LGB 48681-03, G-Scale live stock car

And here's another G-Scale railcar I brought from my recent trip to the US. This time it's LGB and it's a live stock unit. Seems like my American freight train is getting longer and longer... And I still don't even have a locomotive for it...

I've ordered the car from OnlyTrains.com where I found it listed in the "Specials" section. The price was set at $50 so it was really affordable for a large scale item. Interestingly a pack of 3 similar cars was priced at $250 which didn't make any sense. So I bought just this one. Its catalogue number is 48681-03.

The car comes in an LGB branded box. The package is 51 cm long and feels sturdy on the outside. The inside however brings a surprise. There's no styrofoam at all to protect the model and instead some properly shaped cardboard pieces are used. This is fine however. The car survived an air travel in a registered luggage which definitely proves the packaging is sufficient.

The content of the box:

• a yellow live stock G-Scale car
• a coupler hook (since only one of the couplers has a factory installed hook)
• a plastic brake wheel
• a metal brake wheel mounting rod

Let's take a look at the model...

The body of the model is nicely detailed. It is supposed to imitate a wooden car and the surface of the plastic walls reflects it very well. The material LGB used seems to be however of slightly lower quality than I expected. It does feel good in hand but if you put a source of light behind the car, its plastic body does seem a little transparent. Never seen such effect before with any of my models.

Another thing I do not like that much are the black screws holding the pieces together. It's not a huge issue but they're clearly visible. I don't know why the manufacturer decided to leave them this way. Even my daughters' doll house is built with properly coloured screws.

The doors of the car open and close. And I appreciate it very much. Such simple feature allows so much freedom when re-creating a scene and makes the trains so much more interesting...

The wheels are plastic. It's not a surprise in this price range. They can be of course replaced with something better if needed. I'll leave them the way they are for now...

The brake wheel is an element we're supposed to install ourselves. I'm fine with that, however I would appreciate it very much if it was either obvious or explained how to do this. I'm really not sure whether I'm supposed to just push one element into the other or perhaps I'm supposed to use glue here...

The underframe offers some nice details. Separately applied rods and planks definitely add to the overall feeling about the car.

The painting consists of red lettering only but it's perfectly sharp and it looks very good on the yellow plastic body. All-in-all the car does look very much alive. I think weathering fans would have a lot to do here but I like it the way it is.

And now for the final test...

Moooo... The cow is slightly out of scale but still fits inside :)

Summary

The car does look very nice overall. It does miss some extra finishing (black screws) and I do have a small doubt about the quality of plastic that was used. But it was definitely a very good deal. I very much like its rich colour and I love the opening doors. And it also offers some nice details which make the model a valuable addition to my collection.

Bachmann 93811, G-Scale Great Northern caboose

My recent visit to San Francisco allowed me to experience closing of the last real train model store in the city. It was a sad view to be honest, but a closing sale was involved, too. At 80% off I felt like I could buy all the merchandise that was still remaining. (Un)luckily I was constrained by my travelling suitcase. So I decided to just limit myself to one G-Scale car.

The caboose I picked was originally priced at $129, so with the discount I paid less than $30. The model comes from Bachmann and it's my first product of this brand in G-Scale. Its catalogue number is 93811.

The car is packaged in a box 64 x 20 x 14 cm in size. It's filled with the usual polystyrene foam. Considering the fact that it survived the air travel in the registered luggage, I can only praise the job Bachmann did protecting my new toy.

Here's the full content of the package. We basically get two items:

• the caboose car itself
• LGB-style couplers

Nothing more is included, which is not surprising considering the fact that all the details are factory installed.

Let's take a look at the photos of the car.

Well, it's definitely very, very red but also pretty decent looking!

The car is mostly made of quality plastic that feels good in hand. The exception are the details: handrails, ladders, etc. where a much softer material is used. This fact is actually visible even in the above photos - some of those elements are slightly bent or not standing straight at all.

The paint scheme is very simple. The car is red with logos on the sides. Nothing really to complain about - that's the way the American cars are...

It's very nice to see that Bachmann continues its support for metal wheels also in the G-Scale. The wheels are heavy and solid. It's just a pity they do not support picking the power from the track - this would be very much appreciated in case of a passenger car.

The model comes equipped with knuckle couplers. Luckily LGB-style couplers are included, too. A short manual explains their installation.

This is what the car looks like after the couplers are replaced.


Unfortunately after the change, the model does not fit in its box any more. I had no choice but to use the knife and make a necessary packaging-upgrade.

Summary

I'm pretty happy with my choice. There are things one could complain about (bent details) but all-in-all the model does look nice and solid. I'm making that statement however considering the fact that I've paid only $30 for the car. Had I paid the full price, I would have been seriously disappointed with those imperfections. Another reason to always look/wait for a good offer when making a purchase!

Garden works, part 9: More stones, more stones!

There hasn't been much news on my blog recently, but I was definitely very busy working on my garden layout. The spring is here and I could finally pick up where I left off last autumn. So let's recall what the status was back then...

The is the last photo I took in 2015. The wooden frame for my elevated layout is ready but is empty inside. And of course the next planned step is to fill it with stones...

So we're in 2016 now and the stones have arrived. On April 15th 10 tons of material have been delivered to my house. This is what it looked like after unloading from the truck:

The next photo is from May 1st. In exactly two weeks the stones have been transported (using a wheelbarrow) to my garden and poured into the wooden frame. The progress is definitely visible but it's also clear one or two more deliveries will be needed.

I also remembered to install the electrical connections before filling my elevated layout. I have a pipe holding three independent cables inside to allow powering the track, the lights, and... something more. This solution - theoretically - allows installing even more wires in the future.

The pipe actually starts right next to my house wall and goes under the paved terrace in my garden. My wife will be very happy about it, as no cables will be visible at all. It's looking really good!

Next step: another 12-15 tons of stones. And another 2-3 weeks to carry them using a wheelbarrow. I really hope I will be able to show the finished layout base in my next blog update :)

LGB 20755, G-Scale BR139 electric locomotive

LGB 20755 is a product that is no longer in production. I noticed the existence of this model a few months ago and was surprised by its rather low price. Seemed that at a cost of a regular locomotive I could get one with a DCC decoder and a sound module. Too good to be true?

So I was thinking about buying it. Considering the pros and the cons. And thinking about it again. And by the time I've made up my mind, the locomotive was sold out everywhere. And I almost gave up looking for it. Until I came across it by luck at the ArsTecnica on-line store.

Seemed they had two pieces available. But soon only one was left. I could not wait any more and bought it quickly. It cost me 364 € but I knew it had to be worth it. After all it could have been the last LGB 20755 available in the entire world!

So what is LGB 20755? It's a G-Scale model of a German BR139 electric locomotive. As already mentioned it features a DCC decoder and sound functions. It's a budget model, it's really cheap compared to other large scale items. Will it feel cheap, too?

One of the icons on the box indicates you should not throw the locomotive into a trash bin. I wonder who would ever do that...

This is my first LGB product. So finally I'm able to see what the LGB packaging is like. The locomotive came in a rather large and heavy box. It feels sturdy and durable. Just as I would expect it to be.

Inside there's another box. The model is completely hidden inside a polystyrene foam case. It really looks safe...

And here's the locomotive. Additionally protected by a plastic wrap.

Let's unwrap it then...

...and see the full content of the package:

We don't really get that much. Four items only:

• the locomotive itself
• a metal plate (of undocumented function) 
• central buffers for narrow gauge operation
• manual in several languages

Somehow I expected a little more to be there. But is there anything missing? I don't think so... After all, I can't even find out what the metal plate is for. More stuff would confuse me even more.

So does the budget model feel cheap?

I would not say that. The locomotive is heavy and feels solid. It does not make an impression of a toy at all. Its body is rather simple - we won't find that many separately applied elements there. Except for the roof which is nicely detailed in my opinion.

The pantographs are extendable. Their mechanism is simple and they tend to rise at the slightest touch but they make a good impression overall. They're plastic though so I will be careful when operating them. And no, they cannot pick power from the catenary wires.

The paint scheme is very simple. It does reflect the original locomotives from that era though. And there are quite a lot of small details painted which is nice. It's just that everything is white-on-green. Rather boring and not eye-catchy...

But why don't we let the photos tell the story...


Looks perfect at first. But if you look long enough, you'll notice a small damage on the side of the model. I wonder how it got there. Here it is magnified:

I haven't had the chance to run the locomotive very much, yet. I did however build a test loop and made it go around a few times. It seemed to perform very well. The motor was not very loud, and it ran smoothly on my track.

The locomotive does not look good on a 60cm (2ft) radius track. It's already too long for such a narrow curve to look realistic. I would definitely recommend a wider loop for this engine.

The DCC functions worked right away. They're fully compatible with Roco/Fleischmann central stations. The DCC sound effects are clear with the exception of the "station announcement" function which could really offer a better quality of audio. The sounds are very loud. Much louder than my PIKO sound module and speaker set. I consider it very good news. I may however have to lower the volume not to annoy my neighbours too much. Here's a short demo of the DCC/sound capabilities.

Summary

The first impression of my new locomotive is very good. Despite the low price, I can't find anything I could really complain about. I don't have any other super-expensive models though, so perhaps I just don't know what I'm missing here. However, if you're low on budget, I don't see why I should not recommend buying this cheaper product.

Pros

• really attractive price
• DCC/sound equipped
• nicely detailed roof
• good general feeling (despite low price)
• loud audio output

Cons

• not in production anymore
• very generic, unattractive look
• audio effects (one in particular) could be of better quality