Graham Farish Class 40 With Sound

[Jonner]

Hi, If anyone is still looking to purchase one of these, Trainstop have 3 in stock at £178.46 with free P & P.

[robert shrives]

Hi gang,
Well collected mine from postie and following the good doctors advice dug out almost all of the grease in the gear boxes and it flys . Being a good old dino on dc I was intrested on how sound does.

Well to report using a duette controlller from the ark - I have both! and on full wave rectification and high resistance  settings it is happily crawling on layout and "whistling like a good one". 

You get engine start and a good ramp up as loco accelerates. By dipping controller you can get it to sing and then reapply  power and it ramps up. Some brake sounds when stopping at lowest speeds and with loco stationary but knob on controller not quite off then enough power to leave engine running. Yes when now power total silence which is a bit eerie after being assailed by it whistling.
A while ago when on half speed I dropped power  bit and the turbo whistled well and after about 10 seconds the engine retook "power" as if driver had reapplied - not that I had moved handle. Thus it looks some play value to be had "notching up and down to play to the audience is possible.

No horns  of course  but I can live with that. It is a very clever ploy to suck in non dcc modellers to the darkside ?!! and I am sure is a game changer as is the castle.

Loco has now been gently crawlling around my test track with 10 - 12 rad curves and a mix of setrack curved and med rad live frog trackwith no problems, bar the leading pony wheels might need a quick check over as it might be a bit narrow on its Back to Backs as it has found a point rail tip and dug in. Once rerailed it has run over same with no problems - may be more sentient than credit given. It it wants double volts on Sunday then defo an ASLEF loco !
Robert         

[scottmitchell74]

She came!!


That's all I have for now. I've got Playoff Football to watch today, so I'm delaying the joy a little longer...but so exciting that she came!

[Newportnobby]

She came!!


That's all I have for now. I've got Playoff Football to watch today, so I'm delaying the joy a little longer...but so exciting that she came!

I'm more excited about the playoffs

[Ben A]

Hi gang,
Well collected mine from postie and following the good doctors advice dug out almost all of the grease in the gear boxes and it flys.

Robert         

Hi Robert,

Nice write up.  I have told Bachmann previously that they should do more to emphasise that the DCC sound models offer lots of play value to DC modellers too...

Incidentally, to remove the grease did you remove the bogies? Do they just unclip or does the body need to be removed?

cheers

Ben A.

[Dr Al]

Incidentally, to remove the grease did you remove the bogies? Do they just unclip or does the body need to be removed?

Ben,

As with all recent Farish the bogies just pull out - be careful of the detail parts. Internally, the bogie sideframes clip on as other Farish, but make sure you unclip from the rear clip, not the forward one as the rear one is smaller, and therefore easier to work with.

Once the bogie is out of the sideframe, clean off the grease, check and adjust the pickups if necessary (not all mine were in need, but some were), and relubricate sparingly with light oil and do the worm bearings while in there. Hopefully you should see a drop in current consumption and a corresponding increase in top speed, and of course the drop in current consumption will put less strain on the motor (particularly the fragile commutator on these coreless motors), which is obviously a good thing in the long run.

Hth,
Alan

[scottmitchell74]

Finally got her out of the box and on the track...to...nothing much. I don't know what's going on. She'll start making sounds (but I have to turn the controller way up) and then move a few inches, and then she powers down. What? Is it some sort of short? I tap the track, and she'll move a little more, then blink out. Grr!!

For contrast: Here's a Graham Farish running on the same Kato Unitrak. It's not the controller or the track.

I'm at a loss, and very frustrated. Been waiting so long for this girl.

[Dr Al]

What controller is being used?

I found my sound Castle on DC does not work properly on a Gaugemaster WS, but works fine on the W. The WS clearly has enough drop in voltage for its simulator to mean the Castle doesn't get enough volts to run at anything more than a crawl.

Cheers
Alan

[scottmitchell74]

It's a Kato Powerpack for Unitrack.

[Dr Al]

It maybe doesn't have the oopmh needed for sound loco.

I know Gaugemaster standard controllers do, as I say, and maybe Bachmann's own trainset controller would, so they might be options to try - the Bachmann controller can be had fairly cheap (£10-15). Maybe other folks working on DC can say what controllers they've had success on - I think someone said an old H+M duette too.

Otherwise, I'd try removing the DCC chip and running it on DC only and see - if it still runs wonky then there's probably a motor or drive issue, otherwise it's more likely it's not getting the volts needed to operate via the DCC chip fully.

Cheers,
Alan

[scottmitchell74]

So, I take out the DCC and put in the DC one they sent along with it? Geez...all these scary movements I didn't sign on for! Thanks for your help.

[Dr Al]

So, I take out the DCC and put in the DC one they sent along with it? Geez...all these scary movements I didn't sign on for! Thanks for your help.

Yes. It just unplugs, so should be easy to do. Look for the thread on removing the 40 body as there are a few subtle clips on the front end that aren't immediately obvious.

Cheers,
Alan

[scottmitchell74]

Dr. Al - You nailed it! Switched out the Dcc for Dc, and she's running-in right now every smoothly.

SO, I have to get a more powerful controller? Ah?! Defeats the purpose of buying the Kato pack. Well, that's life, and another lesson.

Thanks again!!

[Dr Al]

Looks like it.

I suspect the DCC chip needs fairly close to the 12V to work properly on DC (After all, on DCC they run on 16v AC). I suspect on my WS the additional circuitry for the simulator causes a small drop, even when switched off, that doesn't bother DC locos whose motors are fed direct, but does this as the DCC chip needs to be powered, as does the speaker and it controls the power going to the actual motor.

I too thought my Castle was busted when I first ran it on this particular controller! (though I knew it'd worked before, so was able to figure this out quickly!).

You can always use the Kato controller to power layout lights or accessories.

Cheers,
Alan

[davidinyork]

I suspect the DCC chip needs fairly close to the 12V to work properly on DC (After all, on DCC they run on 16v AC).

Is the available current also likely to be an issue? I've not looked to see whether the maximum which can be drawn varies much between different controllers.