Piko 37428, G-scale Class 1116 "Taurus" electric locomotive

Have you had a chance to see the latest Piko 2018 G-scale catalogue? Have you noticed anything interesting? A locomotive that has been there for years - Class 1116 "Taurus" - is missing. There will be no new model this year, and in the future... who knows. It might be renewed or not...

I was planning to buy this specific electric engine in G-scale for some time now. I was hoping that Piko would release a version in a livery that would be attractive to me. So each January I would download the new catalogue to see what was coming that year. And of course this year it was a huge surprise when I realized there was nothing new to wait for...

There was only one thing I could do in such case - immediately buy the model I liked most. That's how I became an owner of Piko 37428 - an ÖBB version of the Taurus locomotive. I got it from Ebay for way less than 200 Eur.

It's not a mistake the first photo in this blog post features a small description tag and not the entire product box. Turns out the front image does not really reflect the actual item inside. Piko seems to be re-using one packaging for various designs.

Opening the box reveals a heavy duty polystyrene casing. The locomotive - additionally wrapped in a transparent film - is perfectly safe inside.

There's a set of documentation included with the product. Lots of valuable information there...

...including full disassembly instructions. That's one thing I will be needing for sure very soon!

There's nothing more included. I somehow expected a pair of LGB-style middle buffers to be part of the set, but they're not. I do not really care that much, since I do not do narrow gauge at all, but it might matter to some people.

Let's take a closer look at the model.

Well, it looks great! The model is exactly what I expected. It offers enough details to deliver an attractive look, but it does not really feature any extremely fragile parts. This means I don't need to worry about accidental damage too much. The paint job is perfect. The labels are all very crisp and the base red color looks... expensive - almost like a Ferrari.

The top of the model features very nice looking pantographs. They make an impression of being made of metal but I'm pretty sure this is just carefully painted plastic. They include a spring mechanism that allows the user to open and close them easily.

The bottom of the locomotive confirms the model is indeed ready for decoder and sound module installation. The middle of the underframe features an easily recognizable speaker chamber. This is going to be loud :)

There are however two aspects I'm disappointed about:

• The product does not include any train engineer. The cab is empty. This forces me to buy and install some kind of Mr. Piko separately. Not a big deal assuming there's enough space inside.
• The product does not include any rear red lights. It only features front white headlights. I was convinced the red markers would be there, since my similar N-scale model has them. It had to be easier to include those in a G-scale piece, right? So why aren't they there?

Anyway, the white headlights are strong and make a very good impression. Here's a photo taken in partial darkness.

I like the model a lot. I can't run it in the garden at the moment but I will definitely upgrade it to DCC before the spring, and make it ready for season 2018. I really wish it was in Polish State Railways "Husarz" livery but ÖBB is very nice, too. And with enough motivation I could always repaint it myself - just like they've done it for the amazing Kolejkowo layout.