[John Edge]

I must add my applause - those wagons all look absolutely exquisite, especially the car carriers.
I've been drooling over a loco from Mabar in H0 for some time now, this report makes me feel it would be a good bet (whenever I get some cash to spare!).
Cheers,
John.

 

[John Edge]

Hi Jeff,
That’s a lovely looking loco and train you have there, good for you.
My friend James, has a small collection of Swedish stuff and he says those (some?) Swedish coaches are the largest vehicles he has! Apparently, they are wider than standard Euro stock.
Cheers,
John E.

 

[John Edge]

Nice new additions!
Alan, I’m pleased for you that you like the BR83.10, it is a cracking looking model for sure.
I’ve seen quite a few videos of them working and people seem generally very happy with it. Not so with Piko’s previous steam locomotiv in the expert range, the BR78 as it seemed to generate a lot of complaints.
I only have a couple of their older models, BR82 and 95, they’re a different generation but still excellent in my opinion.
Back to the BR83.10 - I note that most German steam loco classes built after WW2 appear to be in the format of BRxx for West German, and BRxx.10 for East German. Yet, I’ve never heard of a West German BR83
Anyone else ever heard of such a loco, please?
TIA,
John E.

 

[John Edge]

Yes, I believe my words may have been taken out of context.
I wasn’t saying anything about the Piko model possibly being in any way “wrong” - as far as I know, it is completely correct!
I was merely asking whether there was ever a West German (DB) version!
Cheers,
John E.

 

[John Edge]

Alan,
That is worrying, I agree with Babs - send it back via your dealer.
The dealer should then let the manufacturer know.
For the money these things cost, they should be right first time.
John E.

 

[John Edge]

Hi All,
I’m presently back in the UK for some family business and I got an email from Hattons about their Black Friday sale! Perusing their site (it’s useful to be able to select the scale you require!), I found this and couldn’t resist!

It’s an Athearn Genesis Chicago and North Western C&NW GP50 in as new condition.
My main American interest is this road, often called “Railway“ and this is a model I have coveted for many years now. Hopefully I shall get to run it tomorrow on my friend Dougies layout - if he’ll allow such a thing of course!
Cheers,
John E.

 

[John Edge]

Thanks Babs!
Yes, it’s quite impressive in real life, that’s for sure. I think it’s only 59’ long, weighs 250,000 pounds, about 120 tons* or so, tractive effort of 69,000 pounds and has 3500Hp.
Not particularly successful as a seller for EMD General Motors as they “only” sold 278 examples. High horsepower locos like this were often used on intermodal trains so I need to look my double stack cars out again.
Although “my” railway, the C&NW was taken over by the Union Pacific in 1995, these locos carried on in service for a few more years but have subsequently been sold off to various other roads. Apparently, most GP50s are still working, not bad for locos built between 1980 and 1985.
Cheers,
John.
* That means a 40 ton axle load - what a difference to European railways!

 

[John Edge]

An impressive machine and model, but I'm not too sure of your maths there, John. 120 tons divided by four axles comes to 30 tons per axle, which is still a lot of weight on each axle regardless.

Whoops! How right you are!
😳😳