RBE

It depends on what you mean by weak? The 56 has realistic light levels from the relevant units and the colour choice and light lenses are dependent on whether the prototype has LED lighting or old incandescent bulbs. There are accurate to the real thing.

Thanks Mike. We are very proud of what we have achieved here and yes the light lenses haven't even been mentioned yet. We are very excited about our class 60 of which the first EP samples have recently arrived for review. It's going to be something special for sure.

Ah right I see, apologies. I'm sure we can sort you out with one. Send us an email to cavalexmodels@gmail.com and we will get onto it as soon as we can.

Rails have stated elsewhere that it's the largest pre-order that they have ever had to deal with so patience I guess is the order of the day.

They aren't missing, this pair has them left off intentionally and placed in the detail bag along with a pair of headboards (and high res foil stickers) that you can substitute the lamp iron with should you want to replicate the farewell tour condition.

Yeah the one on Making Tracks has ended up like that after a few months none stop work!

Well the grill frame is spaced off of the roof on the real one, that's a fact. Pic from prototype below. Not easy to do on the model but we chose that rather than an incorrectly moulded to the surface look. It's designed on our CAD to be spaced correctly from the roof to the real frame, manufacturing tolerances might add or remove a fraction of a mil but its still a gap never the less and its certainly not a scale 4 to 5 inches, that would mean a gap aprox 2mm which it certainly isn't even at it's worst. Probably 0.5mm max but should be around 0.3mm to 0.4mm. As for the colour, all I can say is that we have the colour that BR Railfreight used, its colour matched to that. Your 'judgement' can't really be taken over the actual spec from BR in this case. The picture I posted in Rail's cabinet shows that the colour isn't as light as your picture made out and conditions of viewing make a massive difference to how colours are perceived. Critique is always fair and welcomed, if it's valid I'll say it is, if not I will defend it.

The roof rad grilles represent the fact that the real ones are spaced off of the roof not bolted on directly. There is daylight under the real ones and as such there is under ours. The roof colour is not too light it is the exact spec for the livery from BR Railfreight. You cannot judge a colour from a photograph. Picture of the same models from a different angle. See it's much darker.

Here it is in the condition seen on the model, barring the silver buffers from its stint on the Melton Mowbray Pieman. Photo David Hayes Flickr

Not sure what you are asking?

We can't give you a function list for what you are asking because the function allocation to the aux connections are decoder specific and not loco specific. Unless we know what decoder you are using and how it is set up internally in software there is no way for us to know which function on the decoder will do what action on the loco aside from the basic standard ones such as directional lighting etc. We cannot provide a function list on something that we cannot control, i.e. which function on your chip is controlling which aux connection in the loco. Hence we are producing custom lokpilot chips tailored to the model. The issue is that the loco is capable of very complex lighting control and as such is not standard by default. The lights etc are wired to the DCC standards but a lot of the lighting control doesn't fall under standard default lighting operation. There are dip switch controls under the roof panel that are labelled in the manual which set many of the functions to standard configuration for basic DCC decoder operation.

There is a list in the box (for the sound fitted locos) however the functions are chip specific and not loco specific so it's not as easy to say what functions are what. The lighting etc is connected to the chip via aux connections, which functions drive those is internal to the chip not the loco. As the lighting is all configurable there is no guarantee which function will operate each light etc beyond the default lights on F0.

We are currently working on a lokpilot DCC none sound setup keeping all of the main functions in the top 10.

Yes that's the one.

Please contact your retailer as the wheel sets were delivered with the locos.

That was as soon as it was announced. It's been just over 2.5 years from sending the CADs for tooling to delivery which we feel is very good going especially with the issues in China.

The bogies are incredibly robust, they look like you'll break them but I've yet to do so even after several rewheeling sessions. Also 008 has lasted months running on Making Tracks and boy do those guys abuse the stock!! 😁

It's decorated as per the real loco, as are all of our models, in the condition that it was delivered in the mid 70s. When 008 arrived in the country it had BR blue handrails and the 8 had been applied upside down.

Yep me and Alex are on postman pat duties again tomorrow!

It is a great feeling to see them going out into the wild. It was a big relief when me and Alex delivered the two trucks worth to Rails last night!!!

The bodies just clip on so easy to get off but solid when in place.

Not sure how they have the sound file. I assume it's their sound?

I would recommend an ESU Lokpilot as we are currently working with ESU on a custom set up for that chip to correctly operate the complex functions. Due to the way that the lighting etc works there is no guarantee that a standard out of the box decoder will operate the loco's functions as expected.

The locos aren't blank but all etched plates and plaques etc are supplied separately with fitting jigs and 3M tape to fix them with. This allows you to leave them off and change numbers if you like. Beware of detail differences though. It's a minefield.

Nice, will it stay as 008 or are you planning a renumber?