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Minerva GWR Pannier Tank - open for advanced orders


81A Oldoak
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I am tempted by this, but I think I might hand on to see Dapol's efforts then chose the best one in my opinion.

All I can say is that, thus far Minerva/Ixion purchases have been fault free, Dapol's have not. The Dapol Pannier would appear to be their most detailed (cab CADs etc) loco yet, but 'you pays yer money and make yer choice' in terms of build qaulity.

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Dapol are doing the London Transport livery which is the one tempting me tbh, if Minerva did the same I'd snap it up in a hearbeat. Not having much room at home, a fleet of tank engines is nice for the set track. I was impressed by the 08 Dapol has done, so I am optomistic. Fortunately, time is on my side.

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Dapol are doing the London Transport livery which is the one tempting me tbh, if Minerva did the same I'd snap it up in a hearbeat. Not having much room at home, a fleet of tank engines is nice for the set track. I was impressed by the 08 Dapol has done, so I am optomistic. Fortunately, time is on my side.

As long as you dont mind not taking advantage of early bird discounts. The 08 is a good loco...
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Ok, the Minerva Pannier is playing on my mind rather badly. I am a 4mm scale modeller but this appeals for doing something small and well outside my usual modelling era.

 

For those who have the loco, what are your opinions and how do you find the DCC operation and sound?

 

Some assistance in persuading me one way or the other would be appreciated.

 

Regards,

 

Craig w

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Crig w

 

Steve has already commented on the quality of the model, with which I concur.

 

The factory sound fitted option uses a ZIMO decoder, including a feature to change the cut-off value by pressing an F key at any time, effectively operating the reverser lever. This allows the operator (driver) to change from 'full gear' when the train has been lifted and less power is required.

 

There are also automatic changes in the chuff sounds depending upon whether the model is accelerating or cruising. And of course, the sound of the mechanical vacuum pump can be heard once for each wheel revolution whenever the loco is moving whether underpower or when drifting (coasting).Ejector sound is also provided for raising the vacuum when stationary or at speeds below 15 m.p.h.

 

Essential for an authentic pannier sound project (though often ommitted in other provider's versions) is the povision of a high tone whistle and a separate low tone whistle, characteristic of panniers and GWR loco generally.

 

The project uses 28 F keys, 29 if you fit working loco lamps.

 

It has the added bonus of being developed in the actual Minerva model, so no special setting up required; it will work perfectly out of the box.

 

It will also operate with the exhaust and other automatic sounds on DC if required.

 

That should give you some food for thought. LOL

 

Kind regards,

 

Paul

Edited by pauliebanger
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Ok, the Minerva Pannier is playing on my mind rather badly. I am a 4mm scale modeller but this appeals for doing something small and well outside my usual modelling era.

 

For those who have the loco, what are your opinions and how do you find the DCC operation and sound?

 

Some assistance in persuading me one way or the other would be appreciated.

 

Regards,

 

Craig w

As I say, from my POV the loco runs wonderfully smoothly out of the box, it looks accurate ie proportionally and is loaded with detail, especially in the cab and comes with additional - loco specific - details to be fitted by the customer accordingly, but TBF, that is minimal and should present no problems to affix. There is an over all finesse to the model too which often only comes with more expensive models.

 

I am a fan of kit building, yet I have to say, I couldn't build a loco for this cost, to these standards, let alone the time and effort involved in doing so.

 

I have yet to use mine at speed, yet on DC it runs superbly slowly and pickups up speed like a Pannier, and for a shunting/trip loco that is important and I suspect that DCC will further refine the loco's running abilities.

 

I hope that helps further clarify.

 

Regards,

 

CME

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Ok, the Minerva Pannier is playing on my mind rather badly. I am a 4mm scale modeller but this appeals for doing something small and well outside my usual modelling era.

 

For those who have the loco, what are your opinions and how do you find the DCC operation and sound?

 

Some assistance in persuading me one way or the other would be appreciated.

 

Regards,

 

Craig w

Craig,

I will let our happy customers and sound engineer, Paul Chetter, do the sales pitch and try to convince you to buy one. For your information, the GREAT WESTERN version has sold out faster than expected and we are waiting for the second consignment to arrive by ship on 12th October. We have all British Railways versions available, but sales of all variants are brisk. The DCC sound decoders are being dispatched from ZIMO in Austria today. Paul Chetter's Minerva sound project is, in my humble opinion, the definitive GWR 57XX/8750 sound decoder.

 

Hoping to hear from you soon.

 

Regards,

 

Chris Klein

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...the GREAT WESTERN version has sold out faster than expected

 

I am a mixture of 'wow', 'not surprised', and 'congratulations'.

 

Btw, for the 8750s, does anyone know the last one receiving 'GREAT WESTERN'? (8764 did, but there may be a few subsequent ones.) Edit: 8791 did as well, so it seems the whole of the first lot were.

Edited by Miss Prism
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Craig,

I will let our happy customerss and sound engineer, Paul Chatter, do the sales pitch and try to convince you buy one. For your information, the GREAT WESTERN version has sold out faster than expected and we are waiting for the second consignment to arrive by ship on 12th October. We have all British Railways versions available, but sales of all variants are brisk. The DCC sound decoders are being dispatched from ZIMO in Austria today. Paul Chetter's Minerva sound project is, in my humble opinion, the definitive GWR 57XX/8750 sound decoder.

 

Hoping to hear from you soon.

 

Regards,

 

Chris Klein

I had the opportunity of hearing (just) a sound fitted Minerva pannier recently and was totally unimpressed. Absolutely no-one comes near the latest system from South West Digital. Furthermore, having fitted a sound system to one of my Minerva panniers (bloody good model) the instruction to fit a speaker just below the chimney is not very helpful. Tried various speakers in this way and have come to the conclusion that the sealed accoustic nature of the loco body does not allow the sound to escape as you would like. It is muted to say the least. Now have two sugar cubes wired in parallel fitted at each end of the outside of the chassis and this works well. The nature of the chassis design means you don't really see them unless you go looking. But I stress ONLY the SWD system is like the real thing - no-one else gets anywhere near it. FSB

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I had the opportunity of hearing (just) a sound fitted Minerva pannier recently and was totally unimpressed. Absolutely no-one comes near the latest system from South West Digital. Furthermore, having fitted a sound system to one of my Minerva panniers (bloody good model) the instruction to fit a speaker just below the chimney is not very helpful. Tried various speakers in this way and have come to the conclusion that the sealed accoustic nature of the loco body does not allow the sound to escape as you would like. It is muted to say the least. Now have two sugar cubes wired in parallel fitted at each end of the outside of the chassis and this works well. The nature of the chassis design means you don't really see them unless you go looking. But I stress ONLY the SWD system is like the real thing - no-one else gets anywhere near it. FSB

I'm delighted you have purchased our models, but your comment interests me because the production version of our specially commissioned ZIMO decoders were in fact delivered only today. 

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I had the opportunity of hearing (just) a sound fitted Minerva pannier recently and was totally unimpressed. Absolutely no-one comes near the latest system from South West Digital. Furthermore, having fitted a sound system to one of my Minerva panniers (bloody good model) the instruction to fit a speaker just below the chimney is not very helpful. Tried various speakers in this way and have come to the conclusion that the sealed accoustic nature of the loco body does not allow the sound to escape as you would like. It is muted to say the least. Now have two sugar cubes wired in parallel fitted at each end of the outside of the chassis and this works well. The nature of the chassis design means you don't really see them unless you go looking. But I stress ONLY the SWD system is like the real thing - no-one else gets anywhere near it. FSB

Interesting comments.

 

I didnt think that the factory fit Minerva's had been released yet??

 

I was going to suggest two cube speakers as a similar system seems to work well on the new SW Class 24/25s.

 

There is an issue with 'modelled' sound, ie it's often subjective, also, as with smoke, water, ripples in sheet metal etc., it's hard to do well as it's hard to scale sound. My hearing isnt what is was, but as an ex amateur musician I still have reasonable ear and Ive heard very few decent sound decoders. One which was decent was the LH 64xx/74xx, but some of Paul Chetter's work has superseded that now. DCC sound hasn't, imho, yet reached it's zenith and with features such as coasting etc it is getting better and better all of the time. But you touch on a good point. Scaling sound in unrealistic materials which are miniaturised, on a real loco, there's water, steam, heat and tons of metal, then there is the sound from all the moving parts, the sound literally radiates from all over the prototype. In model form we put speakers inside a plastic 'enclosure' (cabinet) inside of a plastic loco body and therein lies another set of challenges.....

 

THE CONTROVERSIAL BIT:- IMHO many of the DCC speakers are not fit for purpose....theyre getting better, but they aint there yet...

 

I'm delighted you have purchased our models, but your comment interests me because the production version of our specially commissioned ZIMO decoders were in fact delivered only today. 

....that's what I understood Chris, basically the Minerva version wasnt out yet....

 

ATVB

 

CME

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We will be fitting the ZIMO LS26x20x08 speaker in our models. The early pre-production prototype decoder was fitted to an engineering prototype of the 8750 which might have been heard at the GOG Doncaster show and was fitted with a ZIMO LS10x15 speaker. The great feature of the free market is that one is free to choose and buy what one wants, provided it is, of course, actually available to buy.

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Chris - do the DC versions have any provision (decoder sockets, speaker mounts etc) to facilitate the retrofit of DCC and sound?

 

 

Yes, 8-pin interface and a space for a speaker in the smokebox facing up as there is a hole through the chimney.

 

Jinty ;)

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Chris - do the DC versions have any provision (decoder sockets, speaker mounts etc) to facilitate the retrofit of DCC and sound?

 

 

Chris - do the DC versions have any provision (decoder sockets, speaker mounts etc) to facilitate the retrofit of DCC and sound?

Jinty beat me to it. Our decoders will probably be made available separately in due course, but all of the current consignment is committed to orders.

 

Regards,

 

Chris

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I thought of a question regarding Pannier Tanks yesterday whilst admiring my new Minerva model, & also thought I might as well ask it here as anywhere else....

I've noticed in many photos of Panniers that the fireman had hung a hosepipe over the side of the cab (no sniggering at the back!!), sometimes looping it through one of the handrails to hold it in place. Whilst in 4mm scale I replicated this practice with a bit of black wire, simply gluing the pipe inside the cab wall, in 7mm this seems a bit of a lazy cop-out, especially with such a nicely detailed cab interior, & so leads to my question:-

Where does that hosepipe connect to in the cab?

I assume a tap on the backhead somewhere, but if not, it'd be nice to know where the hose goes inside the cab, & model it properly, if possible.

 

Many thanks in anticipation, & if you were sniggering, you're as bad as me!!

Edited by F-UnitMad
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That's the slacking pipe which came off a valve in the cab side sheet.

 

The following like shows it on a 28XX, but I believe it would be a similar arrangement on most GWR loco's.

http://gwr2807.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/

Awesome - question answered within 30 minutes!! I should've stayed awake a bit longer!! Thanks for the link, too. :yes:
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Hi folks,

Quick questions:

 

What's its scale top speed?

Has anyone tested its pulling capacity?  (i.e. - X wagons or Y coaches on flat track)

How much does the loco weigh?

(BTW - I've ordered a 57xx, but I'm just wondering...)Mike,

The locos are geared to a maximum speed of 40mph. That's less than the real thing, but allows smoother running at very slow speeds. The loco weighs approximately 1.1kgs. We haven't tested the hauling power to stalling, but I am confident that it will pull the skin off a British Army rice pudding. Srriously, I will take one down to my club, Southampton Model Railway Society, in due course and do some haulage testing.

 

Regards,

 

CK

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