Salmotrutta

I believe it is Walthers - but they don't seem to carry the Glacier Express. Thanks for the suggestion! I might ask one of our commercially minded club members if we can get a small stock of sets to sell from Japan.

KATO USA just replied that they did import the Glacier Express from Japan as it was for the Japanese market. However they no longer support it in the USA. Maybe I'll try BEMO next.....

Ta! I'll drop them a line.

I'm a member of ETE (European Train Enthusiasts) based in the North East of the US. We are planning to offer space for European-themed modelling on our display area at the Amherst / Springfield MA train show in January 2018 - we have already had interest from one large manufacturer. As KATO have their range of RhB stock it would be great to have them represented on our stand. Do they actively market this outside of Japan - I see the sets on sale at shows so they must be coming from somewhere! Any information on the US distributor would be appreciated! We have also opened up the invitation to other European clubs to contact us about having representation in our area.

PS - Kudos on your woodworking skills.

Hi Kevin. Have a look at my post on the Swiss Cameo Layout in this forum. I used pink foam vertically to make rock faces and a hot wire cutter (like a skinny soldering iron - from Michaels) to cut the tunnel portals and the viaduct arches. Just cut some thick card to make a template for the portal and draw around it. I also used drywall screws as well as glue to hold the foam together as it took too long to dry... Let me know if you would like some close ups or tips on cutting and carving.

Look on eBay - make the search worldwide and you will pickup some Italian and German vendors. But check the postage! I have got a couple of things which were cheaper from Europe than in the USA. I also have Google translate on my iPhone which does instantaneous translations from German into English - not always clearly - the compound words fox it sometimes! I know a little German so if you send me a private message I would be glad to help translate instructions.

HI Kevin - I started a new post in this forum in case anyone else is contemplating DCC in BEMO. I know there is a DCC forum but I'm sure anyone who might be interested will swing by here too! - cheers Richard

Here's how I fitted sound to a BEMO Ge 4/4 III loco. Here you can see that I have removed all the resistors, chokes and other gubbins leaving just the board. I have used a razor saw to cut the circuit board so I can use it to make connections easily. The resistors for the LED lights use the holes vacated by the diodes. (Not yet fitted in this picture!). The bi-colour LED is embedded in epoxy putty and allowed to set. Very important to get this level as the headlights will vary in intensity if it is not! I painted the light guides silver and the underside of the cab interior grey as this reduces the light bleed from the installation. Note that the light bulb has been removed . Also painted the cab interior grey - pop out the windscreen to make it easier - it unclips from the bottom. A dash of matt black highlights the instrument panel. The ESU "sugar cube" speaker has a sticky back and this is mounted on a piece of 60 thou plastic card firing down in to the bogie well. Super glue the card to the top of the chassis. If you carefully unclip the roof then it is easier to place the decoder as it will fit into a gap in the body shell - stuck down with double-sided foam tape. I also added interior blinds and a driver before putting it back together. The interior blind is easier with the windscreen out - and you won't spend an hour polishing out a glue mark on the windscreen that way Hope people find this helpful!

I have done a Ge 4/4 I from a set I bought in the early 90's which looks very similar. I used a Digitrax DZ126 bare wire 2 function decoder which I can get for about $17 over here in the USA. Once it was installed it ran with no problems. It even survived being on a DC layout with a "high frequency" rail cleaner in circuit - so they are pretty tough! I use warm white SMD LEDs on litz wires (surface mount) which I attach to plastic card with two part epoxy putty (Milliput or similar) and wedge them in place with blu-tack. I would suggest doing all the wiring then experiment with the positioning of the LEDs using blu-tack on the plastic card to get the correct orientation before making it permanent with epoxy. The DZ126 can be set up to dim the bulb of the trailing lights - not sure if it's prototypical but I like it. I have also used bi-colour SMD LEDs so that I have red trailing lights - again looks pretty. On one model the bulb size is the same as a "normal" LED so I just stuffed that into the hole and it worked (ABe 4/4 Triebwagen) but the alignment on the Ge 4/4 I is a bit different as the light needs to go sideways. Like DM I am tending to cut the existing circuit board and use that for making connections. I used the chassis for common return on a couple of models but I think DM is correct that is is better practice in DCC to use the blue wire as your common for the lights. I just finished a sound installation (ESU Loksound micro V4) in a 1996 Ge 4/4 III where I just removed all the "gubbins" and cut the remaining tracks to use as solder pads and isolated the common return from the rest of the board. I'll post some pictures of that installation soon. I got the SMD LEDs from a well-know auction site direct from China, but I believe that there are stockists in the UK - at least when I was looking I seemed to get UK sites!

That always made me laugh when I lived in Macc!

Or a nuclear reactor. Would just fit.

Gosh that would have been my idea of heaven in the 1980s - driving a train and rubbing shoulders with Sheena Easton! You have made an old man very happy...

Well finally got mine out of its box today - nervously clipped the sections together. Seemed to need a surprising amount of force - double checking that I wasn't breaking anything. It all works wonderfully - I have been running it for several hours with the sound off as my wife was trying ot work in the next room! Currently running on Roco Geo-Line circuit on the dining room table as my 8 x 4 layout has way too many things on it that it would hit. It is a fabulous bit of engineering as a model (and the real thing). The "Easter Egg" is fun too!. So far I have dropped the volume on some of the CVs to about 80 (out of 128) - particularly the gas turbines.

I'm glad I'm not the only one running British trains through the Canadian countryside....

I'm a bow tie man myself. Hand tied naturally. I think my kipper ties are at my parent's in the UK - I'll have a look in next time I'm over. I'll post pictures if I find them - they probably have a faint whiff of Trophy Bitter and "Hai Karate" about them. Perhaps I should wire in a Seuthe smoke generator in the APT and fill it with "Brut" if I can find a bottle... ??

OK Kit, could we please have your mix-list from the C90s to get the right vibes in the train room! I have my 1970's C&A black velvet jacket ready and waiting. Can't find my flares though...

Thanks Paul for the information! And also thanks for all you have done to preserve the APT-E ...

Very interesting booklet! Thanks for sharing!

Tell her you just bought a Dyson and you are cleaning the house...

Here you are Kit - a prototype for everything... Although the manual tilting device might be hard to operate at speeds above 150 mph

Both! I have been a bit hesitant to get the APT out - I need to set up a test track as my layout will cause an APT rhino-ectomy. The Jinty is planned for a sound chip and possibly working lights - I just need to order the chip as the file isn't available as a download in the ESU website.

Why did they bother with the APT-E if a Jinty can go at 150 mph? Nice video - I must get mine out of its box.

Perhaps we could connect up a Loksound V4 to a stack of amplifiers and run that next to it so we get the full-on turbine experience!

I believe you can reblow select chips but not edit them. The ESU website has all the select sounds as down loads but they were mostly US types when I last looked. Unfortunately for the the V4 there are very few UK sounds available so even though I have a programmer I can't easily put sound in my fleet without ordering chips from the UK (although at the current $US exchange rate maybe I should!)