Kato/Peco Announce FR Locos in 009! (confirmed!)

[JSpencer]

When you think about it... this is the first RTR 0-4-0 tender loco I have had since Trix days!

[CotBob]

23 hours ago, Tony_S said:

I used a Digitrax DZ126.

I had to trim the plastic shrink wrap slightly for,it to fit snugly. Hardly any room for the wires! The wires face forward and pass over the decoder to the motor and pickup strips. The strips pop out out but to keep them in place on reassembly I used some blu tack. 

The inner body just fits!
The rest was easy.

 

I didn’t enjoy doing it at all but pleased it works! 
Hope this helps.

Tonyk 

This is more or less exactly what I did on my Prince, the same decoder but the other way round as carefully trimming the shrink wrap on the decoder meant it would slide all the way forward into the slot that could have been made for it in the chassis.  This of course meant trimming the wires rather short so as to fit in but otherwise we did much the same,  I found it took a bit of setting up and is still a little reluctant at very slow speed to run consistently, certainly compared to the Fairlie and two Baldwins.  This could be my inexperience with DCC settings of course.

[Roy Langridge]

Well my Prince has arrived and, although I haven’t run it yet, all looks to be good with one exception, I seem to have ordered Princess by accident! Bought from Kernow who had also included additional packing inside the box. 

 

Now do I try to swap it or just order another one, making sure it is Prince this time? Only one answer really isn’t there 😁

 

Roy

[big jim]

On 31/03/2022 at 13:47, PaulRhB said:

There have been a few issues with the packaging being so loose meaning bits come unclipped. Peco are aware and will address the issue with Kato for subsequent batches

I had to clip the motor retainer back in here as the motor was loose. 

 

i picked Prince up from Dagfields earlier today and Richard as always gave it a test run and the first one sounded awful and was a bit juddery so he tried another and it was fine, he took the body off the first one only to discover the motor was loose so it’s interesting to see you have had the same issue, he clipped it back in properly and it ran as quiet and smooth as the other one

 

(he currently has one ‘prince’ and iirc a couple of ‘Princess’ left)

 

I wasn’t intending to buy one as I’d gone it to buy a 2nd hand Bachmann 150 unit but as soon as I saw it I decided it was too nice to leave there 

[didcot]

They are certainly lovely models. I originally only ordered Prince, but in a moment of madness ordered Princess as soon as they came out. Glad I did 

[Butler Henderson]

I gather the haulage ability of the model is such that the traction tyres are only needed to cope with inclines. It's a pity a spare  set of non grooved driving wheels are not included.

[big jim]

If anyone wants to smuggle one in past the wife…..

 

Yes dear, I only got this 2nd hand from the model shop 

 

she doesn’t suspect a thing! 

[Butler Henderson]

27 minutes ago, Obsidian Quarry said:

 

Unfortunately the only option on that front as far as I know is to buy one of the separately sold chassis, which has all tyre-less wheels, and swapping it for the one in the loco which means spending an extra £60 to not have traction tyres.

Or Kato/Peco make spares available

[Butler Henderson]

On 01/04/2022 at 10:05, Scrooge said:

I have received the pair from Hattons, a bit the worst for the journey. Hopefully they will follow the example of Kernow, for the replacement Princess. Unfortunately Prince had sold out at Hattons so I will have to fix it. I was going to fit figures anyway so it saved me taking the cab off.

 

Peco are asking that owners of damaged models contact them

"Unfortunately, it has come to light that some of the Kato Small England Locomotives sent out last week have been damaged in transit due to the packaging not holding the loco securely enough.  We are extremely sorry that in this instance we have fallen below our normal high-quality standards and apologise for the disappointment this has caused to those affected. We will of course rectify any damaged models as quickly as possible. 

 

If your Locomotive is damaged, please at first contact our Technical Advice Bureau at info@peco.co or call 01297 300194 to discuss details on how best to return the item.  We will do upmost to rectify the situation and return your repaired locomotive as soon as possible. " https://peco-uk.com/blogs/news/small-england-locomotives-packaging-fault

[PaulRhB]

A friend of mine was getting an England for his 50th this weekend so it seemed appropriate to give him something to display it on. 
 

 

testing with my loco 

 

 

[Roy Langridge]

I converted my Princess to DCC tonight and it was much easier than I had been fearing.

 

I used a Zimo MX616 which sat nicely in the cut-out above the motor, I attached the decoder red/black direct to the pickups and grey/orange to the motor with some thin heat-shrink on the joins.

 

Only issue I had is that having attached the decoder red wire to what had been the red pickup, black to black pickup, orange  (motor +ve) to the red motor wire and grey (motor -ve) to black motor wire, it ran backwards. A change of CV29 sorted that.

 

The MX616 is 8x8x2.4mm which makes the install nice and tidy. I think an MX615 would have also been ok, and that is even smaller.

 

Hardest part was getting the wires tucked away enough for the body to go on, and even that didn't take long.

 

I have Prince on order and will similarly convert that when it arrives, all being well with it.

 

Edit: Prince has arrived and is perfect thanks to a bit of additional packaging. Another decoder ordered. 

 

Roy 

Edited April 5, 2022 by Roy Langridge

[swsjames]

My new Prince arrived today. Sadly, as I unpacked it, I noticed a small black pin knocking around in the box, and when I extracted the loco, realised it was the pin that is intended to fix the coupling rods to the wheels - consequently they were flapping around loose. So it had to go back.

 

The loco seemed to be firmly held in the box by a number of foam pads, so I assume the pin had not been fastened in adequately.

 

Has anyone else experienced this problem?

[Pre Grouping fan]

2 minutes ago, swsjames said:

My new Prince arrived today. Sadly, as I unpacked it, I noticed a small black pin knocking around in the box, and when I extracted the loco, realised it was the pin that is intended to fix the coupling rods to the wheels - consequently they were flapping around loose. So it had to go back.

 

The loco seemed to be firmly held in the box by a number of foam pads, so I assume the pin had not been fastened in adequately.

 

Has anyone else experienced this problem?

 

 

I've seen on Facebook groups that it's almost as common as the cab being loose in the box. 

 

As intended by Kato there's only the polystyrene tray. Any additional packing is by the retailer, provably in response to all the damaged models. 

[Jenny Emily]

I’ve used a D&H micro 6 pin decoder to chip mine. I wired a six pin loom into the cab so it just plugs in there and sits up against the roof. 
 

The issue I have is the loco just shoots off as soon as power is applied. It even does this on the programming track. I tested the decoder in another loco and it works fine in that; a Rails Connect decoder works just fine in the small England. The decoders are installed the correct way around. 
 

I forgot to add, the loco works fine on DC if I put a blanking plug in the socket. 
 

Has anyone else had a similar problem? 

Edited April 9, 2022 by Jenny Emily

[Butler Henderson]

On 07/04/2022 at 20:23, swsjames said:

My new Prince arrived today. Sadly, as I unpacked it, I noticed a small black pin knocking around in the box, and when I extracted the loco, realised it was the pin that is intended to fix the coupling rods to the wheels - consequently they were flapping around loose. So it had to go back.

 

The loco seemed to be firmly held in the box by a number of foam pads, so I assume the pin had not been fastened in adequately.

 

Has anyone else experienced this problem?

Mine was the same; Gaugemaster had added two pieces of foam to stop the loco moving significantly which kept the body intact. Needs a serious rethink on the packagaing although at least the loco does still fit with added parts fitted,

[dmk]

Even if the pin is in when the loco arrives it comes out when running. All three are now disabled 

[dmk]

2 hours ago, Butler Henderson said:

Mine was the same; Gaugemaster had added two pieces of foam to stop the loco moving significantly which kept the body intact. Needs a serious rethink on the packagaing although at least the loco does still fit with added parts fitted,

Most fitted parts were loose on one of mine whistles cab the  curved handrail fitting under footplate and on the other crankpins missing .. ugh 

[dmk]

See pics on my £300 scrapyard  poor engineering . Lack of attention to detail  … refunds being sought 

[dmk]

Loco nr 2 Arrived in bits  packing insufficient. And there’s is no packaging at all,to the motor only package - disgraceful.. really … awaiting response from seller Peco and  messaged Ffestiniog online shop who I buy from. Often.. But not for this item maybe . Dint buy first release of new locos wait till all bugs sorted out? 

Edited April 10, 2022 by dmk
Extra thoughts

[PaulRhB]

26 minutes ago, dmk said:

See pics on my £300 scrapyard  poor engineering . Lack of attention to detail  … refunds being sought 

It arrived in bits but has the alternative couplings fitted? It’s not poor engineering, just poor packing anyway. Both mine had loose parts but they just clipped back together and every one I’ve seen has the peco couplings fitted in the box to so if you can fit those you can clip the other parts back together  

[didcot]

Just spent the morning DCC fitting my recent OO9 purchases. The Double Fairlie was fairly easy. Excuse the pun. One of the wires had become stuck to the removable cover and took some gentle persuasion to detach. It fan perfectly with a Bachmann decoder. 

Next up the two England's. Like others I chose a Digitrax DZ126 decoder. 

Body removal from the chassis was easy and it stayed in one piece. It's not until you remove it that you realise just how small and fragile they are. The tender uncouples with a gentle pull. I removed the unwanted wires from the decoder and like others trimmed the heat shrink. Soldering the pick up wires to the copper strips was OK, but getting them back in was a bit of a struggle. 

Getting the wires flat around the motor is tricky. I had to get them along side of the motor. The problem is they will lift the cab end of the model if not correctly positioned. With no screws to hold the body down getting it right takes some time.

I'm still playing with the set up, but have used some settings from the Digitrax leaflet as a starter. They don't start as smooth as the Fairlie at the moment but I will keep tweaking the settings. 

Certainly not the hardest DCC installation I've done but probably the most fiddly. Definitely worth the effort. 

[Tony_S]

On 09/04/2022 at 12:20, Jenny Emily said:

I’ve used a D&H micro 6 pin decoder to chip mine. I wired a six pin loom into the cab so it just plugs in there and sits up against the roof. 
 

The issue I have is the loco just shoots off as soon as power is applied. It even does this on the programming track. I tested the decoder in another loco and it works fine in that; a Rails Connect decoder works just fine in the small England. The decoders are installed the correct way around. 
 

I forgot to add, the loco works fine on DC if I put a blanking plug in the socket. 
 

Has anyone else had a similar problem? 

Mine has a hardwired Digitrax DZ126. So far the only CV alteration had been for loco number. The loco is quite controllable but I may limit the top speed as it is a bit faster than my other 009 locos. 

[Tony_S]

8 hours ago, didcot said:

Soldering the pick up wires to the copper strips was OK, but getting them back in was a bit of a struggle. 

I used a couple of tiny blobs of Blu Tack to hold the copper strips in place after I had soldered the decoder wires.

[nightstar.train]

Have PECO/Kato said anything about their double fairlie since Bachmann released theirs? The Bachmann model seems to have been widely successful judging by how fast it sold out everywhere, so maybe they’ll risk it? Or maybe the market is now saturated and the PECO/Kato one won’t appear? Shame if so for P/K, they must have sunk a good wad of cash so far on research and design. 

[Pre Grouping fan]

 

It's been very quiet on the Fairlie since the first test body print was shown in I think 2019.

 

Personally I think they'll cancel it considering Bachmanns successful model.