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Bachmann D11/2 review by Tony Wright


Andy Y

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As I remember with fondness D11/1 and D11/2 class locos in their respective territories, I look forward to Bachmann's models of them. One of the former type would be most appropriate for my South Yorkshire base, but as Edie Ochiltree is my favourite character in the Waverley novels, and in my little universe All Things Are Possible, I foresee a transfer south of D11/2 No. 62677. As I'm firmly in the DC camp, that means having to pay extra for technology I don't want and having the bother of rendering that technology inoperative – or, as the decoder is in the tender, would a swap of tenders and connections with someone wanting a DCC “Lady of the Lake” be a viable alternative?

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... Thompson O1 2-8-0, LSWR O2 0-4-4T, GWR Dukedog 4-4-0A, and quite a few compression ignition types too; the Southern diesel prototypes and classes 16, 29, another 52, multiple units various. Molto useful rolling stock too in the form of Stanier portholes and Thompson non-gangwayed among other things. All looking for our cash strapped wallets.

 

This has to be taken into account as mentioned on the Hornby thread. the financial squeeze will be affecting a substantial proportion of the customer base, and some who previously would have said "Oh hell, you only live once", are probably thinking better pull back a little I may need a little extra cash in the readily foreseeable future, this recession ain't going away any time soon. It is the retailers who play the biggest part in the guessing game concerning what they can sell, and clearly some have drawn their horns in very significantly.

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This has to be taken into account as mentioned on the Hornby thread. the financial squeeze will be affecting a substantial proportion of the customer base, and some who previously would have said "Oh hell, you only live once", are probably thinking better pull back a little I may need a little extra cash in the readily foreseeable future, this recession ain't going away any time soon. It is the retailers who play the biggest part in the guessing game concerning what they can sell, and clearly some have drawn their horns in very significantly.

I think this final point emphasises the need to do what we can where we can to help the retailers remain in business and one way of doing that is to pre-order whenever practicable, especially for those things we know we really are prepared to spend our money on. This can of course sometimes have an unmanageable impact on our cash flow but think in turn of that multiplied more than several times over for the impact it can have on retailers. So I think pre-ordering for new/forthcoming releases will be something we will increasingly have to do to help provide market stability.

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... as the decoder is in the tender, would a swap of tenders and connections with someone wanting a DCC “Lady of the Lake” be a viable alternative?

Way the easiest method will be to take off the tender top, take out the decoder, put in the blanking plug. (If there isn't a blanking plug in the box there must be many members here who have them to send you at request, me for a start.) The decoder could be retained for future restoration when my government makes DCC compulsory, or sold on as you choose.

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Way the easiest method will be to take off the tender top, take out the decoder, put in the blanking plug. (If there isn't a blanking plug in the box there must be many members here who have them to send you at request, me for a start.) The decoder could be retained for future restoration when my government makes DCC compulsory, or sold on as you choose.

 

Thank you for your reply to my query, though it strengthens my suspicion that the D in DCC stands for Dictatorship.

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  • 2 weeks later...

It looks like the first of the D11/2s are imminent, I was in Arcardia today and Tim was expecting his on Monday, he'd received his emailed invoice and reckoned they'd be due on Monday, just a heads up to those intersted.

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Rails of Sheffield expect their delivery on Monday as well. Going to be an expensive week for me, not only is a jolly to the Isle of Man planned to revel in steam and trams, but two D11's and a 47/7 are there for the buying too. Serious (post purchase!) subterfuge/grovelling to 'her indoors' will be required.....

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FYI. On a post made in the dim distant past, i made a comment that a friends DCC fitted A4 (sound equipped) and a 2-10-0 fitted locos would run OK at slow speeds (including the sound) but had no top speed when using my KPC controllers on my DC layout A number of electronically knowledgeable people indicated that this was due to the electronics of the KPP controller that apparently start to imitate some DCC characteristics. So DC running a chipped loco may be dependent on the controller used. By the way I love my KPP controllers and wish they were still in business. I am in dread of the day when one fails since I have not found anything that even comes close.

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Not really OT. Check out their website.

 

 

We are sorry to have to confirm once again, that all work and administration at KENT PANEL CONTROLS and HM PRODUCTS has been put on hold until further notice. Emails will not be answered but will be archived on the Google Email server.

This setback due to Tom, our sales & technical officer having to retire from work because of health problems. Most folk retire at 65 but Tom tried to carry on doing physical work until his 75th birthday but we think he was being too optimistic.

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... I love my KPP controllers and wish they were still in business. I am in dread of the day when one fails since I have not found anything that even comes close.

Really, don't worry. You can build a current equivalent from off the shelf gear. An option that is rarely discussed is using a DCC system (keep reading) to drive a static decoder (or decoders) connected to the track. Essentially you assemble a DC controller system from DCC components.

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Thanks 34theletterbetweenB&D. Where would one obtain a circuit diagram. That is an interesting thought re the DCC to DC. Do you have any links to somewhere/someone who has done this. I run an automated fiddle yard with 9 (x2) tracks. 6 (x2) are on KPC controlers and the remaining 3 (x2) are on another brand that are nowhere near as good and I might be interested in trying to convert these.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Don't know anyone other than myself who has done this. It is so simple as not to require a diagram. There are two leads from a DCC command unit to go to the rails. Instead of connecting these to the rails, you connect to the red and black leads of a decoder. Then the orange and grey leads from the decoder go to the rails. And that's it. A DC loco on the rails gets DC output from the decoder and runs just as it does from any DC controller.

 

Now, in a practical implementation there are two things to bear in mind. You want a high current capacity decoder with short circuit protection adequate for the maximum current the command station can provide - probably a decoder aimed at O gauge is a good plan. And you need one such decoder for every DC cab that the layout requires; they all get connected in parallel to the DCC command unit output, which can then address each decoder as 1, 2, 3 etc.

 

That's how it is done. The same money spent converting to DCC control with the decoders on the locos is a hell of a lot superior though: less wiring, no need for sections, full power on the track at all time, each decoder tuned precisely to the loco it is to operate...

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I have been giving your suggestion a lot of thought and for my set-up it would be a lot cheaper and a lot easier than putting decoders in each loco. I had arrived at a circuit similar to the one you out-line. I have an automated fiddle yard and each track is powered by its own DC controller (to maintain the appropriate speed for the loco in that track) and only one track is active at any one time. Thus only one decoder would be active at any one time although the others would be "under power". So one of the questions I need to answer is if the other decoders are actually drawing power when not actually powering a loco. Unless some-one has the answer a friend and I will do a test in the not so far distant future.

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Guest Max Stafford

So, 34; if I've understood you correctly, the track essentially becomes part of the loco and you can run all your un-chipped fleet from a single decoder address? It's not something I'd ever thought of and yet now you've brought it to light, it seems so obvious. A bit like most good inventions in truth!

 

Dave.

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Basically you use the combination of command station and decoder as a build it yourself DC controller. More flexible than any other DC controller that I know of, in that one control interface can run all of the DC 'cabs' on a layout; and equally multiple control interfaces may be used, each driving as many or as few cabs as wished. Combos of panel mounted, wired walkabout, and wireless control interfaces no problem.

 

There must be other folks out there who have at least tried this. This was something I experimented with on first getting DCC gear, as an easy way to run the layout either DCC or DC, from the same control interface. The bottom line must be that while it is possible, the huge advantages to making the same spend on conventional DCC installation with one decoder per loco are just so overwhelming as to make this alternative an unusual choice. After a couple of weeks with DCC, my initial plan to spend four or five years slowly converting locos went down before the massive operational advantages of DCC: there was a bulk purchase of sixty odd decoders and a fitting 'mass-horizontal-folk-dancing-event' (the software doesn't like o r g y but where there is a will, ee these things will happen), followed by a kneefall to the Mrs when she saw the credit card bill...

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Thks for the info on the current draw. We sort of suspected this would be the situation but it is important and therefore needed to be verified. Saves us some work. In my case your suggestion has a lot of merit because I am only looking at 6 decoders as I am very happy with my KPC controllers. Further, since the current draw of the decoder when not in use is minimal I can get away with a "cost effective" read cheaper command unit. Also, I will be able to use low cost decoders since I will only be running a single function, i can see this being a project for the long dark nights of a Canadian winter.

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  • 6 months later...

Curses.

Both the D11 and J11 in late BR livery are DCC on board. Are blanking plugs awkward to fit?

On top of that, they were both withdrawn before 1962, causing them to be 2-3 years out of my era.

Do you think I could get away with it!?

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Fitting the blanking plate is about  a 2 on the 1 to 10 scale of complexity in RTR railway modelling, where railing up a four wheel wagon is a 1. Couple of screws out to release the tender top. Ease up decoder off the pins of the 'socket'. Ease on the blanking plugs, replace tender top, and screw secure. Probably can be done in about the time my lousy not-quite-touch-typing required to put up this post. Spare blanking plugs are available retail if there isn't a spare supplied.

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  • 4 months later...

Since I and one or two others have experienced "jerky" running with Prince Albert I thought i would post this find.  In the process of re-spraying after re-naming, I found that one of the con rod nuts had not been screwed all the way home and as a consequence the con rod was falling onto the nut.  Screwing the nut all the way home seems to have removed some of the jerkiness.

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The tender location for the chip on this otherwise wonderful locomotive, has set another problem for me which I think folks should know about. The drawbar is not fixed to the tender. That's to say the tender pin just goes into the link and when lifting loco and tender together as you must, to place them on the track, it can come adrift allowing just enough pull to be exerted on the electrical plug/socket for the former to lose connection. So if your loco sits and looks at you and does nothing else, check the plug is fully inserted into the socket first.

As always, I hope this helps.

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  • 2 months later...

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