[goedel]

Hello again,

Over at www.1zu160.net they have new details of the forthcoming Hobbytrain N scale Badische IV h express locomotive, of the Grand Duchy of Baden's State Railway (the Großherzoglich Badische Staatseisenbahnen) which is fairly similarish to the S 3/6 I think.

They have some pictures there showing the unfinished model (more detailing parts to go on?) which is not in a finished paintscheme:

Image: 1zu160 (click for huge picture)

Lots of delicate hand rails look good, if the wheel rims are darkened they won't be obtrusive I think. With the flat wall of the cockpit to the boiler it makes the boiler looks much longer, and the big wheels add to the effect. However I get the impression there is a cardan shaft connecting the motor (in the tender then?) to the driving wheels which while not as good as putting it in the boiler seems fairly unobtrusive as the tender is very closely coupled to the front compared to some models you see!

However I can't find a good photograph of the original locomotive to tell if the model is accurate...i.e is there another dome missing on top of the boiler? This picture Lemke provide on the Hobbytrain website suggests so!

Image: Lemke/Hobbytrain - DB 18 323

The following variants of Baden IVh / DB BR 18.3 are currently announced:

4000 steam locomotive Badische IVh 2'C1 '. Ep I, Bauhjahr 1918/19, blue Länderbahn livery
4001 steam locomotive DB BR 18.3, black, Ep II
4005 steam locomotive DB BR 18.3, black, Ep IIIa

The models are to have:

Front Lighting
5-pole motor
DCC prepared
NEM coupling socket

There is the wikipedia article here in German, detailing the history and modifications the locomotives underwent - they served for a long time and were clearly highly capable locomotives, and such lovely big big wheels:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badische_IV_h

This is one of the remaining much adjusted locomotives:

Image: wikipedia - DB 18 323

What go people think so far? Does it look promising endeavour from Hobbytrain? Can anyone provide more information about these locomotives in English?

 

[goedel]

QUOTE (BRITHO @ 20 Nov 2007, 13:58) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Lovely looking model - almost enough to change scale for!

Looking at the b/w pic it was taken well into tle locos working life as both cab and tender seem to have been modified. Sorry but I can't offer any concrete advice on the domes.

Regards
Yes, it does seem to have been modified quite a bit! Perhaps the picture can be dated from the lightning sticker on the front warning about the danger of high voltage catenary - presumably they are a fairly recent (post-war?) addition to offset the decline in common sense around the world? Namely...wires in the sky - what could they be for...hmmm, decoration?

The tender is an interesting design - with one bogie at the front and the rear two axles are fixed to the tender. I wonder why, I think this happens on the S 3/6 etc. too?

Allegedly this model will be here in December or the New Year according to Lemke/Hobbytrain....yes I believe them...after all the SBB IC 2000 coaches from 2006 are only delayed until middle of 2008!! (The good thing is money allocated for purchase might have earned enough interest to buy and extra coach when they finally do hit the shelves. The wait builds frustation and anticipation in equal measure - so the models had better be good or people will be rather annoyed.)

The announcing and not delivering for so long could been seen as disencouraging other manufacturers from producing the same models, after all Minitrix and Fleischmann have done the double-deckers of the DB and SBB Zürich S-Bahn already and so it is a small/medium* step to the IC 2000, or even (please please please) the ÖBB Wiesel double deckers!!

^ ÖBB Bmpz-dl 50-81 abgestellt in Wien Spittelau. Photo von Michael Katai, 19.8.2004

*I even made a graphic to compare the different designs:

^ From top to bottom: SBB IC2000, ÖBB City Shuttle (Wiesel), DB Green, DB Red, SBB Zürich S-Bahn.[/size]

Okay so neither IC 2000 or ÖBB City Shuttle can be repaints of existing models but they're not so different that existing CAD files couldn't be altered for less than the cost of designing from scratch? I must confess I don't know very much about how things are designed today at the N scale manufacturers...but Dapol and Roco use CAD (for illustration or the main design process?) do it then surely Minitrix, Fleischmann etc. do it too?

 

[goedel]

QUOTE (dwb @ 22 Nov 2007, 20:07) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>I see you've used the 1st class SBB IC2000.
Whoops! Thanks for spotting that David! I should update the picture since all the others are second class...(funny that it's been on my website for three years and no-one has sent me an email...oh hang on, no-one visits my website!

)

Some new Swiss coaches have the same number of windows for both first and second class versions...so I will pretend that I thought of this when making the picture!

 

[goedel]

QUOTE (goedel @ 22 Nov 2007, 20:27) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Whoops! Thanks for spotting that David!
Fixed!

 

[goedel]

QUOTE (dwb @ 22 Nov 2007, 22:55) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Just to prove I was actually there, I bought Hofstaders book in 1979 because one of computer science lecturers recommended it /and/ he had set us the "miu" problem. There had also been an exhibition of Escher's work in the university art gallery and I am rather partial to the works of J.S. Bach. As an engineer, I guessed Godel could come along for the ride.

I finally managed to read the whole thing from cover to cover in 1986 when recovering from a severe bout of labyrinthitis.

My opinion of the book? Some nice movements but over long.
I agree completely - I still haven't finished it! I believe that he has written another one recently which I'm sure I get for Christmas...

Regarding the new Hobbytrain model I remember now my thread about the DB BR 02 celebrity locomotive that both Arnold and Lemke Collection / Hobbytrain did - and I suppose they might have borrowed the mechanism from their earlier model which was tender driven:

 

[goedel]

And here it is "in the flesh" at the big Munich Exhibition (1st - 4th December 2007):

Pictures taken by Ismael over at 1zu160.

So all the fiddly bits made it then, from prototype model to pre-production sample. Hooray. Also the wheel rims are quite small and unobtrusive and the side rod assemblies look quite finely crafted.

The only problem now is that there are very few models available of the Grand Duchy of Baden's State Railway so it could require converting some Bavarian models...at least Minitrix et al. had made sure there are plenty of these!