Model Rail announce GWR Class 1600 0-6-0PT via Rapido

[luke_stevens]

1 hour ago, gwrrob said:

 

An update to this as I've now had my despatch email so it looks like early June 2019 orders are now being processed. Should get it early next week.

 

I wonder if it makes a difference which version one has ordered?

 

I suspect that each "shipping box" will have all the same version in it. Kernow are unlikely to have 22 boxes open at one time so there will be an element of: next box is 305A so lets ship the next 48 orders for that version. That would account for some more recent orders arriving before earlier orders.

 

Luke

[Phil Bullock]

My 1661 waiting for me at home this weekend. Very nice indeed. Etched plates crew and sound chip ordered.... first job to fix the couplings. Initial improvement by fitting a Bachmann 36027 (Bottom photo) but I can see a shortened NEM pocket with a glued in coupling coming...

[Ian Hargrave]

26 minutes ago, luke_stevens said:

 

I wonder if it makes a difference which version one has ordered?

 

I suspect that each "shipping box" will have all the same version in it. Kernow are unlikely to have 22 boxes open at one time so there will be an element of: next box is 305A so lets ship the next 48 orders for that version. That would account for some more recent orders arriving before earlier orders.

 

Luke

 
No it doesn’t.I ordered a weathered 1627 l/c by phone Thursday afternoon and was informed all versions are available.Just arrived with usual Kernow efficiency and courteous over the phone transaction.

 

Yes folks ,the bunker gap is present,no denying .However,this weighty little beauty has real style and presence and a “face” that has,shall we say,Pannier Panache.Believe me,it really does look the part.So forgive Bunker Gap if forgiveness is in your ♥️ It is Valentines weekend. Chez moi,it’s  Pannier Parade.Two in one weekend.Hawksworth Heaven,

 

 

 

[luke_stevens]

1 hour ago, Ian Hargrave said:

 
No it doesn’t.I ordered a weathered 1627 l/c by phone Thursday afternoon and was informed all versions are available.Just arrived with usual Kernow efficiency and courteous over the phone transaction.

 

Yes folks ,the bunker gap is present,no denying .However,this weighty little beauty has real style and presence and a “face” that has,shall we say,Pannier Panache.Believe me,it really does look the part.So forgive Bunker Gap if forgiveness is in your ♥️ It is Valentines weekend. Chez moi,it’s  Pannier Parade.Two in one weekend.Hawksworth Heaven,

 

 

 

Same one I have Despite my DCC concerns it is a wonderful model!

Luke

[luke_stevens]

8 hours ago, dibber25 said:

PLEASE BE AWARE IT IS NOT A CORELESS MOTOR! It is a conventional skew-wound 5-pole motor. (CJL)

I think the point is that setting a decoder to THINK the model HAS a coreless motor gives the "best" performance. A "coreless motor" setting will tell the decoder to reduce / minimise its back-emf response CV54 and CV55. This is only a work around to get the model to perform as well on DC as it does on DCC.

 

More work to be done...

 

Luke

[Butler Henderson]

If the manufacturer could explain what the purpose of the circuit board is then people might have a better understanding of specific CV values needed; does seem on the face of it overkill if it is a 5 pole motor which should work okay with the pick ups connected directly

[luke_stevens]

38 minutes ago, Butler Henderson said:

If the manufacturer could explain what the purpose of the circuit board is then people might have a better understanding of specific CV values needed; does seem on the face of it overkill if it is a 5 pole motor which should work okay with the pick ups connected directly

I e-mailed Rapido yesterday evening but as their website says they are all worming from home I wouldn't expect an answer before next week.

 

As and when I hear anything I'll post here.

 

Luke

[Phil Bullock]

7 hours ago, Phil Bullock said:

My 1661 waiting for me at home this weekend. Very nice indeed. Etched plates crew and sound chip ordered.... first job to fix the couplings. Initial improvement by fitting a Bachmann 36027 (Bottom photo) but I can see a shortened NEM pocket with a glued in coupling coming...

Coupling solved with these cut down 36027s in cut down pockets. I can live with this buffer distance

[Ben Alder]

Mine arrived in the Far North this week and had a good running in session - performed perfectly - but when I tried it at a crawl and low speeds over points it was sticky and I could see from the firebox glow that current transmission was intermittent - its only advantage as far as I am concerned - so I gave the wheels and rear face especially a going over with Deoxit, which removed a lot of gunge, and it now traverses these at a walking pace without any juddering. Very smooth and should bed in even more with use.

 

[Rhydgaled]

15 hours ago, luke_stevens said:

I think the point is that setting a decoder to THINK the model HAS a coreless motor gives the "best" performance. A "coreless motor" setting will tell the decoder to reduce / minimise its back-emf response CV54 and CV55. This is only a work around to get the model to perform as well on DC as it does on DCC.

Did you mean that last sentence to be the other way around? Because if it performs well on DCC but not on analogue, changing the settings on the digital chip won't help on analogue particularly since the chip wouldn't even be installed if running on analogue?

 

In other news I see there are now photos of all 22 variants on the Model Rail offers sales pages, Yay! However, despite most of the models featuring the BR early crest, the only one with an early crest and brass safety valve cover is the BR green one. Thus recreating this or this (pictures of the preserved one in BR black, one with a copper cap chimney and one with an all-black chimney) will require more than just a re-number. I note from the picture of the CAD earlier that the saftey valve cover is a seperate part, I wonder if it is easier to remove that for repainting to resemble brass or to remove the late crest printing from MR-304B and apply an early crest transfer.

[Captain Kernow]

9 minutes ago, Rhydgaled said:

I see there are now photos of all 22 variants on the Model Rail offers sales pages

Interestingly, on some of the models the bunker gap is quite pronounced, especially from the side, whereas on others it's much more discreet.

 

[dibber25]

58 minutes ago, Rhydgaled said:

Did you mean that last sentence to be the other way around? Because if it performs well on DCC but not on analogue, changing the settings on the digital chip won't help on analogue particularly since the chip wouldn't even be installed if running on analogue?

 

In other news I see there are now photos of all 22 variants on the Model Rail offers sales pages, Yay! However, despite most of the models featuring the BR early crest, the only one with an early crest and brass safety valve cover is the BR green one. Thus recreating this or this (pictures of the preserved one in BR black, one with a copper cap chimney and one with an all-black chimney) will require more than just a re-number. I note from the picture of the CAD earlier that the saftey valve cover is a seperate part, I wonder if it is easier to remove that for repainting to resemble brass or to remove the late crest printing from MR-304B and apply an early crest transfer.

The majority of the class began and ended in black with the early crest. The biggest variation was in the positioning or absence of spare lamp irons, and these are provided separately. I'd go for taking off the crest with a spot of T-Cut and a cocktail stick and replacing in it with an HMRS Pressfix early crest, as I described recently in print, for a USA 0-6-0T. The safety valve bonnet is plastic, fitted into a die-casting and it might well be damaged trying to remove it. As a last resort, paint it in situ. In reality, only one loco seems to have had a brass safety valve cover in BR service and that was 1655 with a late crest as we have represented it. 1638 has had numerous livery variations in preservation and we modelled the one which we thought would have widest appeal, the GWR green. (CJL)

Edited February 14, 2021 by dibber25
spell-check errant change

[luke_stevens]

2 hours ago, Rhydgaled said:

Did you mean that last sentence to be the other way around?

Yes! Whoops...

 

It performs better on DC than it does on DCC. I want to tweak the decoder to improve its performance on DCC to be as good as on DC.

 

Luke

Edited February 14, 2021 by luke_stevens
Incorrect word used.

[dibber25]

5 hours ago, Rhydgaled said:

Did you mean that last sentence to be the other way around? Because if it performs well on DCC but not on analogue, changing the settings on the digital chip won't help on analogue particularly since the chip wouldn't even be installed if running on analogue?

 

In other news I see there are now photos of all 22 variants on the Model Rail offers sales pages, Yay! However, despite most of the models featuring the BR early crest, the only one with an early crest and brass safety valve cover is the BR green one. Thus recreating this or this (pictures of the preserved one in BR black, one with a copper cap chimney and one with an all-black chimney) will require more than just a re-number. I note from the picture of the CAD earlier that the saftey valve cover is a seperate part, I wonder if it is easier to remove that for repainting to resemble brass or to remove the late crest printing from MR-304B and apply an early crest transfer.

Disregard my earlier comment. I've just pulled the safety valve bonnet off one. Just use your fingers - not pliers - and pull. It's glued into a hole in the casting and came out relatively easily. (CJL)

[rapidoandy]

On 13/02/2021 at 20:59, luke_stevens said:

I e-mailed Rapido yesterday evening but as their website says they are all worming from home I wouldn't expect an answer before next week.

 

As and when I hear anything I'll post here.

 

Luke

 

Hi Luke,

 

Having consulted with my colleagues in Canada (they were behind this project) I have just emailed you a response to try out.

 

Many thanks,

 

Andy 

[luke_stevens]

Hi All,

 

I'm in communication with Rapido and will let you know when we know for certain!

 

Luke

[vaughan45]

Popped the moulded 'coal' out of my NCB version ready to install some of the real stuff and noted that with the moulded coal removed it is possible to close up both the vertical bunker seams. Should be further disguised by a healthly dose of NCB weathering!

Edited February 16, 2021 by vaughan45

[Re6/6]

Conversion to P4

 

Mine arrived today and by and large I'm very pleased with it. It's impressively heavy and runs very smoothly.

 

Ordering one was speculative as it would be required to be converted to P4. As it turns out, this should be a fairly straight forward job as there is sufficient space between the insides of the centre splashers. Grinding out the insides of the mazak (?) splashers would seem not to be necessary. I haven't tried to separate the wheel assembly from the chassis yet so I'm assuming that the inside distances between the slashers will be the same on both fore and aft wheelsets. Either this 'extra' spacing is fortunate or Mr Rapido calculated this for for us of the wider persuasion to convert to P4 or EM.

 

Another thing of note is that the stub axles appear to be 2mm, measured crudely with a slot cut in a piece of plastic card as there wasn't enough space to get the vernier calipers in without dismantling the chassis. After further investigation the axles are 'normal' with pickup by way of sprung pins bearing on the wheel tread backs (Slaters style) so it will remain to be seen if they will have enough spring to reach the new wheels.

 

Items required for the conversion would be a set of AG wheels or Ultrascale LNER 12 spoke if a minor compromises (1/4" smaller diameter and 2" less crank throw) would be acceptable, some 2mm brass or steel rod and 'Branchlines' 1.5mm >1/8th brass top hat bushes (01373 822231 e-mail sales@branchlines.com ....no web presence) So it seems to be a fairly straightforward job...........!

 

 

 

 

Edited February 20, 2021 by Re6/6

[dibber25]

I understand that all pre-orders have now been fulfilled. If you haven't received yours, it may be that your card details are out of date and that you haven't received or responded to a request for updated details. If you haven't yet placed your order, there are still stocks of all 22 versions. (CJL)

 

[Gopher]

Mine arrived today.  Unfortunately dead as a doornail on DC and DCC.  So back it has gone.

 

It looks a lovely model, and the bunker seam is not too evident to my eyes.  Nice heavy model, looking forward to getting a replacement   

[dibber25]

9 minutes ago, Gopher said:

Mine arrived today.  Unfortunately dead as a doornail on DC and DCC.  So back it has gone.

 

It looks a lovely model, and the bunker seam is not too evident to my eyes.  Nice heavy model, looking forward to getting a replacement   

Sorry to hear that. It's an analogue DC model so it should be tested on analogue DC first and if it does not run there's np point testing it on DCC. You would have to fit a decoder to do so. We've not had many 'duds' with this model but if you get one, simply return it to Kernow and it will be replaced. (CJL)

[Gopher]

1 minute ago, dibber25 said:

Sorry to hear that. It's an analogue DC model so it should be tested on analogue DC first and if it does not run there's np point testing it on DCC. You would have to fit a decoder to do so. We've not had many 'duds' with this model but if you get one, simply return it to Kernow and it will be replaced. (CJL)

Thanks Chris.  yes tested on DC first, and was dead.  I thought I'd try a decoder as well, but not with any hope it would suddenly spring into life.  It has just been sent back to Kernow. 

 

I think it is a nice model and I like the easy access to the cab which means fitting a crew a piece of cake.  

 

  

[dibber25]

1 hour ago, Gopher said:

Thanks Chris.  yes tested on DC first, and was dead.  I thought I'd try a decoder as well, but not with any hope it would suddenly spring into life.  It has just been sent back to Kernow. 

 

I think it is a nice model and I like the easy access to the cab which means fitting a crew a piece of cake.  

 

  

Yes, the chassis access is great this time, unlike the J70 where you effectively had two bodies to remove to reach the chassis. Just in case the RMwebber who is converting his to P4 needs to know, the running plate/splashers unit is a plastic moulding, not a mazak casting. (CJL)

 

[Captain Kernow]

12 minutes ago, dibber25 said:

Just in case the RMwebber who is converting his to P4 needs to know, the running plate/splashers unit is a plastic moulding, not a mazak casting. (CJL)

Thanks for that, Chris, that's very useful to know. Both John (Re6/6) and myself are contemplating doing this.

 

[Captain Kernow]

Just to say that I have received my 16XX in the post this morning.

 

I am very pleased with it indeed. At last, a decently-running RTR loco, straight out of the box, it seems like it's been a while since I've had the pleasure of being happy with the running straight away.

 

The back-to-backs are all a consistent 14.5mm, so no problems with the wheels bumping along on my C&L chaired track.

 

The following footage shows it being test run on 'Bethesda Sidings', using an old AMR slow-speed hand-held controller (DC):

 

 

 

I also got my recently-finished kit-built 1628 out and ran it alongside the Model Rail-Rapido one: