Graham Farish 372-033DS, N-Scale class 4073 steam locomotive

It must be clear by now to anyone reading my blog that I simply love nice-looking, colourful models. It's also clear that I could really care a little bit more about realism. But that's who I am and it doesn't seem like it's going to change. And today I'm going to describe another vivid purchase that doesn't fit my current collection of trains at all.

The product I will focus on is an N-scale replica of a British Class 4073 (or Castle Class) steam engine. The model is manufactured by the Graham Farish company and is factory equipped with a DCC decoder and a sound module. I knew absolutely nothing about British locomotives when I was placing the order. The only reason I went for it was its look. But the purchase made me read about the original, so now I actually do know something. Better late than never, right?

Here's the original I fell in love with. Road number 5029 named "Nunney Castle". The picture is taken from its Wikipedia page.

This is my first Graham Farish locomotive. I'm not really sure what to expect. It comes in a pretty regular box and is additionally wrapped in a thin white paper.

Taking into account the potential resell value, I have gently removed the plastic enclosure from the paper wrap. Three pieces of documentation were released in the process.

The documentation includes:

• Owner's manual - disassembly, lubrication, etc.
• DCC information - functions, programming, etc.
• Collector's Club entry form

The most interesting for me is of course the DCC guide. It gives a quick overview of what the model is capable of. This product offers 28 functions in total.

Removing the packaging layer by layer takes a moment. But here it is - the beautifully green "Nunney Castle".

First impression? It looks fantastic!

As I was placing the model on the track I've noticed the pilot wheels were not really attached to the boiler part above it. For a moment I thought something was broken. But no, that's the way it's supposed to be. And I guess I need to be careful when moving the locomotive.

Let's see some more photos before we jump into details...


I think the pictures speak for themselves. The model is stunning. And it's not just nice or colourful. It's also incredibly detailed with a huge number of separately applied parts. It's hard to believe that this level of precision is achievable for an off-the-shelf small scale product. The painting is super crisp with easily readable labels and flawlessly applied different paints. It's the most beautiful model I own so far.

Let's talk about functions. The first surprise? The model does not feature any headlights. In fact it does not offer any lights at all! And it's completely dark at night. It's a little bit shocking but justified. If you go back to the photo of the original, you'll see it did not have any sort of lighting either. So it's not a missing feature - it's the realism.

But of course we still have plenty of digital functions to play with. Those are mostly different sounds, and different whistles in particular. They are loud and pleasing to the ear but it's also obvious some frequencies are difficult to reproduce properly inside such a small model. So while there's nothing to really complain about, one should not expect every single note to be crystal clear.

A very interesting aspect of the digital control on this model is how the brake function works. The behaviour I've experienced in other products enables the brakes (affecting both speed and the produced sound) as soon as the DCC throttle is set to zero. That's not the case here. On the Graham Farish model reducing the speed on the controller only eliminates the theoretical "steam power" that would be transferred to the pistons but it does not enable the brakes. This means the locomotive will free run for many, many more meters unless the F2 function is explicitly invoked by the user. It looks really, really cool and I just wonder whether this simulation is true to scale...

How does it run? I did not get the chance to use the model a lot. After all it's the middle of the G-Scale season now, and I won't be coming back to the small scale fun until late autumn. But I did manage to test it a little and was pretty happy with its performance. It runs nice at lower speeds and is not extremely noisy at higher ones. The movement is smooth without any breaks. It did derail once on my Kato switch but the rail connection is not perfect there and I was really pushing it going at full speed.

Here's a video showing the engine's performance.

How do I like it? I absolutely love it. And I knew I'd love the engine the moment I first saw it. That is of course unless there was something really bad about its performance. But there isn't. The model offers a nice selection of DCC and sound functions and they all work just fine. The running characteristics seem OK, too. And of course the details and the colours are fantastic. What could a miniature worlds lover like me want on top of that? Probably nothing. The Graham Farish product has it all.

ps. Of course I'm still dreaming about an N-scale engine with a real steam generator. But that is a completely different story...

Piko 35013 switch decoder with Roco Z21

My garden layout was always supposed to be fully DCC controlled. After putting money into my digital setup and the locomotives (here and here), the next step was enabling the handling for rail-track switches. Luckily the product needed for that is easily available and is not even extremely expensive considering its functionality.

Piko 35013 is a switch decoder dedicated for G-scale usage. It offers 4 independent and programmable outputs. Moreover each output can serve two switches at once, so with some clever design one could control up to 8 switches using one device. This may be more than many of us have on our layouts, including myself. And that means I had an option to go full digital for just 70 Euro.

The product comes in a standard Piko box. The content includes the device itself and a detailed manual. The decoder is secured inside the package with a properly shaped piece of a cardboard. Everything arrived unscathed.

The manual covers all important topics and is bilingual including German and English descriptions. Everything is explained very clearly with pictures and wiring diagrams.

There are some points in the manual worth mentioning:

• The declared minimum input voltage for the device is 12V. This means the product could be potentially used also for smaller scales. That's some interesting news and it makes it a reasonable alternative for the Digitrax DS64 decoders that I'm using on my N-scale layout.
• Piko claims the outputs are short protected. That's really great and it turns the decoder into an even more interesting option for replacing Digitrax. DS64's outputs are not protected at all and that forced me to send the units for repair twice already.
• The decoder offers different modes for operating the outputs. It can drive 2-wire and 3-wire switches, as well as LEDs and light bulbs. This all looks very promising (and again - seems like much more than the functionality of Digitrax).

The decoder itself is just a small black box.

Upon opening the cover, we gain access to its terminals. Those include: one input, four outputs and a programming jumper.

The PCB seems to be covered with some sort of a lacquer. This is probably the way the device is made weather resistant. Looks very solid!

First tests with Roco Multimaus and LEDs connected to the outputs. LEDs are blinking and everything seems to work just fine...

An important point to remember here is the different numbering scheme used by Piko and Roco. There's a +4 shift in digital switch addresses. So in order to use Piko switch #1, we need to target address #5 on the Roco Multimaus controller.

The next tests involved Roco z21 station with mobile application control. Again - everything behaved correctly... And again, the already mentioned address shift is in effect forcing me to adjust addresses on the z21 application.

I have tested 3 configurations in total:

• Roco Multimaus -> Roco 10764 station -> Piko 35013 decoder -> 2 x Piko 35271 switches

• Z21 Mobile App -> Roco z21 -> Piko 35013 decoder -> 2 x Piko 35271 switches

• Z21 Mobile App -> Roco z21 -> Uhlenbrock Power 8 booster -> Piko 35013 decoder -> 2 x Piko 35271 switches

In all those configurations my setup worked correctly for basic operations. I was very afraid of adding the booster to the chain but it did not have any bad effects. The switches could still be controlled easily and it worked just great!

And that's when I've decided to try something more. I needed only 3 out of the 4 available outputs for the switches on my layout and I thought it would be a good idea to use the last one for something else. Traffic lights were my preferred choice. After all the decoder had the "LED constant output" mode and it should be usable for choosing red and green signals.

I tried it... and it did not work. I've had huge problems programming the decoder using Roco z21. The station could neither write or read the CVs properly. I've even used the z21 Maintenance desktop application and it seemed to work but the "LED mode" was still not enabled. I've spent three afternoons trying different ideas but it was all for nothing...

Here's a video documenting the initial success and the later failure.

 

I've contacted both Piko and Roco to get some insight on possible cause of the incompatibility. Unfortunately at the time of writing this post, the issue is still not solved. I suspect Roco z21 is simply not able to program the decoder. And I also suspect that if I used a different station to change the relevant CVs, I would later be able to operate the "LED mode" from z21.

The summary is: Roco z21 can be used to operate Piko 35013 but it cannot be used to program any new behavior.

Alright, but the basic switching still works perfectly fine. I've installed the electric mechanisms (Piko 35271) on my layout with all the wiring...

...connected it to the decoder...

...and hid the device under one of the buildings to add some weather protection.

It all works. My switches can be operated remotely now. The layout is fully DCC enabled. Success? Yes, but I somehow still wish I could add the traffic lights, too...

Pola G 331787, G-Scale inn and beer garden

Building the town on my garden layout reminds me of playing Sim City when I was a teenager. Just like in the computer game, the expansion of my G-scale settlement follows certain rules, too. Once the residential area has been established and populated, the next step is setting up small businesses.

I don't have much space available, so I have to focus on really small ventures. There will be no big factories, no airports, no nothing that requires a large footprint. That's why I'm starting with a small rural restaurant. And the product I'm building today is Pola G 331787.

The box the model comes in is big and heavy. Lifting the cover immediately confirmed my assumption about the baseplate. Yes, it is included. It's great news, although I feel the element could have been a little bit thicker. Still - much better than having to install the building on top of a separately purchased pavement tile.

The elements are segregated and packaged into smaller boxes as usual. And there is actually quite a lot of them. Glue is not included.

I've split the parts into two groups. Group one - sturdy-looking wall and roof pieces.

Group two - delicate details.

Some of the parts got detached during the transport. Luckily nothing is broken, it's just loose.

The manual reflects the significant amount of provided plastic pieces. It's long and detailed. The build actually looks ambitious!

Stickers and windows decorations are also included with the set.

Let's build it then. It's a house, so it needs the walls first. Keeping in mind lessons learned from my previous Pola G building I immediately noticed weak spots in the elements and covered those with small black plastic sheets. I expect this will allow me to avoid any problems with light leaks once the illumination is added.

Another thing that is not visible in the photo is an extra part I added behind the door to keep them from opening to the inside. Such protection is available out of the box for the ground floor door but not for the upper one.

The walls get installed on top of the baseplate. And it's so easy to get a perfect rectangular shape for the building when you can just glue it onto the surface.

Second floor and the roof. The structure holds well now and can be carried around.

It's already possible to start working on the details. Here's the balcony at the back of the house.

The beer garden will be assembled under the pergola on the front side.

The roof is extremely rich in detail on this model. The blueprint assumes three chimneys to be installed!

The accessories for the beer garden consist of the same elements that are found in Pola G 330995 kiosk set. But there are twice as many included.

And it's done. The inn is ready to serve its guests. There's even someone waiting already to place his order!

Custom Polish stickers are added to the model and the assembly is complete. Let's enjoy some photos...

That was one enjoyable build. It offered a lot of construction steps and even some real challenges. The fence parts - for example - were not really that easy to use. I had to really pay attention to the manual and plan ahead before actually going for the pliers. And I liked it a lot!

The building itself? It's a little bit too red for me. I can't say I like it very much. But personal preferences aside, it's definitely very, very solid and very detailed. The beer garden's look is top notch and the fence design is very clever and functional. The baseplate is a little flimsy and you have to remember to carry the model using both hands.

The product can be found at a very attractive price, too. Less than 120 Euro for such a big and accessories-rich model is really not much. So even though I might have preferred a slightly different style of a restaurant, it was still a very good deal. And of course the town folks will be very happy to finally have a place to eat (and get drunk).