Farish 03

[Clay Country]

I have a few Scottish distillers polybulks and I've seen photos of 03s shuffling these around Ipswich docks. There's something appealing about running big wagons with small locos.

[54Strat]

Got a blue and a green one today. The details are superb on both and they really do look the part The green one's running in and settling in very smoothly as I type and looks just great. Unfortunately the blue one was a non runner straight from the box so it'll go back tomorrow. I'm putting in down to a run of bad luck as it's the second new loco to go back in as many weeks for me.

 

I like the new box inserts too.

 

Paul

[Adam1701D]

Received my blue 03 from Rails this morning. Not had a chance to run it yet but what a superb little model.

 

[Adam1701D]

Just added a dab of Rail Blue to the cab handrail knobs. A minor tweak but really makes a big difference!

[Dave777]

Some photos.

 

 

New box means there's a lot of bits to the packaging:

 

 

 

The loco sits in a sort of 'bubble/sandwich' between two vacuum packed bits of plastic (that's a poor description, I admit!):

 

 

 

 

Various bufferbeam attachments are stored behind the loco:

 

 

 

General shots:

 

 

 

 

 

You can see the slight paint damage to the nose on this one - top left of the nose as we look at it:

 

 

Easy touch up with paint or weathering. What I hadn't noticed until I looked at the photo was the tiny 'radiator filling' writing at the bottom left of the radiator - extraordinary.

 

 

Here's what mine will trundle round with - a Farish conflat as a runner:

 

[justin1985]

I managed to pick up a rail blue example at Warley today - after hunting high and low - plenty of the green ones everywhere, but almost all stands said they had already sold out of the blue 03s!

 

I can only echo everyone else's comments that it is a cracking little model, and looks superb!

 

However, even after the required running in, it does seem to have a very fast minimum speed! Just the slightest turn of the controller from off to barely on sends it off at a pretty fast pace. I noticed the big gear on the bottom was pretty full with gooey thick oil, which I partially removed and then oiled with some thin Dapol oil. This seems to have improved it, but only a bit.

 

The fact that the fast speed starts from such a low voltage implies that its down to a lack of gearing, rather than much friction in the mechanism. Perhaps a small high quality DCC decoder will allow the speed to be tweaked down quite a bit? Does anyone have any experience of this on the 04 (I believe same mechanism).

 

Many thanks

 

Justin

[rope runner]

I managed to pick up a rail blue example at Warley today - after hunting high and low - plenty of the green ones everywhere, but almost all stands said they had already sold out of the blue 03s!

 

I can only echo everyone else's comments that it is a cracking little model, and looks superb!

 

However, even after the required running in, it does seem to have a very fast minimum speed! Just the slightest turn of the controller from off to barely on sends it off at a pretty fast pace. I noticed the big gear on the bottom was pretty full with gooey thick oil, which I partially removed and then oiled with some thin Dapol oil. This seems to have improved it, but only a bit.

 

The fact that the fast speed starts from such a low voltage implies that its down to a lack of gearing, rather than much friction in the mechanism. Perhaps a small high quality DCC decoder will allow the speed to be tweaked down quite a bit? Does anyone have any experience of this on the 04 (I believe same mechanism).

 

Many thanks

 

Justin

 

Hi Justin,

 

My 04 is very good at slow sustained running, much moreso than the farish 08.

Most agree that it is a very good runner (expect maybe over pointwork...)

 

if it is the same mechanism, which I also heard it was, then it sounds like you've got a duffer.

 

I'd give it a few more hours running-in and see if it gets any better.

 

Hope this helps

 

Paul A

[justin1985]

Hi Paul,

 

Thanks for the quick reply! I'm not sure on this one ... I did get a new Farish 08 at one point, but returned it as a dud on the basis of the lack of slow running. Either I'm very unlucky, or my expectations are too high for Farish shunters!

 

The fact that so little power (although my analogue controller is just a trainset controller, so not that precise) sets the 03 off at what I perceive as a high speed doesn't really make any logical sense in terms of a fault. At the same power level, most of my locos wouldn't be moving - so I can't see there being a problem with any component of the drive. Hence the thought that chipping the loco would allow much finer control of the bottom end of the voltage range to the motor.

 

Perhaps I'm just expecting Dapol cl.58 style slow running, but from a loco in which there simply isn't the room to gear accordingly?

 

Justin

[justin1985]

Having investigated further with a multimeter, my old Hornby trainset controller is outputting a constant 14v (so apparently using PWM). However, the 03 starts moving at its apparent "slowest" speed immediately the voltage is applied. i.e. the first one or two notches of the controller don't actually offer any voltage, then at the first one where power is supplied (tested with and without loco) the 03 starts running.

 

The problem therefore seems to be that my old controller simply doesn't offer a low enough (apparent) voltage via PWM to run the 03 at a lower speed. (and by implication my other locos require a considerably higher starting voltage, presumably due to greater friction in their mechanisms etc).

 

So, probably time to retire the old DC controller! Any recommendations for a decent cheap DC controller? I use a Flesichmann\Roco Multimaus is my main controller, but need something DC to test locos before chipping them etc

 

Justin

[Revolution Mike]

Hi Justin

 

I use one of the cheapo Bachmann train set controllers that come with their sets to test/run in locos before chipping them. I got mine with a 150, but you can often find them split out from sets either by retailers or on ebay for cheap.

 

Cheers, Mike

[english electric]

older Hornby controllers have a higher ampage so this affects the running, new stuff nowadays runs faster and is less controlable at slow speeds, with a older controller, we were using a hammant n morgan controller and they were 2 amp, the locos ran hot n you could smell the pcb getting warm, so we bought 2 from a set and problem solved but only catch is now the older trains run slow as since the amps aint there, This will probably be the fault you are having with it, this was in oo gauge but a modern controller from a set should solve this issue like it did on my dads oo layout, Hope that helps

 

I got the br blue class 03 today and im well impressed with it and think they have done a splendid job with it and looks well with my oo n o gauge ones

[Nile]

Any recommendations for a decent cheap DC controller? I use a Flesichmann\Roco Multimaus is my main controller, but need something DC to test locos before chipping them etc Justin

 

I too would recommend a Bachmann trainset controller,if you can get hold of one cheaply.

But I have another suggestion.Since you already have a DCC controller,have you considered using a DCC chip to drive your test track with DC?

A 1amp rated chip should be fine.

[Dave777]

Same here, I use one of these...

 

http://www.ehattons.com/19904/Bachmann_UK_36_560_Plug_in_0_7_amp_transformer_with_seperate_speed_controller_track_connector_wires_and_power_clip/StockDetail.aspx

 

...which I assume is what others are referring to. Small, easy to use, and slow speed control. Typically selling on eBay for half the Hattons price too.

[justin1985]

Thanks for all the advice on controllers - I'll keep a look out for a good deal on a Bachmann trainset controller (in fact I'm quite tempted to get a Sprinter trainset ... but must resist ... ).

 

To update on my cl.03 - I've just fitted a CT elektronik DC74z decoder following instructions for the 04 from Nigel Cliffe and at Leksicom and now it runs like a dream. I used Nigel's guidelines for programming the CVs (as CT elektronik provide no documentation at all!) and now its controllable down to a barely perceptible crawl. Even half way up the controller's speed dial it takes the best part of a minute to travel around a circle of first radius set-track! Very impressed!

 

Fitting the decoder wasn't the easiest job in the world, and as I was too scared to trim the wires back to the bare minimum on a relatively expensive decoder, the chip is quite poorly hidden within the cab, along with copious amounts of insulating tape. The cab roof gets quite hot to the touch now - is the 18v my Multimaus chucks out safe for this decoder?

 

Justin

[NZmodeller]

Thanks for all the advice on controllers - I'll keep a look out for a good deal on a Bachmann trainset controller (in fact I'm quite tempted to get a Sprinter trainset ... but must resist ... ).

 

To update on my cl.03 - I've just fitted a CT elektronik DC74z decoder following instructions for the 04 from Nigel Cliffe and at Leksicom and now it runs like a dream. I used Nigel's guidelines for programming the CVs (as CT elektronik provide no documentation at all!) and now its controllable down to a barely perceptible crawl. Even half way up the controller's speed dial it takes the best part of a minute to travel around a circle of first radius set-track! Very impressed!

 

Fitting the decoder wasn't the easiest job in the world, and as I was too scared to trim the wires back to the bare minimum on a relatively expensive decoder, the chip is quite poorly hidden within the cab, along with copious amounts of insulating tape. The cab roof gets quite hot to the touch now - is the 18v my Multimaus chucks out safe for this decoder?

 

Justin

I have an 08 and 04 both chipped with CT Elektronik, definately the way to go, both run very slow. I run the 04 with a shunting truck with pickups so the loco and truck are obviously permanently coupled with 2 wires between. I've been tempted to try and put the decoder in the truck one day so the cab would be free of clutter, the main problem being the requirement for 4 very thin and very flexible wires.

 

Anyone managed to do this?

 

Peter

[Dr Al]

I'm still in the market for an 03 chassis if any of you 2mm folks are converting!

 

Cheers,

Alan

[Etched Pixels]

[quote name='NZmodeller' timestamp='1322173300' post='540188'

]the decoder in the truck one day so the cab would be free of clutter, the main problem being the requirement for 4 very thin and very flexible wires.

 

I used the tinyest square CT decoder and that would fit below the window level so was near enough invisible. On the 07 I stuck one of the same decoders to the cab roof and ran the wires down the cab window pillars so it can be hidden, just.

 

I have run four wires between two vehicles without problem using very fine decoder wire and keeping it low down (the lower it is the less leverage it has to topple a vehicle). I do need to try this as I'd like to fit an 04 with sound and there is no way that will fit in the loco itself ! A brakevan would sort of work but the actual prototypical vehicles seem to be one of the longer conflat wagons for the most part.

[Crepello]

I notice that my blue 03 has black buffer beams whereas the OO model (from the Farish site) has yellow ones. Does anyone know when the prototype 03066 went black or yellow?

[Elvinley]

Fantastic loco. I have one so far and three 04s. They all run brilliantly. As long as the pickups are adjusted properly they will even negotiate points with long insulated frogs at a reasonable speed without a murmur.