I've always fancied an all singing, all dancing model and with the advent of the ESU Engineering Edition range it became a question of which one would most blend with the eclectic mix I have now. I settled on the BR 265 in Voith livery because:
* It has digital controlled couplings at each end.
* The prototype is an uprated version of the BR 261 suitable for trip working on the main line.
* As it belongs to the manufacturer it gets rented out and so it is reasonable for it to appear in any region - in Germany at any rate.
The models arrived in the stores in mid December and after Christmas I found that I could afford one. So here it is:
The figure on the front is a "mini me" but hopefully it is blurred and badly painted enough for no-one to be able to recognise me
. It's OO scale which gives you an idea of just how big the prototype must be.
I haven't tried the smoke function as you don't get any distillate in the box and I didn't think to order any. It's also possible it cannot be shipped internationally.
It's a heavy loco and it can haul my CMX machine up the gradients on my layout which is what I've bought it for.
The auto uncoupling works well and the wheel squeal on tight radius curves detects kinks in my track laying
.
The light setting in the photo is "Shunting mode" - hence the orange highlights at the corner steps.
The manual is German only so I've spent some time with Google translate, particularly with the warning section. Most of that is related to the smoke distillate.
David