Bryn_Bach_Railway

short term the double chimney probably does look better, but I’d imagine it would allow a fair bit more water condensation on the inside of the chimney over time and thus run the risk of water dropping on top of the generator. The single chimney already results in a small amount of condensation on the inside walls. There is a mention in the operating instructions that of you somehow get water on top of the generator, to clean it off as it could lead to damage. And if your running the double chimney chances are your not going to notice if water does end up on top on the generator and as such the generator might become damaged. The amount of steam being generated could well just be the reservoir being almost too full, as I have noticed the more water inside results in the more ‘steam’ out the chimney

Had a few layout issues but finally got them solved allowing for a proper full length railtour with the P2 steam gen. Even if it’s not the most realistic it certainly adds an element of immersion. It did struggle around some of the curves tho hence the 67 at the rear

After running her in last night, I got the steel wagons out this evening and gave her something to haul. Granted not the heaviest of trains but there was absolutely no issue what so ever with my 11 steel wagons. technically this exact spec of this loco is out of my era. However there’s so many 66’s it’s not something I even noticed until this morning and it’s not bothering my enough to do anything about it, so she’ll stay as part of the fleet along with her sisters due in a a month or two. It’s also worth mentioning I did have to re-glue the horn grill back on this evening. However that’s the only piece so far and that could well have been due to me pushing directly onto it a bit too hard without realising until after. i did try a few more settings with the Zimo chip too to see if it was an error with my programming. And while I did find that JMRI and decoder pro’s default values don’t match the Zimo manual (as such any functions beyond F4 are disabled), even after setting these back, I’ve still had no luck with functions F5-8. Would love to see someone else be able to get a Zimo chip working and share the settings however as it stands I’ll just swap to the pre-programmed esu chips once they’re available.

Looking at the AUX lists I don’t think they’d be quite right. the 37 Aux functions; Front Lights - white marker light front Rear Lights - white marker light rear aux 1 - red tail light front aux 2 - red tail light rear aux 3 - dashboard front aux 4 - dashboard rear aux 5 - head/day light front aux 6 - head/day light rear aux 7 - night light front aux 8 - night light rear aux 9 - cab front aux 10 - cab rear aux 11 - top light front aux 12 - top light rear aux 13 - top light rear aux 14 - engine room light where as the 66 is; Front lights - white marker light front rear lights - white marker light rear aux 1 - red front aux 2 - red rear aux 3 - day front aux 4 - day rear aux 5 - night front aux 6 - night rear aux 7 - cab front aux 8 - cab rear so with a 37 chip, you’d most likely end up with the default running turning on night lights rather than day. But that depends on the pre-set function mapping

more of a side on shot shows it quite well. Personally it’s not something I’d be too bothered about as I wouldn’t notice it from normal layout viewing distances, and by the time I eventually get around to weathering it could easily become part of normal wear and tear. However it is something that’s worth knowing about. You’ve got a very keen eye to spot that especially on the ESW livery!

Decided to contact Accurascale and ask for my order to be split, and as a result 66 001 turned up in the post today! I personally never got to have a proper look at this models previous life under Hatton’s so for me this is a huge step above the Bachmann ones I have had previously. I’m yet to run mine in but just doing a couple back and forth runs over some very gentle curves, the model runs like a dream. I did have to adjust the back EMF on the current decoder to get a nice slow and smooth set off but that’s by no means an issue with the model, rather something that should be done on all models to fine tune them I my opinion. The DCC socket appears to have been redesigned from the original and is now an MTC socket, as apposed to the MKL used in the original Hattons run. As such there is a little bit more functionality for the lighting. I’ve currently fitted a Zimo MN340C decoder, as accurascale are yet to release their pre-programmed ESU chips. Interestingly while being able to operate more functions than my previous attempt with a Zimo decoder and an ESU circuit board, not all functions are operational. I have made sure the Zimo decoder is programmed to operate them, it’s just having the same issue as I had before just on different outputs. However I can control upto AUX4 which gives me markers, tail, and day lights at both ends. That’s good enough for now until I can get proper chips from accurascale once their ready. Certainly seems to be some incompatibility between ESU circuitry and Zimo decoder tho but that’s not for discussion here, just something to keep a note of. I’m not a class 66 expert so I can’t comment on the 100% accuracy of everything, however I do seem to see these all the time here in South Wales. There’s nothing that jumps out to me as being wrong or out of place so I’m very happy with it. Looking forward to seeing the rest of the batch arrive in a month or two, hopefully with the correct decoders ready and waiting for them! Right, now to run her in and get her working the steel train, it wouldn’t be south wales otherwise now would it!

Very exciting to hear the first ones are here!, I think I know the answer but I’ll check just incase. For those of us who’ve ordered 001 in the same order as some of the other 66’s, I’m assuming 001 will be held and so that each order is sent out in its entirety in one?. Also is there any updates for the pre-mapped DCC decoders? Really looking forward to these now they’re that little bit closer!

A rather interesting and somewhat confusing update to the project status page! Both in transit and arrived, either way I don’t think it’ll be a long wait

if I remember right from other forums, the stock notification emails do not all get sent at once. instead they are sent in order of sign up from earliest to latest. and on top of that, they only send between 1.5 and 2 times the amount of emails for the amount of stock. so if 10 items came into stock, then the first 15-20 people on the list will get an email. I believe that process repeats its self through the list every 5-10 minutes or so. that might've changed since it was mentioned and I might've got some details wrong. but it was something like that which was given as an explanation when people were saying they had not had email notifications before. I believe it was in the class 37 forum, or maybe the Mk5's.

appreciate its not for everyone, but this is where thinks like Apple Pay or PayPal really do help. can check out within a minute with them set up right and don't need to find the card. like I said tho there not for everyone but they do streamline the process

warwells have returned to stock, just picked up a pair for my heritage line as I missed the original hattons orders

Finally managed to pick up the tfw 67 in black yesterday. nice to see its been updated to 21 pin and has some decoder controlled lighting functionality. fitted my example with a Zimo MN340C, and have the following DCC controlled lighting; F0 - Directional lighting including Head/Night* lights, Tail lights, and the side marker lights F1 - Lights off No1 end F2 - Lights off No2 end F3 - Directional top marker light *switching between the Day and Night headlight is still controlled by a switch on the underside of the loco. very pleased with is as I have been all my 67's, and very glad to see the extra lighting capability. will do a bit more research to see if this can be a simple PCB swap for the older models too. hopefully Hornby will do the matching Mk4 coaches and DVT once TFW get them into the final livery. would be a nice touch to have the remembrance DVT too!

Perfect thank you!, I’ll pay them off end of the month then to relief some strain on the bank. now to start working out if I can make enough room on the layout to fit them all on track!

just had a second email about payment for these with an invoice. Are these super close now or am I ok to wait until the end of the month? Going off the latest timing of roughly 8 weeks from the beginning of the month I thought I was safe but wanted to double check.

Just had my invoice for the first run, so my bank is hoping there’s no colas in run 2 😂 wouldn’t say no to 66 789 or 66 773 in their current livery’s tho