This loco has certainly been a long time in the coming being promised to the modeller for some seven years that I know of. Faced with poor factory service which ultimately closed down, a condensed history is that Eureka had immense difficulty in transferring the tooling over to new facilities. Finally arrived and on the layout. The 40 class locomotive was built by the Montreal Locomotive Works and delivered to the NSWGR in 1951/1952. They were the first mainline diesel electric locomotive to be introduced in NSW and saw regular heavy goods service up until 1968. My model is factory fitted with DCC and sound via a QSI decoder. I am not a great fan of these decoders and have had a fair bit of trouble with them in the past. The model's initial run was quite jerky but this soon settled down after two or three metres. Sound levels will need to be adjusted as the horn volume is OK but engine volume needs to be increased. The start voltage is ridiculously high and the loco can take off quickly. Tone it down to suit your preference. The couplers do not appear to be genuine Kadees but you will have to replace them in any event. They are far too short and barely clear the buffer beam. Buffer lock will occur on even large radius curves. Long shank Kadees are the answer and no further problems have been evident. Pulling power is excellent and the model will easily cope with its description as a heavy mainline goods unit. Easily pulls 30 Trainorama FWH wheat wagons. Like most Eureka presentations of recent times, detail is excellent and the model is a very good representation of the original which of course is in preservation at Thirlmere. Although I have two other 40s, they were conversions from the Atlas RSD 4/5 units and later fitted with ESU sound decoders. I wanted this variation as along with 4004, it was painted royal blue to coincide with the Queens visit to Australia in 1954 and pulled the Royal train. I already had 3615 in royal blue and this then completes that historical set. 3615 is a little more distinct in that it sports a golden crown over the headlight whereas 4001 did not get that treatment Overall my opinion is that it is a very good model and with a little bit of fine tuning fits the bill. Happy modelling Richard
A nice history there Richard. A very strong and capable looking piece of kit. A sound demo would be great
The next part of my learning curve will be how to post videos which will then include sound. Lovely wife already has a Go Pro and if I am nice she may let me borrow it. Then the technical challenges of posting the output will begin but I am sure that help will come from these pages. Cheers and happy modelling Richard
I'm sure that will happen. I know that it's a case of uploading to UTube then copying the link over but shout out when you are ready. Cheers Toto
I was at Casula Hobbies on Saturday. Joe, another customer and I were discussing the Eureka 40 Class and how the model needs a little touch up from paint and if I'm right, the chimney needs to be drilled out and painted black down the inside. My reference to the paint is that the bogie chassis needs blackening out, as does the wheels. I have also heard that the decoder volume cannot be turned up. You may know better about this than what I have heard. Regardless, I thought that the model looks superb, compared to my old Punchbowl Hobbies/Atlas RSD4/5 (Kato Mech) conversion that I did way back in the late 80's or very early 90's... Cheers, Gary.
Gary wrote: And miles better than my old Freidmont resin casting powered (if that be the right word) by a Mehanotehnika mechanism that I never managed to get to work properly. It went to landfill years ago....
Rather than just observe that the volume needed adjusting, I got out my program track and set about making the adjustments. I mentioned in my initial post that I am not a great fan of QSI decoders and here is another instance of why. To adjust the volume you need to ser CV49 to zero before you adjust the volume at CV51. Problem is that although CV49 indicates a zero setting it is not in fact accepting that code so CV51 cannot be changed.. The issue has been referred to the gurus and I will keep you posted. Cheers and hopefully happy modelling. Richard
How often does this happen. You take a particular dislike to something and therefore it must be the problem. So it is with my association with QSI decoders. Having referred the volume issue to the gurus, "Well lets look at CV 49 then...looks OK and is correctly set at zero." I am now starting to worry! "OK lets look at CV51..a value of say 120 should do the trick" You guessed the outcome...volume adjusted up perfectly. Tried up and down adjustments a few times and all took perfectly. So to conclude my product review of the 40 class, please add the following: "Volume of the engine is a bit low and should be adjusted. This can be achieved by setting CV49 to zero and CV51 to 120, a level I have found to be most satisfactory." We are dealing with the Dark Art of DCC..we are dealing with the Dark Art of DCC...we are, etc Cheers and back to happy modelling Richard
A further update on the 40 class. With the festive season and all its associated distractions, I did not have much of an opportunity to put the new 40 class through its paces over the entire layout. I finally devoted some time to the task and itwas not long before a running problem became evident. On a number of turnouts, the loco would not follow the set path and just kept going in a straight line derailing over the point setting. Also it did not negotiate a few of the tighter curves even though they were a fairly generous 25 radius. On closer inspection of the bogies, it seemed they were very tight compared to other locos with a definite feeling of stiffness restricting their full movement. As it is under warranty I was not inclined to start dismantling things and so returned the offending loco to the retailer, Model Railroad Craftsman, Blacktown. Proprietor Gary Salt had no hesitation in offering me a replacement (which he would have to order) or have it examined by the manufacturer's service rep which I elected to do as I had already replaced the factory fitted couplings with genuine Kadees. Picked up the loco this morning and what a difference. It was easy to detect the now freely pivoting bogies compared to what it was like earlier. Went around the entire layout like a dream. The rectification involved rewiring the pick up leads on both bogies. The factory fitted cables were far too heavy a gauge. Replacement with suitable sized leads also with plenty of length for proper movement of the bogies was necessary. Gary has since advised me that some other owners are now reporting a similar issue. Could well be a generic problem. I am now more than happy with the repaired loco but it is yet another instance of why for many years I have never purchased any loco direct from manufacturers but only from hobby shops where there is a face to discuss any problems of which there have been a few. The only exception is Auscision but they also have a retail outlet. Cheers and back to happy modelling Richard
A bit of a disappointment but ...... With a happy ending. Good service by your retailer by the sound of it.
Yes, he is very attentive to customer requirements and that is a very important segment of our hobby. Cheers and happy modelling Richard
Hmmm...?? Something to be said about the current state of Eureka Models. I have read elsewhere (NSWGR Steam Era Modelling - facebook) that a few people are not happy with the Eureka AD60, which had simply been renumbered 6029. Apparently they (I won't mention any names), Eureka just renumbered some earlier models to 6029 and the result was not what you would expect. Dodgy recovering of original loco numbers, a lick of paint, but not the whole loco and some new numbers slapped on. I'm just happy to hear that your 40 has been sorted by Gary as I would hate for you to have to wait for a replacement. The 40 does look good. Cheers, Gary.
No rest for the weary as I have now struck some trouble with my Eureka standard goods. The decoder does not respond and seems on the face of things gone to that great DCC cloud in the sky. I will be following this very closely as it goes through the analysis stage by others. Cheers Richard
It just ceased to function and went away quietly. I shall not rest until it braves the tracks again! Cheers Richard
No but there was this tiny little burn mark on one side of the power chip. cheers and I hope happy modelling Richard
Its dcc Richard so more newts and bat wings in the pot roll your eyes recite the alphabet backwards and bob's yer uncle ... it probably still won't work but a fairy will die somewhere .. that's about as much help as I can give on that subject Ian vt
You are right Ian. I have lost count of the times a loco just refuses to respond and when I try to reset things, I just get that dreaded "cannot read CV". So I forget about the problem and then put same loco on the track a few days later and away it goes??? Cheers and sometimes frustrated modelling Richard
Hi Richard, I too have a Royal Blue and am very hapy with it. However I find the horn far too quiet and have had no luck increasing its volume. It can be programmed through my JMRI link, can you suggest a way to increase the volume, perhaps via the CV?
