Class 37, by Accurascale

[Growling]

19 minutes ago, SRman said:

 

I have been pondering upgrading mine on a Power Pro system. Currently it uses a 15V AC 5 Amp computer laptop supply, which means the actual track voltage is lower (I haven't measured it, though). NCE say that the Power Pro can take 19V AC, so I have bought a suitable laptop supply with 4.5 Amps output. I haven't plucked up the courage to connect it yet.

How does this relate to the Accurascale 37s? Well, all of mine have the stay-alives working when I put them on my programming track with a Power Cab powering it, but when they are on the main lines with the Power Pro, none of the stay-alives are working. While all of my points are live frog and have auto-polarity switches, none of the locomotives stall on them, so it hasn't been a high priority for me to "fix" the problem (such as it is), but it is something I'd like to have working eventually.

 

I just wonder as NCE output is 13.5V using the standard power unit supplied but Accurascale are saying ideally the loco needs 14V then will this have had an influence on my 37s downfall. Or the reality is I've just got a dodgy motor in mine. 

[97406]

I use an NCE Powercab (forgot to put that in my earlier track cleaning/thrash post). Standard PSU to boot.

[geoffers]

Have D6702 with self-installed Accurascale bespoke ESU sound decoder and Accurathrash speaker. Lovely throaty sound. Initially cut out but readjusted volume to 150 as advised on here (plenty loud enough) and no more problems - so far. The loco seems to glide along very smoothly as well.  Well pleased with it. System is NCE PowerCab through a DCC Concepts Alpha System delivering 18 volts and up to 5 amps (never needed more than 0.85 however).  The only issue I have experienced since is self-inflicted when the coupling, buffer, and headcode box snagged on my pullover and pinged in the "area of nothingness" in the railway room. Subsequent fingertip searching recovered the coupling and headcode box, though the NEM plug for the coupling has broken. Have re-sited the headcode box. The buffer remains missing. I have contacted Support to see if spares are available so hopefully I can replace.

Edited January 5 by geoffers
spelling

[LNERandBR]

Working in a problem solving centered job myself, I 100% wouldn't be discounting the controller as the cause of an issue. One way to do that is to try the locomotive on a different one to see if the problem still exists. If it does, it's the loco. If it does not then either it is the controller or something with that combination of locomotive and controller isn't working correctly. Could even be that the same make/model of controller has different results here.

 

That said, I do think people who are having issues should be doing like the Accurascale guys are saying and contacting their support. They are the best equipped to help troubleshoot and provide fixes. They know their locomotives better than anyone else and from what has been said they are extremely good at providing that support. 

[Gilbert]

19 hours ago, Gilbert said:

I found this helpful - both my locos were retro-fitted with Acc speakers and decoders and both needed the tweak which so far seems successful. I have two factory fitted 37s which I am yet to try in earnest.

Chris H

 

I have now tested 606 and 609 both with factory fitted sound - both are fine.

[Captain Kernow]

Just a quick question, apologies if someone else has already asked this, but is there any kind of a date or estimate for the next batch of 37s, please, the one with the green single headcode panel with SYE? (ie. the 'South Wales' one).

 

Thanks.

 

[E100]

Having watched this thread for a while I wanted to add my thoughts. I have 3 sound fitted 37's (2 factory, one with chip and speaker afterwards from Accurascale), 1 class 92 (factory sound fitted) and 1 class 55 (factory sound fitted). Non of these have had issues apart from my first 37 but even then this has only happened when I didn't leave it on the layout for 30 seconds or so and only cut out once when starting up so I'm giving that one a pass as the stay alive was likely still charging.

 

What I will say is that while on the face of it there appears to be an issue that is larger than other models, the runs of these have been massive in comparison to other contemporary models i.e. 10's of 1000's when most don't break through 5000. In addition, I would not be at all surprised that the class 37 production is more skewed towards DCC sound than previous release we have been used to, especially when many have done what I have done and purchased a DCC ready version and effectively made this to the same spec as a factory fitted version. This therefore does create a large sample size and more numerical failures are likely and those that have a problem are likely to voice them which is fair enough. 10 voices here vs 1 voice elsewhere may still be within the same proportion is the point I am trying to make.

 

All that being said there have been a fair few instances where other factory or aftermarket installations have been completely fine on people's layouts and therefore they are rightly trying to resolve the problem as all the others work fine and therefore the class 37 is the outlier. From what has been said it would appear that ESU are flying a little closer to the sun with the speaker resistances being 2.66Ohms and therefore the tolerances demanded from chips/the circuit board will be a fair bit tighter than if these were 4Ohm minimum if nothing were done to the design of the board to compensate, though if they have then it the point becomes mute. Either way ESU, who I hope we can all respect as a top of their game DCC manufacturer, have put their name to it.

 

I think we should do well to remember that Accurascale is only a year or two into releasing it's locomotives into the wild. They need this feedback via their support channels. It's all well and good posting on here and to their credit they do try to engage but the solid numbers will be from the support tickets raised. Even if it's just to say, hey I've had an issue and I've turned the speaker down to compensate. No need to do anything but want this logged.

 

Therefore they (and ESU) can improve for future models. They have not given me any doubt they are looking to continually improve and the Deltic v2 is a good example of this listening to feedback. If you are having an issue that is still not resolvable then you would be within your rights to return it as faulty for a refund having first gone through the support channel to try and resolve on the basis that all other models appear to work and your using a reasonable controller setup as they are still under warranty.

 

Those who are having issues, you do have my sympathy, as when these work they are the finest models I have in my collection.

[Smudge617]

12 hours ago, hminh2005 said:

As shown in the image of the instruction sheet I have attached, it is F6-Light loco mode. I think it has to do with the light modes?

I thought it added more bass to the engine note when I used Heavy mode, maybe I need to get my hearing checked.

[Gilbert]

This may be of use...

 

 

[Mel_H]

1 hour ago, Gilbert said:

This may be of use...

 

 

Regarding Lance's problem with Hattons, the Sale of Goods Act still applies. And, whatever Hattons writes in its T&Cs, the Sale of Goods Act trumps anything they might say/claim (for retail customers). Hattons have 'form' shall we say, including the recent issue where they oversold their allocation (of Pannier tanks) and then told at least one customer on 6-12-23 that Accurascale had 'revised' Hattons' allocation and delivered short. Accurascale Fran pitched in pretty quickly and Hattons was forced to apologise... for its 'error' Customers have a choice from where they buy from, of course. The customer is King!

[longsight]

On 03/01/2024 at 16:27, The Meerkat said:

Hi all,

 

looking for abit of advice

 

seems my 97301 wants to serge again,  it been back twice already,  seems to really slow down tho once after while speeds back up and works normal again,  tho after certain point on the controller speed wise the sound cuts out, (already been back for this as well)  i have to stop the train turn sound off,  wait abit then the sound comes back on,  do i contact AS again or keep running till dies again,  it already got a new motor?

 

[longsight]

Request a refund, not fit for purpose. 

[Ouroborus]

15 hours ago, Gilbert said:

This may be of use...

 

 

 

A lot of interesting comments on that video.  One in particular seems remarkably similar to that on Bachmann 37 thread.  

 

As mentioned above, this was a very large run and thus will likely have higher numbers of duds.  But whether its proportionally more, Accurascale have said it isn't.

 

As for the derailment issues in the video, the Bachmann 66 also has form for this.

 

I guess because we're paying more, people are less tolerant of duds; and speaking anecdotally, post covid, we seem to be in a much less tolerant world anyway.   

 

[curlypaws]

The video seemed rather unfair to Hattons, although they must also accept some blame for how they couched their reply. If you weather a locomotive, I think you really put any chance of a refund in jeopardy. However, Hattons should have offered a repair since it seems reasonably unlikely that the modifications caused the issue which the purchaser saw.

 

I feel that it is unfortunate to see YouTubers using their large subscriber bases to get preferential treatment on such things. It damages the manufacturers by blowing up problems which could be the result of track issues, controller issues or (indeed) a small proportion of quality control issues. Accurascale have handled it as well as could be expected, but mud sticks. I don't think it benefits the hobby in the long term to use your platform to demonise a manufacturer for attempting to produce highly detailed locomotives at very reasonable prices when the issues could sometimes lie on the purchaser's side.

[atom3624]

I've had 'the motor issue' which was quickly resolved by Accurascale without any delay - many thanks.

I've a 'loose laid' track on the garage floor - small part is carpet, most concrete, so definitely no major engineering standards.

I had a 'series 1 Deltic' which kept derailing - I'm assuming it's probably through an issue indicated in this recent 37 derailing video.

That Class 37, a Loch Lomond, has never had a single running issue - never derails and performs perfectly (before and after motor change).

As just stated, A/S have handled all situations very professionally, and THANK YOU for that.

Al.

[LNERandBR]

Certainly, derailing can be the fault of the track or rolling stock. Just because one item of rolling stock goes through an area of track another derails on doesn't always means the fault lies with the offending stock. The track and rolling stock should be investigated as a possible cause of issues and any problems found removed. Certainly, Charlie said that he had spotted a problem with his track and was going to iron it out.

In the case of the decoder fault in the video, I think Hatton's response was due to the purchaser asking for a refund. They effectively then get back a model they cannot sell on as 'brand new'.

If they'd been asked for a repair then I assume the correct response would be for the model to go back to Hattons who I assume would then have used their 'buyer rights' to contact Accurascale for the warranty repair.  

[meatloaf]

Could lance not ask hattons to take it back and send it to accurascale for attention?

 

Then assuming he gets a fresh loco back he could then either keep it or sell it on?

 

EDIT : Noticed in the video comments that accurascale are replacing the decoder - top job to the accuradcale guys.

 

Also a lot of people blaming hattons. In this case tho i can see where they are coming from. The model wasnt as recieved so they couldnt refund. 

Edited January 6 by meatloaf

[ERIC ALLTORQUE]

I dont see why Lance had not sorted with Hattons to send it for repair,perhaps its the one who was a bit shadey riding pushbikes,will swell the you tube clicks for the channel i guess,the sound issue has been well discused here,would it not be better done with speakers in series to improve the issue before run two?? @Accurascale

[Accurascale Fran]

Hi everyone,

 

Just with regard the decoder failure in this video and worries about warranty around a loco that has been weathered; while the warranty is voided when it comes to replacing the “cosmetic” elements of the locomotive (which is understandable and in line with others) the “drivetrain” is of course still covered by us, such as motor, PCB and the decoder. We certainly would not leave someone “go without” like as what’s happened here. Weathering the loco has not resulted in the sound decoder failing after all.

 

Naturally, we have reached out directly and a new sound decoder will be provided to Lance from us. 
 

The 37 “fail” rate is percentage wise our lowest to date we are delighted to report and it is also our biggest production run of a single loco to date by some distance. We are currently working with ESU to ensure such bugs will not affect future production runs such as the sound cutting out on some Class 37 models, and a better solution to remedy current locos overall. We will of course communicate this in due course.

 

As ever, if anyone has any issue whatsoever, with any Accurascale product, we always encourage you to email us or message us direct via our website. This gets you in contact with our staff with tech know how and it also allows us to track and record issues to help us become better in the future. A post on a forum can always be missed and doesn't always lead to getting an issue getting resolved as effectively like direct contact with us or your retailer does. It’s literally what our customer and tech support is there for.

 

I hope this helps.

 

Cheers!

 

Fran

Edited January 6 by Accurascale Fran

[Widnes Model Centre]

22 minutes ago, meatloaf said:

Could lance not ask hattons to take it back and send it to accurascale for attention?

 

Then assuming he gets a fresh loco back he could then either keep it or sell it on?

 

Also a lot of people blaming hattons. In this case tho i can see where they are coming from. The model wasnt as recieved so they couldnt refund. 

I agree, Hattons have been placed in a very awkward position. 
 

Most manufacturers can be difficult to deal with when it comes to situations like this.

 

Very recently we have had to deal with issues of warranty returns. Sometimes waiting months and the customer rightly so becomes impatient and asked for a refund. We agreed with his stand and refund was given.

 

Customer contacts manufacturer and told to return to retailer. Customer posts it back to us at our cost, we forward again at our cost to manufacturer. Manufacturer return to us, we send it back at our cost to customer. At the end of the day l really can’t understand that level of service, albeit the customer remains our responsibility.

 

Shouldn’t customer service should also be the responsibility to retailers from the manufacturer? Only Hornby make this process relatively simple.

[Accurascale Fran]

3 minutes ago, Widnes Model Centre said:

I agree, Hattons have been placed in a very awkward position. 
 

Most manufacturers can be difficult to deal with when it comes to situations like this.

 

Very recently we have had to deal with issues of warranty returns. Sometimes waiting months and the customer rightly so becomes impatient and asked for a refund. We agreed with his stand and refund was given.

 

Customer contacts manufacturer and told to return to retailer. Customer posts it back to us at our cost, we forward again at our cost to manufacturer. Manufacturer return to us, we send it back at our cost to customer. At the end of the day l really can’t understand that level of service, albeit the customer remains our responsibility.

 

Shouldn’t customer service should also be the responsibility to retailers from the manufacturer? Only Hornby make this process relatively simple.

Hi Barry,

 

For clarity sake, Hattons were not placed in any sort of “awkward position” by the manufacturer (us) in this instance as they never contacted us about this issue. The first we heard of it was mention in this video. 
 

Cheers!

 

Fran

 

 

[Widnes Model Centre]

8 minutes ago, Accurascale Fran said:

Hi Barry,

 

For clarity sake, Hattons were not placed in any sort of “awkward position” by the manufacturer (us) in this instance as they never contacted us about this issue. The first we heard of it was mention in this video. 
 

Cheers!

 

Fran

 

 

Hi Fran,

Not sure why you think l was referring to yourselves? I didn’t mention Accurascale but referred to manufacturers in general when dealing with this type of issue. 

[Accurascale Fran]

18 minutes ago, Widnes Model Centre said:

Hi Fran,

Not sure why you think l was referring to yourselves? I didn’t mention Accurascale but referred to manufacturers in general when dealing with this type of issue. 

Hi Barry,

 

I never said you did? I was referring to your opening sentence;

 

”I agree, Hattons have been placed in a very awkward position” 

 

I was merely pointing out that we had not placed them in an awkward position for clarity.

 

Cheers!

 

Fran

[LNERandBR]

Very easy to make incorrect assumptions when manufacturers are not named and it's a thread about a product by one specific manufacturer 😅

[Legend]

3 hours ago, curlypaws said:

 

 

I feel that it is unfortunate to see YouTubers using their large subscriber bases to get preferential treatment on such things. It damages the manufacturers by blowing up problems which could be the result of track issues, controller issues or (indeed) a small proportion of quality control issues. Accurascale have handled it as well as could be expected, but mud sticks. I don't think it benefits the hobby in the long term to use your platform to demonise a manufacturer for attempting to produce highly detailed locomotives at very reasonable prices when the issues could sometimes lie on the purchaser's side.

I thought it was quite a measured piece by Charlie , who is after all Model Railway You Tuber of the Year .  It was very informative , particularly his issue with derailing class 37 , which has given me food for thought on a similar issue I’ve had with their Deltic . I have no doubt it’s my poor trackwork to blame , although all other models sail through ok, but at least I know what to look out for , and it could be the all wheel drive or finer tolerances of Accurascale models just accentuate the problem . 

 

I commend Charlie for this . As I said it is measured and it’s dealing with an issue that would never see the light of day in a Model  Railway Mag . We are better informed as a result of his video .