locospotter

I had this model and it suffered mazak rot so sent it back to Hornby during lockdown 2020 , Hornby did send a replacement 2 years later and it wasn't a skinhead 31111 Dutch livery one as no chassis available from China. so just make sure the one you have is not suffered the same mine was 12 years old and only ran a few times on my layout.

I have now unscrewed the buffer beam on my Heljan class 48 to fit kadee coupling and as I can see all the pipe work have been glued so to fit kadee they will have to be cut shorter or completely cut off. I think someone should have given this idea of glueing them in alittle more thought and the lamp brackets are flimsy and break off as I found out. Not a good start on a new designed model Heljan.

Are the buffer beam pipes etc glued in as I want to fit a Kadee couplings to 2 end and didn't want to start breaking them off

Thanks for reply YT, yes I have done the same but looks like Heljan thinks only ESU Loksound will be fitted, I just put in a Bachmann ESU Lokpilot 4 function so just get FO headcode lights and no 2 end rear lights only.

Which decoder would fit this model as a non sound decoder, would need upto 10 functions.

Hi Charlie yes I agree when I heard them not a patch on the one's you and Biff produce but your the experts so I think the limited models Heljan will produce and sell it may be not a profitable project for you to undertake and no locos in existence from the UK. Don't know if your HS Kestrel is close to one.

Just been searching online and I have found sound decoder which is a lokesound in a ROCO AIA AIA 68000 SNCF on YouTube but it says its a Sulzer engine but can't remember if it sounds like a Class 48 and the other sounds ie horns are not UK spec.

More information on the Class48 sounds thanks to a Steve Johnson article back in 2020 about detailing a Bachmann class 47 into a class 48, he mentioned that the old engines from the 48s were sold to SNCF as the same engines in the BB68000 french locos, don't know if a model was made in HO with a sound decoder but probably not all the sounds would be appropriate to UK spec.

Yes ashame we couldn't have one preserved I remember them working out of Norwich in my trainspotting days can't remember what engine sound difference from Class 47s. Thanks for showing the photograph 25kV

Now the release of the Heljan/Model Rail model whether there's a chance of a sound file that could be manufactured . I wonder if the ones exported to Cuba are still intact and have a engine that can be started. We know Cuba has a love of old cars.

Thanks for explanation RON RON RON I have now purchased another Bachmann 36-557 which is definitely a ESU LOKPILOT STANDARD with railcom and the one of taken out was a LOKPILOT BASIC LPB V1.3 stamped on it. So how I managed to get the wrong decoder it's a mystery to me.

Thanks to all who replied to my query but I have had another email from ESU Germany and my Bachmann decoder 36-557 Version 88 is not Lokpilot Standard but a Lokpilot basic V1 so it doesn't have Railcom so how this decoder I purchase wasn't the one I needed so I will have to investigate further in how it was in the wrong packaging.

Thank to all who replied to my problem, after a reset in CV8 to factory defaults railcom still doesn't work I did get a quick reply from ESU Germany which advised a cv setting of 12 and 131. 131 again didn't work just reverted to error2 on my Lenz so I will email Bachmann and see what's going on with this decoder which reads in CV7 as version 88. Will get to the bottom of this problem I now have the bit between my teeth.

Sorry for mistake on CV 8 value should read 151 not 131, thanks to Geoff for pointing this out.

Thank to all who replied to my problem, after a reset in CV8 to factory defaults railcom still doesn't work I did get a quick reply from ESU Germany which advised a cv setting of 12 and 131. 131 again didn't work just reverted to error2 on my Lenz so I will email Bachmann and see what's going on with this decoder which reads in CV7 as version 88. Will get to the bottom of this problem I now have the bit between my teeth.