[kristopher1805]

I bought one of these today for Porlock my OO9 layout, so I have a collection of various OO9 locos and this is the latest. In fact I was at the big show in Shepton Mallet and talked with the Peco sales manager Steve and he mentioned how good he thought this model is. I said I had never seen one and he pointed across the way and a stand did indeed have such a thing, so I coffed up the necessary £135 for the item.

OK it is red not green so I did ask they produce a green one - well maybe next year.

So I got it home and unpacked it and promptly lost the front coupling, no idea where that went - it's an escape artist, any way it went on the track and was very quiet, the Bachman double Fairlie hums a bit but this was mouse like without any eek eek!, it also ran quite quickly and towed a decent load straight from the box.

Steve was obviously pleased with the model and told me it was worth a punt.

Anyway that was a good steer so it joins the Double Fairlee and the Baldwin RODs as really useful engines. Just a shame about the Heljans.

Photo to follow soon

 

[butler-henderson]

They are suffering in the post due to the poor packaging meaning the loco bounces about resulting typically with the cab being detached but some have arrived apparently with a loose motor. Gaugemaster sent mine (£135 with free next day delivery) with added foam padding in the box which kept the loco body intact but a crankpin had fallen out. Really needs the secure hold of an "ice cube" package. Of course Prince has evolved over the years - as supplied its strictly pre the preservation era. In green it would to be okay for 1955 until 1962 when its received straight frames. Withdrawn in 1968 it was further rebuilt with new stepped frames, the cab raised by 4 inches and oil firing fitted; returned to service in 1980 it received the red livery in 1986. Coal firing was restored in 2013. Suspect many will overlook the cab height issue, and probably a third party may provide an oil firng tank.

 

[boxbrownie]

It’s Kato…..of course it’s good I started collecting/started a Japanese N layout over 20 years ago when I was working over in Japan regularly, the Kato mechanisms ran like Swiss watches and compared to the Farish stuff back then no comparison at all. Even converting them to DCC was just a matter of unclipping the batteryAC boxes under the carriage and slipping in a decoder, all done in less than a minute!

 

[kristopher1805]

Well as promised I did say I would post a photo or two

http://imgur.com/AANvrsN

and one from the other end of the layout

http://imgur.com/wYQulIY

 

[kristopher1805]

I did find the front coupling it had landed and then hidden itself under a tiny tree - the cheeky chappie, anyway has been pulling loads as well in reverse now (chimney's must always point uphill.

 

[kristopher1805]

Well the coupling rods and crank fell off on one side being evident there is a tiny, very tiny plastic pin holding it in place, as I looked at it the other side then fell out, bit poor this bit of engineering, and it was not roughly handled

http://imgur.com/X946Tu3

 

[34C]

Well the coupling rods and crank fell off on one side being evident there is a tiny, very tiny plastic pin holding it in place, as I looked at it the other side then fell out, bit poor this bit of engineering, and it was not roughly handled...

Not designed to be operated then, eye candy for the collectors.
Return to vendor,
Address the fault,
Report to Peco,
My Kato loco broke.