down here in a hurry, may as well make the most of it!

 

 

The 41327 coach set was the one on preorder, by the way, the rest was spontaneously purchased. The seemingly empty box houses a bogie container car, my secret weakness, while the blank box at top left contains a set of current-conducting couplings so I can finish converting the third of my Austrian Eurofima coaches. The other two got done years ago, but a damaged part meant the third never got done at that time. It will now!

 

Alastair

[railsquid]

Part of a batch of what was presumably someone's collection of East German N gauge arrived from the UK, sadly the collection was without original boxes but correspondingly cheap.

 

Mintrix DR BR 250 (250 094-0) by Rail Squid, on Flickr

[railsquid]

From a different source to the above, further evidence of my ongoing project to acquire all the N-scale Berlin S-Bahn units in Japan:

 

Arnold Berliner S-Bahn by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

I've been stalking this one for several years, the seller had it listed for a long time at a rather steep price for an unpowered set, but relisted it recently at something more palatable.

[railsquid]

Drum beats from the Taiga (though actually made in what is now a complicated bit of Ukraine) in its short time with the DB AG ...

 

Minitrix BR 220 (220 234-9) by Rail Squid, on Flickr

[gavino200]

I just got this little cutie. I love these color-split cars. Despite the ludicrous prices I just can't stop collecting German trains.

 

[Welshbloke]

The new Arosa Express coach arrived:

 

 

[Giugiaro]

I found this beauty out in the wild at OLX for a very reasonable price.
Incredibly rare! It's one out of just three motorized Portuguese locomotives made for N scale.
Considering how weak the Portuguese demand for N scale was, compared to HO, these locomotives are very hard to find, especially once the manufacturer ends the campaign.

 

Now starts the real challenge: Finding the Arnold 2432 (CP 5601) and Arnold Set 0335 (3751 CP Corail 1st Class + 3752 CP Corail 2º Class + 3753 CP Corail 1st Class w/ Bar)

[ED75-775]

Stuck at home today since tram driving duty got washed out by the rain, but another H0 scale fleaBay delivery has arrived to cheer me up:

 

 

Another coal wagon from the Märklin 00750 ‘Unit Train’ wagon display from 2005. This brings my coal wagon total from this set up to three (out of six) and my total coal train to eleven wagons.

 

My coal train is now getting rather large and will (very) soon be too large for my little tail-chaser layout. If it keeps expanding like this, I shall have to put on my best Fat Controller voice and give it a stern talking to. That’ll teach it!

 

Oh, and I’m getting another delivery of Märklin stuff tomorrow. I’m looking forward to it!

[Sheffie]

An unexpected arrival: Dapol class 08 diesel shunter. It’s so cute!!

 

 

[ED75-775]

Arriving just today, this little Märklin haul feels like my birthday and Christmas all rolled into one!

 

 

From left, we have:

- 48674 turnout crane set (first offered in 1997/98)

- a box of ten 24172 straight tracks

- 48162 Degussa acid transport car (Insider Club car for 2012)

- 70392 Home signal with lattice mast

- Re 4/4 II electric locomotive from the 29859 starter set (2002)

- and the biggest prize of all, the 37965 BR96 Mallet tank loco (2006). This was the first of five models created to honour German rail photographer Carl Bellingrodt, and comes with a case featuring one of his photos of the locomotive itself.

 

I’ll cut a long story short by saying that these passed to me from my uncle via another model railway club when he sold off his model railway collection. My uncle takes well after his father (my grandfather) and decided earlier this year that while he enjoys building things, there’s only so many times you can dismantle a layout and rebuild it in a new and exciting way. He’s now got a number of LEGO models on the go, or at least he did when last I spoke to him...

 

These would have arrived sooner, but the chap doing the packing got COVID and ended up out of action for a week. I’m glad to know from the fact these models arrived, that he is now doing better.

[ED75-775]

Back to the train room we go with the latest new arrival on the Guglingen-Blümenfeld Bahn: the Märklin 34373 BR101 “10 Jahre Starlight Express”. This one had been sitting on YAJ for some months but the price wasn’t yet right until it finally got to $73.75NZD last month. Having travelled behind a 101 from the German-Czech border to Berlin in 2013, and having a love for the music of Starlight Express, I decided the time was now!

 

 

It needed a little lubrication and a pantograph base fixed but with that done and the address set it’s had a little running in time and proven itself to be an excellent addition to the GBB motive power roster.

 

Next mission is to replace the missing horns at one end and the glued-up pantograph base in time, plus get a new box insert for it as a priority. Inserts from the 1990s seem to be worse than other time periods for turning yellow and becoming brittle, or so I have found. This one came with a particularly bad example which I believe was responsible for taking the horns off.

 

Alastair

[Welshbloke]

Dapol 08s come in other sizes too...

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/Ce6950Ira0q/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

 

One of my three in O shuffling a Dapol brake van and a couple of Parkside kit parcel vans around the club O layout.

[ED75-775]

Got a couple of parcels today, here’s the contents of the largest one courtesy Hobbysearch:

 

 

I am very pleased with these! If any Kato spies are watching...

 

 

can we please have more RhB freight wagons and appropriate locomotives to pull them?

 

Alastair

[Giugiaro]

I'm still waiting mine to get out of customs.

 

Another parcel of mine got the OK from customs 8 days ago for the postal service to resume shipping.

Why is it still in customs? 😰

Edited August 5, 2022 by Giugiaro

[Welshbloke]

Mine got held for ransom too, after Hobbysearch decided to combine two orders without asking. The extra postage would have been cheaper...

 

Anyway, it's all here and I videoed a sort-of review:

 

 

Considering buying one of the Pirata WR-S 1223s. This was intended as extra seating to be coupled to a restaurant car with a kitchen, the main snags are that I've not seen any evidence of it running with WR3813 (as Kato offered a while ago) or the WR Pirata offered a few years ago converted from an EWI with a tiny kitchen added.

[Nozomi329]

On 8/5/2022 at 7:44 AM, ED75-775 said:

appropriate locomotives to pull them?

Does RhB have freight dedicated locomotives?

[ED75-775]

3 hours ago, Nozomi329 said:

Does RhB have freight dedicated locomotives?

Yes they do! Apart from the earlier Ge6/6 ‘Crocodiles’, the RhB has the Ge6/6 II six-axle electric locomotives. They were the mainstay of heavy freight traffic when they were built. The type is now being withdrawn and two have been scrapped, but one has been set aside for preservation (which was not the original candidate, that one was in poorer condition).

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhaetian_Railway_Ge_6/6_II

[Welshbloke]

They did, but I get the impression they just use the Ge 4/4 family or Allegras now. The Bernina line uses the railcars for everything as it's a different voltage to the main network, although the original Berninabahn company had locos as well (all of which have been preserved, either on the Bernina or at the Blonay Chamby museum line).

 

A Croc would be a good move. Goods traffic...and the option to tool up the Alpine Classic pullman cars and luggage van to go with them. Which could be released in at least three liveries to make the most of the tools.

[ED75-775]

On 8/7/2022 at 7:40 PM, Welshbloke said:

They did, but I get the impression they just use the Ge 4/4 family or Allegras now. The Bernina line uses the railcars for everything as it's a different voltage to the main network, although the original Berninabahn company had locos as well (all of which have been preserved, either on the Bernina or at the Blonay Chamby museum line).

 

A Croc would be a good move. Goods traffic...and the option to tool up the Alpine Classic pullman cars and luggage van to go with them. Which could be released in at least three liveries to make the most of the tools.

TBH the Ge6/6 I or Rhaetian Crocodile would be an interesting choice, though so would the G 3/4 2-6-0T tank locomotives or G 4/5 2-8-0 freight engines if you wanted to get into the RhB ‘Nostalgie’ fleet.

 

Meanwhile I’ve now consolidated my RhB container cars together to maximise on space, I just need some different road numbers for the Lb-v and Sb-t wagons so I can put wagons to spare containers.

 

 

Alastair

[Welshbloke]

I am surprised that nobody is offering replacement number panels for the Kato range. Just a simple waterslide transfer covering the data plates would do, obviously picking vehicles with the same markings elsewhere (as not all coaches have the Rhätische Bahn lettering in the same combination of languages, and that'd be harder to change invisibly).

 

I took delivery of another pair of container wagons yesterday, so the box is full and every container has a wagon. Given how tiny the numbers are the duplication doesn't really bother me, I have two of the open observation cars and the baggage vans to avoid stock shortages when multiple trains are on the table.