Cavalex - all new Class 56 in OO

[Zunnan]

3 hours ago, 33212 said:

Hello, I have 56023 and what a stunning model it is, looks and sounds great. One issue I have is hauling capability. I have a rake of 29 Hornby HAA’s, the high detailed versions, and prior to the arrival of the 56, a single Heljan class 33 was utilised to haul the combo out of the storage sidings, up a curving ramp to the helix and up the helix and away. The 33 is a non sound loco. I also use Bachmann 47’s on it now and again but being a Kent modeller, 33’s were the staple traction, until replaced by 56’s…. Anyway, the Heljan 33 will haul all 29 up the Helix and if allowed will just get faster and faster, the Cavalex 56 does not even get the train up the approach ramp. I have reduced the formation by single wagons over multiple tests, it sits there screaming and wheels spinning with 19 wagons at which point I gave up. Has anyone else tried the Cavalex 56 with a challenging trains on a hilly layout?  I’d have expected it to handle it no problem. I have not tried it without sound yet, would that affect power delivery?

 

thanks

 

Matt

When one of mine arrived with telltale skewed bogies on the cradle I pretty much expected traction issues straight away. It could barely move itself on level track and stalled out entirely on slips. I’ve not yet got into the gear towers to check the clips, but I can tell it’s gear related as it sounds like a cheese grater. The affected bogie was also sitting a good 5mm forward of where it belongs too. Overall a really impressive model, but I’m not so impressed with the cradle which is capable of allowing such drivetrain damage. I would not be surprised that if I store a model back in its box and the act of screwing it back into its cradle pops the gear tower if the bogies aren’t aligned properly while it’s inverted to get the screws back in…

[Erixtar1992]

Its pretty simple really though, plonk it on the cradle, turn it over and loosely fit screws, then locate the bogies properly before nipping them up.

 

If you take your time it works well

[RBE]

17 minutes ago, Zunnan said:

When one of mine arrived with telltale skewed bogies on the cradle I pretty much expected traction issues straight away. It could barely move itself on level track and stalled out entirely on slips. I’ve not yet got into the gear towers to check the clips, but I can tell it’s gear related as it sounds like a cheese grater. The affected bogie was also sitting a good 5mm forward of where it belongs too. Overall a really impressive model, but I’m not so impressed with the cradle which is capable of allowing such drivetrain damage. I would not be surprised that if I store a model back in its box and the act of screwing it back into its cradle pops the gear tower if the bogies aren’t aligned properly while it’s inverted to get the screws back in…

Tbh we are questioning whether it's a cradle issue or simply that the clips were not pushed fully home at the factory. Once on they are very hard to get off. It seems unlikely that screwing to the cradle would pop them.

Edited February 18 by RBE

[taliesin]

4 hours ago, 33212 said:

Ok thank you, I’ll research what that is and assume its an easy fix at home?

 

If you search back through this thread you’ll find what you need, pages 58 and 59

Edited February 18 by taliesin
More info

[Woowooo437]

Very useful to have pages numbers ^ in an 89 page thread. Took me 30 minutes to locate this info. on page 59. My experience is similar. Loco stalled in a couple places that no other loco has ever stalled. As soon as I read the stuff about the worm cover popping off I knew that was the issue I had. As the boss sez the solution is easy, but fiddly. Removing all the little plugs and screws to get the circuit board, fans and decoder off needs a bit of careful work. All fixed now and loco running fab. Other issue is my irritation with Rails. As someone else noted I to ordered (inc deposit) in 2022. I am not in the UK and when I got the note about being short supplied and wanting to supply a non sound item professionally upgraded I accepted, but concluded others that ordered after me, but easier to ship to, were getting priority. I don't believe orders were shipped in the order they were received, and I dont like this. After getting this fabulous model I will order at least one 60. But it may not be from Rails.  

[RBE]

8 minutes ago, Woowooo437 said:

Very useful to have pages numbers ^ in an 89 page thread. Took me 30 minutes to locate this info. on page 59. My experience is similar. Loco stalled in a couple places that no other loco has ever stalled. As soon as I read the stuff about the worm cover popping off I knew that was the issue I had. As the boss sez the solution is easy, but fiddly. Removing all the little plugs and screws to get the circuit board, fans and decoder off needs a bit of careful work. All fixed now and loco running fab. Other issue is my irritation with Rails. As someone else noted I to ordered (inc deposit) in 2022. I am not in the UK and when I got the note about being short supplied and wanting to supply a non sound item professionally upgraded I accepted, but concluded others that ordered after me, but easier to ship to, were getting priority. I don't believe orders were shipped in the order they were received, and I dont like this. After getting this fabulous model I will order at least one 60. But it may not be from Rails.  

You don't have to take the circuit board out. You can easily clip it back on through the access holes.

[zr2498]

Excellent review from Eric 👍

 

 

[Woowooo437]

Yep I attempted that first. I suspect if you are as familiar with the model as you guys must be you can do that. Me, I'm just an amateur and I couldn't really see what I was trying to do. I just decided I needed to get a better view of exactly what I was fiddling with.   

[JohnC]

Cannot get over how superb this loco is. Round so smoothly and great set of functions. Could not resist putting Robin on the cement today!! 😃😃

 

[PeterH]

Ran my pair on the club layout Silverbury at Risex yesterday, both ran really well and were certainly noticeably noisier than other locos on the layout!

[Erixtar1992]

1 hour ago, zr2498 said:

Excellent review from Eric 👍

 

 

Thanks thats nice of you, i probably waffled on far too long!

[Marcoblanco]

With the latest high spec models being all 20+ functions and very few systems being able to go beyond 20 it has become apparent that someone needs to develop a cheap control system which is app based run by tablet/smartphone for 30 functions.  

[Erixtar1992]

16 minutes ago, Marcoblanco said:

With the latest high spec models being all 20+ functions and very few systems being able to go beyond 20 it has become apparent that someone needs to develop a cheap control system which is app based run by tablet/smartphone for 30 functions.  

28 functions is pretty normal for most decent dcc systems no?

[Bryn_Bach_Railway]

16 minutes ago, Marcoblanco said:

With the latest high spec models being all 20+ functions and very few systems being able to go beyond 20 it has become apparent that someone needs to develop a cheap control system which is app based run by tablet/smartphone for 30 functions.  

There’s always DCC-EX, does require a bit of technical knowledge but it’s all decently well documented and easy to follow. Around about the £50 mark in total for the control and WiFi for phone control too. Can like up to jmri as well. 

[Bryn_Bach_Railway]

1 minute ago, Erixtar1992 said:

28 functions is pretty normal for most decent dcc systems no?

Pretty sure most do, even the gauge master prodigy express 2 (you can’t see what you’ve activated above F12, but you can turn them on and off, just no visual)

[newbryford]

23 minutes ago, Marcoblanco said:

With the latest high spec models being all 20+ functions and very few systems being able to go beyond 20 it has become apparent that someone needs to develop a cheap control system which is app based run by tablet/smartphone for 30 functions.  

 

There are free apps out there like Engine Driver, but it's the interface to the base station that can cost extra. (see below). They need some form of wifi connection.

Although some base stations like the Digikeijs DR5000 have built in wifi. 

 

The Wifitraxx module for £80-odd for NCE systems and hopefully the Hornby HM7000 dongle will be a low-cost solution for Xpressnet (Lenz) for £40 are a couple of examples.

[black and decker boy]

3 hours ago, PeterH said:

Ran my pair on the club layout Silverbury at Risex yesterday, both ran really well and were certainly noticeably noisier than other locos on the layout!

Really pleased you did as I enjoyed watching (and listening) to them.

 

nice layout by the way

[Zunnan]

6 hours ago, RBE said:

Tbh we are questioning whether it's a cradle issue or simply that the clips were not pushed fully home at the factory. Once on they are very hard to get off. It seems unlikely that screwing to the cradle would pop them.

 

Hopefully it is proven to be the latter, as that is just a case of tightening up on assembly (no pun intended). That and it also means that we as customers aren't likely to initiate these failures should we need to store the models away in their own packaging; I've lost count of the minor damage from simply rushing to clear away at the end of an exhibition over the years. It really is the only thing which has taken the gloss of what is a quite significant step forward in the British RTR market. As much as I can't wait for the SLW Rats to arrive as my most anticipated model for many years, I just don't see them surpassing the quality of the Grids you've produced, if they're even close I'll be more than chuffed. Roll on the next batch, and the logical choice of a class 58 after the 60!

[RBE]

36 minutes ago, Zunnan said:

 

Hopefully it is proven to be the latter, as that is just a case of tightening up on assembly (no pun intended). That and it also means that we as customers aren't likely to initiate these failures should we need to store the models away in their own packaging; I've lost count of the minor damage from simply rushing to clear away at the end of an exhibition over the years. It really is the only thing which has taken the gloss of what is a quite significant step forward in the British RTR market. As much as I can't wait for the SLW Rats to arrive as my most anticipated model for many years, I just don't see them surpassing the quality of the Grids you've produced, if they're even close I'll be more than chuffed. Roll on the next batch, and the logical choice of a class 58 after the 60!

Having fitted the clips to a few returns I can now understand 1: How hard it is to apply the clip from the top and ensure that it engaged both sides fully without specifically checking afterwards and 2: How much force is required to pop them off when you want to remove a bogie. 

 

Based on this I would air towards them not being fully home during assembly. 

 

Needless to say we have made the factory aware of the issue and also already tweaked the tooling for the clips in the next run to make it easier to fit positively.

 

On the cradle, we do not intend to move away from this as it protect ms the models and their detail like nothing else. However we do intent to change the design a little where the wheels sit, and also add thumbscrews rather than normal screws to make removal and reattachment easier.

 

I personally have an easier time putting locos back in this than clam packaging, I guess it's down to practice.

Edited February 18 by RBE

[Southwich]

34 minutes ago, RBE said:

Having fitted the clips to a few returns I can now understand 1: How hard it is to apply the clip from the top and ensure that it engaged both sides fully without specifically checking afterwards and 2: How much force is required to pop them off when you want to remove a bogie. 

 

Based on this I would air towards them not being fully home during assembly. 

 

Needless to say we have made the factory aware of the issue and also already tweaked the tooling for the clips in the next run to make it easier to fit positively.

 

On the cradle, we do not intend to move away from this as it protect ms the models and their detail like nothing else. However we do intent to change the design a little where the wheels sit, and also add thumbscrews rather than normal screws to make removal and reattachment easier.

 

I personally have an easier time putting locos back in this than clam packaging, I guess it's down to practice.

Just on this I have flown back to Australia over the weekend with three grids in my hold stored luggage and they have been protected perfectly. The cradle has worked really well and ensured there is not a mark on the loco nor are there any bits floating about in the box. Safe to say the box has done its job! 

 

Kind regards,

 

Will

[Erixtar1992]

2 minutes ago, Southwich said:

Just on this I have flown back to Australia over the weekend with three grids in my hold stored luggage and they have been protected perfectly. The cradle has worked really well and ensured there is not a mark on the loco nor are there any bits floating about in the box. Safe to say the box has done its job! 

 

Kind regards,

 

Will

You will need lots of magnets for running them upside down now! :-D

[newbryford]

26 minutes ago, Southwich said:

Just on this I have flown back to Australia over the weekend with three grids in my hold stored luggage and they have been protected perfectly. The cradle has worked really well and ensured there is not a mark on the loco nor are there any bits floating about in the box. Safe to say the box has done its job! 

 

Kind regards,

 

Will

 

I bet that confused Aussie Border Patrol.

 

"Is that a 56 in your pocket, or are you pleased to see me?"

[bradfordbuffer]

24 minutes ago, newbryford said:

 

I bet that confused Aussie Border Patrol.

 

"Is that a 56 in your pocket, or are you pleased to see me?"

Narr.... border control Wouldn't Give an XXXX for ......

 

For the under 30s castlemaine xxxx was caned beer that tasted like rotten snake pee last sold in uk 2009? Couldent give a xxxx !

Subtitles for the under 30s!

[Going2theDogs]

Hi All,

I have posted a video on my channel on the 2 No. class 56 that I have added to my fleet.

Have a look at 

 

Edited February 19 by Going2theDogs

[Bryn_Bach_Railway]

Not had any luck with the Zimo decoders, and the fact that the rear cab works but no other logic level functions do. And that also happens to be the one with the biggest change in voltage, I’m starting to think it’s a general incompatibility, especially as the chip works fine in other locos on the same functions. 
 

Partially due to this, but also the AS37’s and 10 forthcoming AS 66’s. I’ve fast-tracked getting a DCC base station that will connect with jmri so I can get the specific esu file loaded, as well as being able to change it to my liking. 
 

however looking at Lokpilot 5 21pin chips, there seems to be a few different options. I don’t really see the point in paying more for a pre-programmed one as I’ll be changing it all about once I get the basestation and jmri working, but not sure which standard lokpilot is required. Does anyone have the product code or a like to the right one?

 

being completely honest, I’m not massively happy that esu chips are basically required. But I also don’t blame cavalex or accurascale for going to esu for help with the wiring and circuitry. It does however seem like esu have unfortunately taken the opportunity to make the models quite difficult to use without their own decoders. part of me does wonder if it’s part of the reason ESU prefer to use 21 pin rather than plux22 (a more refined and set in stone standard) but that’s a discussion for a different thread and not here. Any help with finding the right standard lokpilot is much appreciated :)

Edited February 19 by Bryn_Bach_Railway