UK-based modeler, seeks new-release US (HO) model...

[46444]

 

I know that you prefer buying this loco from a UK supplier but if you do not succeed you can always try Trainworld in New York, USA.

I have had excellent service from them...................................................................

It does cost a little more but its worth it sometimes.

 

I would totally agree with Jaques sentiments here. I pre-ordered an Athearn SOO GP38-2 with DCC sound at the start of the year and it arrived last week well packaged with excellent communication from the shop as well.  

 

They do a full on Hattons style ad in Model Railroader as well.

 

There is no massive difference in the price you pay between ordering from UK or US companies. The UK price will look higher because it already factors in the shipping & VAT. The US price listing will be cheaper but you'll still pay shipping & VAT; in my experience there's no big difference.

 

I'd agree with F-Unit here totally.  I think in total I ended up paying around just over the £200 mark and that was also including paying HMRC £40 for the SOO GP38-2.

 

If you want this particular CSX loco it may well be worth biting the bullet and ordering directly from the States.  Everything I've brought either from a store or eBay.com has been well packaged, arrived safely and there's been some great customer service.

[torikoos]

There's also this (german ) supplier of US models.  I didn't check if they had a CSX GP38-2 in stock, but certainly worth ordering from for anything else too.

 

http://www.rd-hobby.de

 

Koos

[AndrewC]

Steve, as many of us have found to our detriment, US manufacturers see Europe as a secondary market. If they can sell 100% of a run in the US they will. Same applies for Canada where I know of many shops that have been stiffed on pre-orders in the past. To be blunt they don't give a crap about shipping outside of the lower 48 when they can flog the whole batch locally. (there are some suppliers and manufacturers that honour all their retailer's pre-orders though, Rapido for example) All you can do is bite the bullet and order from a US supplier that has stock. Keep the orders as small as you can and no more than one every 3 months and with luck you will get the odd one that slips through customs. The real crapper is that HMRC charges VAT on the postage. So if you aren't in a hurry go for the slowest and cheapest shipping to save those pennies.

[steveNCB7754]

Steve, as many of us have found to our detriment, US manufacturers see Europe as a secondary market. If they can sell 100% of a run in the US they will. Same applies for Canada where I know of many shops that have been stiffed on pre-orders in the past. To be blunt they don't give a crap about shipping outside of the lower 48 when they can flog the whole batch locally. (there are some suppliers and manufacturers that honour all their retailer's pre-orders though, Rapido for example) All you can do is bite the bullet and order from a US supplier that has stock. Keep the orders as small as you can and no more than one every 3 months and with luck you will get the odd one that slips through customs. The real crapper is that HMRC charges VAT on the postage. So if you aren't in a hurry go for the slowest and cheapest shipping to save those pennies.

 

Thanks for the insight -  it certainly explains a lot.

 

There have been a couple of German retailers suggested.  Presumably, it makes no difference (in the potential additional costs) whether you buy from another EU country, or from the States?

[AndrewC]

Thanks for the insight -  it certainly explains a lot.

 

There have been a couple of German retailers suggested.  Presumably, it makes no difference (in the potential additional costs) whether you buy from another EU country, or from the States?

There will be no customs or vat charges coming from Germany to the UK, only the postage/shipping.  However, the items will have already been marked up to include the shipping from US to DE and German VAT. you will however save the £13 rip off handling charge.

[Alcanman]

I've just bought bought an 'as new' Atlas dcc sound fitted loco on US e-bay which arrived today. I had to pay £33.53 to Royal Mail for customs/VAT. 

 

Total costs came to £189.84 which is comparable to buying a similar new loco in the UK with some now in excess of £200.00.

 

However, I'm pleased to be able to buy a loco which is no longer available.

 

I've also purchased from Trainworld and wouldn't hesitate to use them again. Also they use UPS air mail which delivers to the UK in a few days.

 

Mal

[Parthia27]

If you cannot find it in the UK there are 3 U.S. Retailers who you need to look at: Trainworld (excellent prices and their shipping service via DHL is unbelievably fast); MB Klein (again good prices and shipping fast but not as fast as Trainworld, and Caboose Hobbies (as withMB Klein). All three are experienced international retailers, offer excellent service, have an on line shopping portal and in my experience always have the stock they show on line. If these companies are out of stock I would recommend Spring Creek models but you will have to phone through your card details. You will be burnt for customs 9/10 times but price wise it all come down to roughly the same price as. UK bought model. I've just had a sound equipped Genesis Iowa Interstate GP38-2 from Trainworld, ordered on a Thursday, arrived the following Tuesday - better shipping than a lot of UK suppliers, full tracking via DHL, easy customs transaction, what more do you want.

Cheers

Chris

 

Edit: I do always look to place business with Model Junction or LSWR whenever possible as I believe it is important to our hobby, but often and understandably they cannot stock everything from the US all of the time. If you are prepared preorder and wait they are usually able to get the item you want, but it will not be as quick as going to the US directly and sometimes for commercial or other genuine reasons they do find they are unable to fulfil an order, but in my experience this is rare.

[steveNCB7754]

... will any UK supplier eventually get one of these models, or is Ebay or ordering direct from the US (and the inevitable 'extra' charges on arrival) the only way for us to get one?

 

 

To all,

 

Just an update, to say that I finally 'bit the bullet' and placed an order for the GP38-2 loco (Athearn #G40832 HO GP38-2 w/DCC & Sound, CSX #2743), with Train World, New York.  Naturally, I would have preferred to have bought it from a UK supplier, but that option seems to be a non-starter.  The German retailer, who had but one when I first looked a week ago, was (perhaps not unsurprisingly) out of stock when I finally got around to it.

 

Placed the order on Friday at 03:49 PM (EST presumably?) and the order status became 'Completed' just over an hour later, around 04:52 PM.  Chose the DHL Air option (not the cheapest, but cheaper than most apparently).  Nothing has actually appeared on my credit card account yet, but the shipping, packing, etc. gets added later, so I guess that has to be figured out first and then added to the final bill.

 

Thanks to all, for the advice, encouragement and accounts of their personal experiences - I will report back, to let you know how I got on.

 

 

SteveN

[steveNCB7754]

 

...thanks to all, for the advice, encouragement and accounts of their personal experiences - I will report back, to let you know how I got on.

 

 

'The CSX Eagle Has Landed!'

 

Well, it (Athearn Genesis GP38-2 w/Sound) actually landed yesterday, but my order from Trainworld (New York) has finally made it to yours truly's humble abode.

 

Cost?  Well the loco itself was $209.99 or £135.90 on the Trainworld website.  Add the shipping, etc. and the total cost at that point was £165.46 (on handover to DHL).  After arriving at East Midlands Airport, the package made its way to the DHL Southampton depot, were it was held until payment of a further £35.00 to cover VAT and 'Handling'.  Which makes a grand total of £200.46 delivered -  not bad I feel, for a new, limited-run, DCC/Tsunami sound-equipped HO loco.

 

The loco?  Very impressive.  Carefully extracted it from its packaging the same evening (it was undamaged) and placed it on my short display track, hooked up to my Digitrax DCS-51 'Zephyr' DCC controller.  Switch on and the loco (sound) starts up straight away.  Seems a bit rapid on the throttle, but I managed to achieve slow running with care and I can look at any performance/momentum tweaks later.  Lights work (including flashing ditch lights), bell and horn sounds great, although my first reaction was, 'that sound level will need reducing'.  The latter will need pursuing on the DCC forum, because (as far as I can make out), my controller (as with many others) cannot 'talk' to the Soundtraxx Tsunami chip at the moment (believe me, I tried to no avail) -  so 'watch this space'.

 

Now I finally have the loco, I suppose I had better get down to more serious planning...

[jrossouw79]

Good day Steve!

Congrats on you're new purchase.

I am also awaiting a new package from Trainworld.

Ordered on Monday and according to the DHL tracking it went from NY to Cincinatti to EMA to London Heathrow to finally Cape Town in less than a week!

Amazing!

Can expect the DHL van on Monday morning.

 

I found the following youtube vids to be helpful when I tuned my Tsunami equipped locos.

Part 1:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrB4MUrrbB4

 

and

 

Part 2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XBVmH9AzVc

 

I am also using a Digitrax Zephyr system and had great difficulty changing the loco address to a 4-digit address.

Found this link to be helpful with that:

http://www.atlasrr.com/DCC/Procedure%20for%20Programming%204-Digit%20Addresses%20on%20Main%20Line.pdf

 

Cheers

Jacques

[steveNCB7754]

Good day Steve!

Congrats on you're new purchase.

I am also awaiting a new package from Trainworld.

Ordered on Monday and according to the DHL tracking it went from NY to Cincinatti to EMA to London Heathrow to finally Cape Town in less than a week!

Amazing!

Can expect the DHL van on Monday morning.

 

I found the following youtube vids to be helpful when I tuned my Tsunami equipped locos.

Part 1:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrB4MUrrbB4

 

and

 

Part 2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XBVmH9AzVc

 

I am also using a Digitrax Zephyr system and had great difficulty changing the loco address to a 4-digit address.

Found this link to be helpful with that:

http://www.atlasrr.com/DCC/Procedure%20for%20Programming%204-Digit%20Addresses%20on%20Main%20Line.pdf

 

Cheers

Jacques

 

Good Day Jaques,

 

To start with, thanks for the information, especially the video links (will be very useful in the future).

 

However (and I had a horrible feeling this might happen), I tried to follow the instructions in the other link ('Procedure for Programming 4-digit Addresses on the MainLine') and have now 'lost control' of my loco!  Prior to that, I seemed to have established that my system (Digitrax 'Zephyr') was unable to 'read back' any CV values from the Tsunami chip (I wanted to reduce the sound volume a bit).  Unfortunately, whilst I had been unable to affect any CV changes following my 'normal proceedures', following the link above HAS altered something, with the result that the loco no longer responds to either the old loco address (factory standard '03'), nor to the one I thought I was changing it to ('2743').

 

Have tried repeating the excersise with a shorter address (e.g. just '43')  or even to just '03' again, but no luck.  Trying to do a reset (CV8 = eight) does not work either, but what confuses me is; if the 'Zephyr' cannot address the CV's on the Tsunami chip (and the user manual alludes to this possibility), how come the loco address got altered at all?

 

The other thing which is going to be really annoying, is that the Tsunami manual suggest that a way around this 'deficiency', is to use a 'Programming Track Booster', suggesting their own SoundTraxx PTB-100!  Great!  More expense!  Especially as it would appear that this extra piece of kit needs its own power supply.  In confirmation of this, a bit of a search online brought up this web page;

 

http://www.mrdccu.com/curriculum/ptb.htm

 

 

Low and behold, top of the list in answer to the question; 'Specifically, do I need a Programming track booster with my command station?', answer = Digitrax DCS series (including Zephyr) = Yes.

 

Will have to investigate this further, but I have got a horrible feeling my wallet is going to take a further battering! 

[Andy Reichert]

Good Day Jaques,

 

To start with, thanks for the information, especially the video links (will be very useful in the future).

 

However (and I had a horrible feeling this might happen), I tried to follow the instructions in the other link ('Procedure for Programming 4-digit Addresses on the MainLine') and have now 'lost control' of my loco!  Prior to that, I seemed to have established that my system (Digitrax 'Zephyr') was unable to 'read back' any CV values from the Tsunami chip (I wanted to reduce the sound volume a bit).  Unfortunately, whilst I had been unable to affect any CV changes following my 'normal proceedures', following the link above HAS altered something, with the result that the loco no longer responds to either the old loco address (factory standard '03'), nor to the one I thought I was changing it to ('2743').

 

Have tried repeating the excersise with a shorter address (e.g. just '43')  or even to just '03' again, but no luck.  Trying to do a reset (CV8 = eight) does not work either, but what confuses me is; if the 'Zephyr' cannot address the CV's on the Tsunami chip (and the user manual alludes to this possibility), how come the loco address got altered at all?

 

The other thing which is going to be really annoying, is that the Tsunami manual suggest that a way around this 'deficiency', is to use a 'Programming Track Booster', suggesting their own SoundTraxx PTB-100!  Great!  More expense!  Especially as it would appear that this extra piece of kit needs its own power supply.  In conirmation of this, a bit of a search online brought up this web page;

 

http://www.mrdccu.com/curriculum/ptb.htm

 

 

Low and behold, top of the list in answer to the question; 'Specifically, do I need a Programming track booster with my command station?', answer = Digitrax DCS series (including Zephyr) = Yes.

 

Will have to investigate this further, but I have got a horrible feeling my wallet is going to take a further battering! 

 

Time to hit the JMRI website. Write all your CV's from your PC.

 

Andy

[steveNCB7754]

Time to hit the JMRI website. Write all your CV's from your PC.

 

Andy

 

Thanks Andy,

 

Yes, I looked into this a while back, especially the ability to utilise the Ipod Touch (or Android phone), via WiFi, as a cab.  Does it not also mean buying an interface module though, such as the 'LocoBuffer'?  Would that piece of kit, overcome the 'Zephyr's' apparent inabaility to write-to the Tsunami chip?

[jrossouw79]

O no!!

I'm sorry to hear that.

It worked fine for me and I do not have a programming track I just used the main.

 

Cheers

Jacques

[Andy Reichert]

Thanks Andy,

 

Yes, I looked into this a while back, especially the ability to utilise the Ipod Touch (or Android phone), via WiFi, as a cab.  Does it not also mean buying an interface module though, such as the 'LocoBuffer'?  Would that piece of kit, overcome the 'Zephyr's' apparent inabaility to write-to the Tsunami chip?

 

Yes, I think so, but it's nowhere near the price of a loco.  E-list is at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jmriusers/ and newbie questions are welcomed.

Andy

[steveNCB7754]

Yes, I think so, but it's nowhere near the price of a loco.  E-list is at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jmriusers/ and newbie questions are welcomed.

Andy

 

Will look into that.

 

Also had a thought -  I had probably better move the discussion of this aspect of the loco to a more appropriate forum(s), otherwise I risk having the moderator having a few words with me (LOL).

[Alcanman]

I would recommend keeping things simple. I use my NCE Powercab to programme and use the list of downloadable CVs. There should be a specific one for your GP38-2.

 

CV 128 controls the master sound volume. I've found Tsunamis easy to programme without the need for boosters or JMRI.

 

Mal

[Focalplane]

Steve

 

I have just caught up with you and your HO decision with Digitrax.

 

I have the kit to go JMRI Loconet.  Basically, you need a LocoBuffer USB made by RR-CirKits and your iPod Touch or similar and the software.  It is not expensive and you only need one.

[F-UnitMad]

I would recommend keeping things simple. I use my NCE Powercab to programme and use the list of downloadable CVs. There should be a specific one for your GP38-2.

 

CV 128 controls the master sound volume. I've found Tsunamis easy to programme without the need for boosters or JMRI.

 

Mal

Clue is in the words "NCE Powercab"

 

I've had enough shinanigans & malarky mucking about with Digitrax chips (& despite programming the exact numbers, not getting the light effects required).... that I wouldn't go near a Digitrax control system.

(NCE user & happy with it!)

[steveNCB7754]

I would recommend keeping things simple. I use my NCE Powercab to programme and use the list of downloadable CVs. There should be a specific one for your GP38-2.

 

CV 128 controls the master sound volume. I've found Tsunamis easy to programme without the need for boosters or JMRI.

 

Mal

 

Hi Mal,

 

Yes, as F-UnitMad alludes to, the NCE Powercab has the track boosting ability built-in and so does not need a separate unit to overcome this problem (at least that's what the 'Mr. DCC's University' website link above, says).  From other issues I have had since going DCC, I wish I had stuck to my original idea of going down the NCE route, rather than being swayed into buying the Digitrax.

[steveNCB7754]

Steve

 

I have just caught up with you and your HO decision with Digitrax.

 

I have the kit to go JMRI Loconet.  Basically, you need a LocoBuffer USB made by RR-CirKits and your iPod Touch or similar and the software.  It is not expensive and you only need one.

 

Paul,

 

This is a path I intended to go down, once I had a layout up and running -  seems like I need to do that sooner (rather than later) now.  Not wanting to keep this aspect of the thread going too much longer here (given this is not a DCC/Sound forum), but in quickly looking at a retailers image of a 'LocoBuffer', am I right in thinking that there seems to be a power socket at one end?  So does this unit also need its own (separate) power supply?

[steveNCB7754]

 

... will have to investigate this further, but I have got a horrible feeling my wallet is going to take a further battering! 

 

EUREKA!

 

I have my loco (control) back!  Turns out the description of the 'Blast Mode' for Digitrax programming of the SoundTraxx Tsunami sound decoders, in the Atlas PDF link earlier is slightly misleading/mis-written (and so does not work properly, at least not for me anyway).  Once I had actually found the Digitrax website explanation of this feature here;

 

http://www.digitrax.com/tsd/KB33/programming-soundtraxx-tsunami-decoders-with-digit/

 

 

... all worked as expect (even the loco jumping forward when commands were issued, happened).  So now I have reset the loco address to be '2743' and so regained control and cut the master volume down a bit, so the neighbours now cannot tell what prime mover the model is fitted with!

 

That's enough for one evening (or is that, day) -  I'll leave momentum/inertia, back EMF, max top speed, etc. for another time.  Thanks again to all, for your comments and suggestions.

 

Regards

[Focalplane]

Steve

 

The LocoBuffer-USB is powered by the USB bus.  The other end is a CAT5 (I think) cable for LocoNet.

 

I also have the Bachmann DCC system and while it is quite good, I do prefer the Digitrax most of the time.  I am no expert but I think Digitrax puts out a higher amperage than its competitors.  But I am sure there are those who will prove me wrong!

 

Best, Paul

[jrossouw79]

I'm glad you fixed the problem!

I was a bit worried for a moment since I gave you the link to that pdf.

 

Cheers

Jacques

[steveNCB7754]

Steve

 

The LocoBuffer-USB is powered by the USB bus.  The other end is a CAT5 (I think) cable for LocoNet.

 

I also have the Bachmann DCC system and while it is quite good, I do prefer the Digitrax most of the time.  I am no expert but I think Digitrax puts out a higher amperage than its competitors.  But I am sure there are those who will prove me wrong!

 

Best, Paul

 

Hi,

 

Yes, I saw the Cat5/LocoNet socket, but in the retailer's website image, there looked to be another (small, round) socket right next to it, which looks suspiciously like a power supply jack socket.

 

 

EDIT:  Just thought -  could it be an indicator LED?