Rails Announce OO 18000 Gas Turbine Locomotive

[TrevorP1]

On 09/10/2021 at 13:58, gwrrob said:

 

Now that is worrying and maybe Rails should have put a notice on their ordering page to advise / pre-warn  customers.

I’m not sure what actual radius in mm or inches that 3rd or 4th refers to however, mine has run quite happily around the 30” in my hidden sidings.

 

I have a much tighter - roughly 24” radius - hidden section which will eventually lead to a pair of hidden sidings for the china clay trains. This is also on a gradient and usually the preserve of panniers and clay wagons. Out of curiosity I ran 18000 around that. I did this several times with no problem. I’m not sure what this actually means @gwrrob but I wouldn’t worry just yet.

[mdvle]

This Hattons page indicates that 24" radius is 4th radius, with 3rd radius being 21"

 

https://www.hattons.co.uk/newsdetail.aspx?id=537

[St Enodoc]

16 minutes ago, mdvle said:

This Hattons page indicates that 24" radius is 4th radius, with 3rd radius being 21"

 

https://www.hattons.co.uk/newsdetail.aspx?id=537

The imperial values are very rough approximations. The metric values are correct.

[Eddie the dog]

Mine arrived this morning and absolutely gutted that it won’t manage my 3rd radius curves

Lovely model and have a silver and black version on order too !

[Trainshed Terry]

My Model arrived today. I so far have not had found an defects on it, but I do wonder how long before the whistle gose missing as it seams to be a weak point being made of plastic.

 

It is currently on the rolling road have time to run in. And before anybody as I purchased the "Gauge-master" controller from a boot sale very cheap, as I have no layout to run the model on it is the best thing in my situation.

 

It is a late birthday present to my self.

 

Terry.    

[No Decorum]

On 08/10/2021 at 15:21, Richard Croft said:

Yeah he had a sample of the model and sorted all that out, his sound is also in the factory fitted models. As far as I know there's no alternative to that sound at the moment, it sounds very good.

 

Richard

Thank you, that is very informative and intriguing. I did post links to two sound versions which did sound different but that could be due to the recordings themselves, especially as one included high speed running. I have just received an e-mail telling me that my sound version has been sent. Exciting!

[No Decorum]

On 01/10/2021 at 14:33, John ks said:

Excuse me if i am being a little pedantic but while the spec (copied from an email I received recently for the 18100 , E1000 & E2001) does say "all 4 axles "  the rest of the spec indicates  "Powered wheels on outer axles of each bogie " which is common with Heljans practice of having the centre wheels of 6 wheel bogies unpowered (eg class 47 & EM2)

 

 

Model Specification Include:

• Five pole motor driving all four axles (two on each bogie) with flywheels
• Powered wheels on outer axles of each bogie 
• 21-pin DCC socket with easy access
• Separately fitted wire handrails and sandpipes
• Spoked wheels
• Etched grilles
• Sprung OLEO buffers
• Flush glazing
• NEM coupler pockets
• Lighting: As per 18000. Two warm white headlights at front (lower left and lower right) in direction of travel and one red tail light at rear (lower centre). Including function (DC and DCC) to switch off tail light when hauling a train. 
• Warm white Cab lights. Including function to switch on/off.
• Separate engine room lights

 

John

Let’s compromise and settle on five-wheel bogies.

[gwrrob]

19 hours ago, TrevorP1 said:

I’m not sure what this actually means @gwrrob but I wouldn’t worry just yet.

 

Thanks @TrevorP1 and if it goes t*t's up I can always run a proper Castle instead. Your running on tighter curves has cheered me up though.

[Ian Hargrave]

Someone please refresh my memory. What dimension is 3rd radius ?

[Ian Hargrave]

6 minutes ago, Ian Hargrave said:

Someone please refresh my memory. What dimension is 3rd radius ?

Answering my own question it’s 505mm. Surely it can negotiate that ?

[cctransuk]

3 minutes ago, Ian Hargrave said:

Answering my own question it’s 505mm. Surely it can negotiate that ?

 

505mm. = 20" / 1'-8"; that's a pretty tight radius for 18000, I'd have thought.

 

CJI.

[Pteremy]

Mine has yet to arrive so I cannot comment from actual experience. But - and I can only say this in hindsight - the unusually deep sides to the prototype would appear to make it very difficult to make an accurate, tight radius friendly model. 

[Ian Hargrave]

27 minutes ago, cctransuk said:

 

505mm. = 20" / 1'-8"; that's a pretty tight radius for 18000, I'd have thought.

 

CJI.

Apologies.Yes of course it is.   Ok  mistake because I’m not at home. Mind now cleared. Thinking off piste  the comfortable radius should be 36”. 

[charliepetty]

On 08/10/2021 at 18:16, boxbrownie said:

So what was the ohm rating of the original speaker, did you test/measure it?

 

Are the replacements wired parallel or series?

 

Amazing the amount of space inside that model, very reassuring.

The speakers are identical to the speakers fitted too the Realtrack Models Class 156 DMUs, these are 8 Ohms and are made in the same factory in China.  Realtrack Models is part of the DC Kits group of companies (Charlie Petty/DCKits/Legomanbiffo) so we were involved with Neil (Wheeltappers) to get his brilliant sounds into these 18000 models as we financed and organised the decoders from ESU for Neil.  We have done the same on the NER Railcar from Rails which is running a tad late due to no fault of Rails.

 

Please note, even though wheeltappers are currently on Holiday we at DCKits have these in stock and are sending them out as we speak.

https://www.dckits-devideos.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&path=68&product_id=1873

 

Charlie

Edited October 11, 2021 by charliepetty

[MG 7305]

On 08/10/2021 at 17:09, mjcbasingstoke said:

My question regards the accessory pack which contains items which I have no idea where to fit, any suggestions?

If you look at the silver bogie frame on the locomotive from underneath you will see 4 holes in each rounded corner.  The long elongated silver U shaped details fit into 2 of these each, going from left to right.  If you look at the side on picture on the front of the box you can see that the ones with the slightly longer verticals (with a bolted 90 degrees change from vertical to horizontal) go towards the buffers and the others (with a simple bend of 90 degrees) go towards the centre of the locomotive.  The small silver U shaped details are steps which fit below the cab doors in the body from underneath.  Once again there are 2 small holes for them to be glued into if you look from underneath.  They do not go straight down but have a bias outwards.  Please see photograph in Kevin Robertson's book on the GWR gas turbines page 110 which is the best I can find.

 

Yes, I know, it would have helped if.....

 

Julian

[MG 7305]

On 09/10/2021 at 20:17, Trev1073 said:

I have fitted a chip and headlights / taillights work fine but no sign of the cab lights or engine room lights. Pretty sure these were not evident on DC either. I am using a Zimo MX638D decoder and all the dip switches are on. 

Hmm.  I am glad that I am not the only one to struggle here.  I too have fitted a Zimo decoder and no sign of the cab or engine room lights.  I do not feel that this is a real issue for me as I would never use them.  The head and tail lights are, I think, a little eccentric with the Zimo.  Order of batting is to select locomotive and then the lights (FO, F1 and F2).  But to make them actually come on I need to change the direction of travel of the locomotive!  Once this is done they work perfectly well and the rear light is directional (only coming on when it is the trailing end) and can be switched off if required if coupled to a train.  Once the lights are on I can change direction of travel and the lights behave as I would expect, but still no cab or engine room lights.

 

Best regards

 

Julian

[MG 7305]

Having said all that, it is a cracking model and will gee up my all GWR layout!

[toboldlygo]

Mine runs perfectly well on 4th Radius track too. 2nd Radius is a bit iffy, but it did re-rail itself.

[toboldlygo]

Have Rails like Hattons (on the Beyer Garretts) have got the Early Crest wrong on one-side - shouldn't they be forward facing  on both sides as they were on every steam loco they were applied to?

Edited October 12, 2021 by toboldlygo

[Trev1073]

If anyone else is struggling with the lights on DCC using a Zimo decoder I have solved it by changing the MX638D to a MX638C. You need to change/ enter 3 into CV8. This seems to relate to logic or full function ??? It does however work.

 

Trev

[bubbles2]

1 hour ago, MG 7305 said:

If you look at the silver bogie frame on the locomotive from underneath you will see 4 holes in each rounded corner.  The long elongated silver U shaped details fit into 2 of these each, going from left to right.  If you look at the side on picture on the front of the box you can see that the ones with the slightly longer verticals (with a bolted 90 degrees change from vertical to horizontal) go towards the buffers and the others (with a simple bend of 90 degrees) go towards the centre of the locomotive.  The small silver U shaped details are steps which fit below the cab doors in the body from underneath.  Once again there are 2 small holes for them to be glued into if you look from underneath.  They do not go straight down but have a bias outwards.  Please see photograph in Kevin Robertson's book on the GWR gas turbines page 110 which is the best I can find.

 

Yes, I know, it would have helped if.....

 

Julian

Any chance of a photo or two?

Edited October 11, 2021 by bubbles2
Spelling.

[dibber25]

55 minutes ago, toboldlygo said:

Rails like Hattons (on the Beyer Garretts) have got the Early Crest wrong on one-side - they should be forward facing toward (cab 1) on both sides 

The model follows, correctly, the photographs which I supplied to Heljan from my research into the gas turbines for Trains Illustrated back in the 1980s. The early crest lion DID face left on both sides of the locomotive. (Refs - BR official photo and Times newspaper photo) (CJL)

[Roy Langridge]

5 minutes ago, dibber25 said:

The model follows, correctly, the photographs which I supplied to Heljan from my research into the gas turbines for Trains Illustrated back in the 1980s. The early crest lion DID face left on both sides of the locomotive. (Refs - BR official photo and Times newspaper photo) (CJL)

 

And in support of that Chris, a simple google of "18000 gas turbine" will provide the evidence with quite a few images of both sides having left facing crests.

Roy

[toboldlygo]

59 minutes ago, dibber25 said:

The model follows, correctly, the photographs which I supplied to Heljan from my research into the gas turbines for Trains Illustrated back in the 1980s. The early crest lion DID face left on both sides of the locomotive. (Refs - BR official photo and Times newspaper photo) (CJL)

 

There's also photo's where it didn't on google

[Zero Gravitas]

1 hour ago, toboldlygo said:

 

There's also photo's where it didn't on google

 

Which means you’re perfectly at liberty to apply a new crest on one side if that suits the period you are modelling :-)

 

Or if that’s not something you want to do, then you could always commission Rails to produce a version that meets your precise needs.

 

TBH, if that’s the only thing you can find to complain about, then I think Rails have done a pretty good job.

 

Yes, I know. It’s late, I’m grumpy - but the fact that we actually have an RTR model (and a good one at that) of such a prototype, and where RMWeb members had such welcome input to Rails to get it right, means that to me this sort of comment is not helpful.

Edited October 11, 2021 by Zero Gravitas