ACME E-lok Baureihe 120 141-7 DB - Epoche VI

Hot on the heels of  the latest Brawa Voith Gravita 10BB which arrived last week from The Hobby Store in Faversham www.hobb-e-mail.com/‎,  their latest HO arrival in the form of the long awaited DB E-lok Baureihe 120 141-7 in the current DB Traffic Red livery, pre-fitted with Loksound decoder was picked up from the shop today, and I've taken some photos to give a flavour of what to expect from this premium release...

The packaging is superb, very similar to the excellent boxes that ESU ship their premium locos in, complete with a solid plastic base to which the loco is bolted, an allen-key is provided for release. This is a further improvement in loco packaging and would be suitable for transporting in future, given the very fine detail these models are now coming with as standard.

First impression are, it was worth the wait, ACME have really captured the beautiful simplicity of the BR 120 well, all angles look spot on, with the all important 'face' particularly pleasing. The decoder is the standard ESU Loksound we've come to know as fitted to both ESU and Roco offerings of late complete with the usual array of sounds including platform announcements, door closing and the various compressors and brake sounds of the loco itself. Performance is superb, as should be expected from a loco in this price bracket, with the third headlight and cablights independently switchable. The pantograph is an excellent representation of the prototype, and is not cursed with an over-firm spring so rides the catenary well without exerting undue forces. All in all I cannot fault this, and it scores a perfect 10.

BRAWA - Voith Gravita 10 BB, DB BR 261 Review

The latest Brawa Voith Gravita 10BB arrived from The Hobby Store in Faversham

www.hobb-e-mail.com/‎ late last week, and I managed to spend a few hours at the weekend getting to know it better... 

I managed to get hold of the DB Traffic red livery as 261 061-6, which sold out almost instantly on all the German model railway shop websites. Which goes to show sometimes there are advantages modelling a minority interest subject area in the UK, as even though both DB livery models are sold out at Brawa and in Europe, a small specialist shop in Kent had two...

First thoughts on removing from the well packed box (similar to the latest Bachmann boxes and far better than Roco's impossible to access polystyrene efforts), is that this is a beautifully detailed model, albeit I imagine rather fragile due to the plethora of tiny parts. To confirm my suspicion, there were two of the cab roof mounted radio masts missing. On a close inspection of the area where I unpacked to loco, one was located in the box, whilst for the other I've fabricated a replacement using various thicknesses of plasticard which is undetectable. One of the bonnet catches was also missing, and again I fabricated a replacement. The walkway handrails and side walkway guards are glued into the metal chassis with very short pegs, and one was partly lose, this was  refitted using a tiny amount of CA on a scalpel blade.

Now, onto the difficult part, actually getting in to the b*gger.

Now, I have previous with Brawa models, as I have a number of both their N and HO models and some are easier to access to fit decoders than others. Most notably I destroyed a BR 203 trying to fit a decoder on N...

The N-gauge Brawa Gravita was actually a doddle, being that the metal chassis was screwed to the bodyshell, but not the HO, no, that would be too obvious. Instead a series of fiddly clips which you cannot see, and are scared to force allow both bonnets to be slid off. Now this must also be done whilst avoiding shearing off the bonnet handrails and walkways, cab roof details or buffer beam parts. easier said than done.

Once slid forwards the bonnets pull upwards and off. Once this has been achieved, it does seem to be a little easier now they've both been on and off a few times. The decoder is a 21 pin drop in which is easy once you've actually got to it.

As I only had an el-cheapo Bachmann decoder to hand, this was used to test the loco, and before tweaking the CVs it is a little jerky at start up, but I'm going to fit my preferred decoder, ESU lok-pilot later. 

Fitted Lighting

My good god it's bright. Five LEDs heads at each end four on the buffer beam handrails and one on the cab nose they are like mini floodlights. The tails are similarly bright. Unfortunately in taking the bonnets on and off I managed to dislodge  one of the bonnet lights but on closer inspection it had simply been misaligned with the bonnet lens. The Gravita is also fitted with an independent cab light (Fn 2) and detailed cab interior which is nice.

All in all, this is a new model that looks great, runs well and is very detailed (which is a bit of a double edged sword). My personal advice would be to suggest only buying this model in the flesh to ensure the tiny weeny easily knock-off-able bits are all present and correct. In summary  9/10, (loses a mark for being a pain to get into...)

Bahnland Bayern - December Update

Some more progress to update on the Bavarian HO layout; the overhead catenary (by Viessmann) has been installed over the rive bridge and towards the eastern end on the first large scenic board. The campsite at the 'country' end of the layout is largely complete, just some hedging to fit between the caravan pitches. I've now begun the main Bavarian riverside tavern, on the eastern bank of the river. I'm also planning a small loco fuelling point to the rear of where the two electric locos are stabled to the rear of the second photo.

Bahnland Bayern in HO

Some more progress shots, apologies for the poor lighting, these were just taken with my iPhone once modelling had finished for the day to record the days activities. The basic elements for the Bavarian scene are all pretty much there; the Schloss, complete with beer garden, the Black forest imbiss & bier chalet, and the mountains.

I've also begun to install the overhead catenary, this time I'm going for Veissmann, rather than Sommerfeldt as the masts are more accurate for the region and era I'm modelling. Many more to be fitted before I'm done.

Compare the second photo with one taken from roughly the same angle just over a year ago and the progress is quite dramatic.

120 127-6 stabled at the west end on Munich Hbf 7th October 2013

120 127-6 stabled at the west end of Munich Hbf 7th October 2013, a photo by Widnes Road on Flickr.

Some night shots from my recent visit to Munich uploaded to my Widnes Road Flickr page. Just click on the photo.

Making tracks...

A concerted push this autumn has resulted in some great progress on my German HO scale layout. All the trackwork is laid, point motors fitted and decoders added and it has all been tested. With this major hurdle cleared the basic structure of the scenery can be formed. Apologies for the slightly rough and ready nature of the landscape, these photos basically show an equivalent to a first draft or sketch, so that changes can be made. Buildings and structures are just roughly placed before being properly bedded in once a satisfactory position is achieved.

These photos show the far left end, roughly a quarter of the scenic element of the layout, where the mainline enters from an alpine valley before crossing a river valley. The first tress have been placed to gain an idea of scale and perspective, many hundreds more to be added.

DEMU Showcase - Last show for Widnes Road (for now)

Next weekend is the Diesel and Electric Modelers United show at Burton Town Hall; and is the last chance to see my OO-gauge BR Blue layout for some time, as it’s is going into semi-retirement whilst I concentrate on my continental HO and N-gauge modelling. I think such a great showcase of British D&E modelling is a good place to give it an airing. I may take it out again, but I will limit it to one or maybe two shows a year going forward, the need to be constantly updating and maintaining Widnes Road has kept me busy for the last eight years, but I really fancy a change. I may start an HO exhibition layout soon, but first I need to get my home layout largely finished first. The details for this exhibition are as below:

DEMU Showcase 2013

DEMU Showcase is the premier UK exhibition dedicated to diesel and electric modelling.

Opening Times

Saturday 6 July 2013 10.00 - 17.00

Sunday 7 July 2013 10.00 - 16.00

(Advance ticket holders gain access 15 minutes before the advertised opening times ie at 0945.)

Admission charges

Single day tickets - valid for either day:

Adults £7

DEMU members and U16s £5

Families (2 adults and unlimited children) £20

Weekend tickets - valid for both days:

Adults £12

DEMU members £8

Purchase advance tickets (booking fees apply unfortunately!). Advance ticket sales will close on Wednesday 3 July 2013.

Free show guides will be available for everyone.

Venue

Burton Town Hall, King Edward Place, Burton upon Trent, DE14 2EB. Map

The Town Hall is situated very close to the railway station in Burton upon Trent. There is a public car park at the Town Hall, please be aware that East Staffs Borough Council have recently made this a pay and display car park.

Brief European layout update

A lot of work has taken place on my main European layout in the last few months, but much has not been particularly worthy of photography, such as wiring and fitting point motors and point decoders. The main work has been in what will become the station, with the through lines and two bays now laid, and the pointwork for the station throat largely complete.Further time was spent reworking the baseboards, hopefully for the last time, particularly in the station approach area, allowing more space for the 'frontscene' (as opposed to a backscene) as I am  keen to see the trains running through a town-scape on the approach to the station, rather than all the railway infrastructure in the foreground. I've also widened the station itself to allow a few carriage sidings to be laid in front of the column that will by necessity have to act as a scenic break roughly two-thirds of the way along the station. As a consequence of this compromise which results from the structural challenges of building a large layout in a cellar, I will only be modelling part of the station, the through platforms will allow a loco and up to 5-6 coaches to appear from off scene, into the station, while the rest is still in the fiddle yard. The front bay platform end in a blind tunnel to allow five coaches and a loco to be accommodated.

All pointwork on the visible part of the layout is the latest Tillig Elite code 83, which in my opinion is the finest ready to run track available, and once ballasted and weathered is close to handlaid in both look and performance. It also has the advantage of being quite flexible so can be laid with some curves to avoid the jointed look that ready-made points can suffer from.

The main lines are laid with Roco Code 83 concrete sleepered flexi-track, which has a finer sleeper profile than most other proprietary HO track, whilst the sidings are to be Tillig elite, which matches the turnouts.

The point motors are generally DCC Concepts Cobalt, which seem to be better put together these days. I had quite a lot of issues with some of the early batches I used on Widnes Road, and they were replaced by the more robust but far chunkier Tortoise motors for exhibition use, after two cobalts failed at an exhibition.

The motors are wired from the outset for full DCC operation, this being accomplished with NCE 'Switch-8's' which are a very cost-effective solution to turnout conversion.   

I've also made the most of the fine weather to start on detailing and renumbering stock, the first completed is a pair of 111's in Bavarian advertising livery. These are the recent Roco models, with full buffer beam detailing fitted and painted, and they are now awaiting some light weathering.

European Specialist Material - Part 1

Hi there, long time no blog. What with rebuilding the superstructure of the BR layout Widnes Road with the gratefully received assistance of Andy (peg-leg) and Wayne, and the a third and final re-think of the baseboards of the 'great European project' I've not found much time to get out into the real world and do much photography, nor has the progress on my three layouts been interesting enough to photograph being mainly confined to extensive gnawing of large piles of wood into lots of sawdust and smaller pieces of wood.

Having now finished the new legs and baseboard connections and tried the new arrangement out at the recent Watford show, I have been able to do other things. The first of these was a long weekend, Friday to Monday night in the Bremen and Hamburg area with some reprobates from the UK, including Peter, Tom and Colin, and joining up out there with Andy (Ginge).

Monsoon at Bremen Hbf 17th May 2013

Despite the best efforts of a monsoon on arrival to dampen the enthusiasm, a great three and a half days was had, and many updates are to follow as I work my way through the 1,350 photos that were fired off.

There was also time for a quick visit to Roland-modellbahnstudio (which was rather longer than anticipated due to the shop having moved about two miles nearer town). Note to self, check address before heading off into rain to find railway shop, don't rely on Tom having been there five years ago...sorry Tom ;) So there are some new Hobbytrain Doppelstockwagens and a digital Roco 101 to give test run to when I get home.

DBAG BR 218 339-0 on a top-and-tailed DB Regio service at Hamburg Hbf

A few sneak previews of some of what was seen and bashed follows, much more to follow on here and on my Flickr page.

SBB Cargo 421 389-8 @ Bremen Hbf 18/5/13

RBH 102 (143 069-3) & RBH 102 143 150-4 @ Bremen Hbf 18/5/13

Wiener Lokalbahnen Cargo Siemens Taurus 1216 953 @ Bremen Hbf 18/5/13

Metronom ME 146-08 @ Bremen Hbf on a Hamburg Hbf turn 18th May 2013

Dispolok Siemens ER 20-001 at Niebull Bf 19/5/13 on a NOB service to Hamburg Altona from Westerland

A quartet of new Voith Gravita 10 BB Diesels at Itzehoe Stabling point inc. 261 099-6, 261 037-6 and 261 077-2

DB Rabbits with 218 366-3 leading passing NOB Siemens Mak DE 2700-10 at Niebull Bhf

Cracking Panorama of Widnes Road at St Albans show

Chris Nevard (who is responsible for all the superb Model Rail shoots) sent me an excellent panorama he took of the main hall at the St Albans exhibition yesterday, with Widnes Road front left. That's me and Andy Watts manning the fort, the rest of the team (Jake and Tim) had obviously wandered off somewhere...

It was pretty busy both days so I didn't manage to take many pictures myself, but here's a shot of Derby RTC's pet loco 97201 on shed, and an aerial shot of Andy and Tim chatting to the punters (I mean busy entertaining visitors).

Tim Mercer (j69buckjumper on Youtube) has uploaded some video clips of Widnes Road taken at the recent Croydon Model Rail Society exhibition:





Thanks for the heads up...

European Layout - Update

I had originally planned to spend this weekend adding DCC turnout decoders to Widnes Road, which would have meant dragging it all upstairs from the dungeon and setting up in the dining room in order to wire the boards up to test the installation.  

I tested the first decoder before committing to rewiring the whole layout, and lo and behold, a DCC 'funny' occurred. It worked OK on my old ZTC system, but the much newer ECoS would not recognise the decoder (an NCE Switch-it). 

Much head-scratching and consultation the internet later and I was not much further forward, so abandoned that idea while I waited on the font of much of this black art, Kevin from Coastal DCC to get back to me. So instead, I roped Alice, my better half, into helping (well, more accurately, do-ing) the emerging scenery on my permanent HO European layout.

It turned out that the decoder issue is a clash with Railcom on an earlier firmware installed on the ECoS, and it all works fine now, but by then it was too late to put Widnes Road up and it can wait until another weekend. As it is, really good progress has been made with the base layer of scenery; namely the river bed, and hills which form a scenic break between the layout and fiddle yard.

The grey area next to the river wall is where the large pub will go, with beer garden on both sides of the railway line. On the other side of the river will be a camp site, running up the hillside.

Guest Traction - MERC Traction Invasion...

Last weekend saw Widnes Road invited to the Croydon Model Railway Society exhibition, and for the first time also saw a new operating team; formed of the Mid Essex Model Railway Club crack modern image squad; Andy, Tim, Jake and Bill. Another notable first was an influx of guest traction and rolling stock; from 'cartics' to early 'freightliner' rakes through to a Plasmor block train and an electrification works train.

The third and final '1st' was that Widnes Road is now 'Wi-fi' enabled and through the use of the excellent Touch Cab can be operated via iPhone from the front which was an interesting experience, and enabled more interaction with the viewing visitors.

Thanks to all the guys from MERC for helping out and making it a great weekend. Looking forward to Shoeburyness, hope to have all the points, and maybe the signals DCC controlled by then.