Seanem44 Posted December 27, 2012 Share Posted December 27, 2012 My wife was kind of enough to purchase a new (now several months old) Farish WD 2-8-0. She had it sent to my parents in Maryland, knowing I would spot a british air mail package, thus ruining the surprise. Clever girl. I was surprised. I had wanted a WD for a while, though initially I was not a fan of the locomotive itself. It wasn't until engineering samples came out that I wanted it. I opened the package and was instantly stunned by what awaited me. My wife got me the weathered 90210 version. Taking the model out of the box, I was pleased Farish used the platci shell that they used for the B1. In my opinion, this is much better, and safer than the foam. I carefully took the model out, and marvalled at the fine detail and quality. I couldn't stop staring. This is, without a doubt, the finest looking N Gauge locomotive to be release in Great Britain. I would go as far to say it could go toe-to-toe against some of the best U.S. steam engines on the market, at a fraction of the cost. Those go upwards of $300 (though are much longer). Everything looked great; the piping, handrails, etc. I was amazed at the detail on the tender as well. The weathering was very sutle. I wouldn't call it as much as weathering as it was just normal running filth. It is not as heavy as some might want, and the brownish/reddish color might not appeal to some. However, it is a good base, and weathering powders are probably all that is needed. Before starting the engine, I had to clean off a fair amount of oil on the top of the boilfer. It took a couple of minutes, as I wanted to be careful, but it wasn't too bad. I have a loop of Kato track set up on a coffee table running around a small xmas tree. I took the Dapol A3 that was pulling four coaches off, as well as the coaches, and put the WD on to begin the running-in process. I turned the power on and the engine started with a small crackle of electricity and then smoothly drew forward. The engine noise dissapeared. Theengine was silent! My wife even commented how she liked how quiet it was compared to the A3 rumbling around the track at speed. The new motor is amazing, and sets the new standard. Running was smooth at all speeds. In fact, the entire engine sets the standard. It is now my favorite engine in my collection, surpassing the Farish A1 and Dapol A4. In my opinion, this is the pinnacle of N Gauge locomotives. It is also a true reason for those in OO to make the jump to N. N is now on the same level detail-wise, and quality-wise with the advent of the WD. N gaugers have never had it so well. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Harbour Posted December 30, 2012 Share Posted December 30, 2012 Quick question for you Sean - what did you use to get the oil off the top of the boiler? My weathered WD suffers from the same. I ran it on my local club's DC layout (I haven't chipped it yet) and I have been reluctant to tackle the oil removal at this stage... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seanem44 Posted December 30, 2012 Author Share Posted December 30, 2012 Honestly, I just used a household paper towel, brawny. I've used a q tip in the past. I think the oil is synthetic and plastic safe, so it doesn't hurt. The paper towel worked fine, though a better modeller might say my method is wrong. I'm no expert. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Harbour Posted December 30, 2012 Share Posted December 30, 2012 Thanks for clarifying that. Cleaned off the excess oil (there was some underneath the tender as well on mine) and had the tender body off to fit a DCC decoder as well. Will need to program the chip this week in preparation for taking to my local club next Friday. delighted with the outcome! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seanem44 Posted December 30, 2012 Author Share Posted December 30, 2012 It is a stunning model. I'm fixated on it going around a small oval loop of track. I have some Dapol Dog Fish wagons I picked up on sale several years ago that will look great behind it. Glad it worked out for you. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
meeikal Posted December 31, 2012 Share Posted December 31, 2012 I got mine for Christmas from my wife too! Its been hidden in the house for months, and has surpassed all expectations. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les1952 Posted January 1, 2013 Share Posted January 1, 2013 Mine is now racking up mileage impressively after a shaky start- the back-to-back on the driving axle was too tight at first, causing it to climb over checkrails of points. After curing that (easing outwards carefullywith fine flat screwdrivers) it ran well enough but then turned over onto its side unexpectedly, again on a point. At this point I noticed the flat spring above the pony truck sticking out at an angle. Not being able to work out where to put the loose end back I reassembled the pony truck without it (largely out of desperation). Without the flat spring it behaves impeccably and has run for over THIRTY HOURS without incident. I'm not putting the spring back................ Oddly enough one of my 3MT tanks did the same a week later- same cure and same improvement in performance. I'm sure Bachmann could save at least 0.001p per unit in production costs by omitting the flat brass spring. Les Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Al Posted January 2, 2013 Share Posted January 2, 2013 I'm sure Bachmann could save at least 0.001p per unit in production costs by omitting the flat brass spring. I'd rather have it to be honest. I've had no such troubles so clearly they can work (or is it your track...?). At least if you have it you can always remove it if necessary! If it's not there to begin with then no doubt others would complain that it derailed on their layouts and really needed a spring! Best, Alan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les1952 Posted January 2, 2013 Share Posted January 2, 2013 I'd rather have it to be honest. I've had no such troubles so clearly they can work (or is it your track...?). At least if you have it you can always remove it if necessary! If it's not there to begin with then no doubt others would complain that it derailed on their layouts and really needed a spring! Best, Alan Probably not the track, though at the moment I'm soak testing the new layout to get it as near 100% perfect as I can get it- there is one slight hill across the board join on two roads of the fiddle yard, but that isn't enough to cause problems. I'm at the stage where the vast majority will trundle (or race if appropriate) round the layout through any road in the yard without attention for lap after lap after lap- almost happy enough to start sectioning the yard and finishing the electrics. To get back on topic- the WD will plod happily round without attention now for a couple of hours using any road in either direction, which is more than it did when I first got it. All the very best Les Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Harbour Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 I encountered an interesting problem today when running my WD around my local club's DCC layout once I had fitted a TCS EUN-651 decoder inside the tender. The loco would run perfectly normally when climbing what is quite a steep incline on a corner at one end - even when pulling about 35 16T wagons and an NGS 'Queen Mary' - but when it got to the descent, it would start to 'run away' and the speed would remain consistently high. I even tried this with the speed setting of 10 out of 128 and the same thing would happen. We tried the exact same run light engine and whilst the runaway speed was significantly reduced, the loco still accelerated uncontrollably on the descent. Has anybody encountered this type of scenario before? Is it CV settings? Any thoughts? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seanem44 Posted January 4, 2013 Author Share Posted January 4, 2013 Sounds like you need a brake tender, lol. All kidding aside, I have not run into this problem before. Did it do this with less wagons? Seems like the mode might have been too much to handle going downhill? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Harbour Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 It even did it to a lesser extent when running light engine. I think I need to play about with some of the CV settings on the chip. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Harbour Posted January 11, 2013 Share Posted January 11, 2013 I tried playing about setting the CVs for low, mid and high voltage and got the speeds set up acceptably. I also ensured that the Back EMF CV (CV61) was enabled (set to 1) and although speed-wise the loco was okay, it still ran away down the slope on my local club's layout to a certain extent. More investigation is needed! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
34theletterbetweenB&D Posted January 11, 2013 Share Posted January 11, 2013 .... It is also a true reason for those in OO to make the jump ... Interesting parallel. When this subject was first produced in OO by Bachmann, that gave me the feeling that it was worth staying with UK railway modelling; because here at last was something in OO RTR that could stand alongside what had been standard in HO for thirty years. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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