Real Line D61

My Real Line D61 (D61 1 Later Years version) arrived this morning.

First impressions. It has loads of wire and etched metal details and a small package with a few more parts in the box, but I haven't worked out where they go yet. You also get a package of coal for the tender, there is no molded plastic coal load like most N scale steamers. The interior of the cab is well detailed. The mechanism seems to run more noisily than a Kato or Micro Ace but it may just need running in a bit, it seems to have fair pulling power. The Japanese instruction sheet mentions something about 341mm radius curves but it runs ok on the 315mm outside curves on my T-TRAK corners and just barely on the 282mm inside curves, the main restriction seems to be the movement of the pony truck. On that subject, when I took it out of the box the trailing truck wheels fell out as the metal truck frame had separated in half, a spot of super glue fixed it ok. The tender has a dummy knuckle coupler that mates with Micro Trains couplers but the dummy front coupler will not, both are screwed in and look easy enough to replace. I have to go to work so I haven't had the shell off to look at the mechanism yet but the headlight appears to be a bulb rather than an LED, the backup light in the tender is not lit.

I took the photo with my Iphone, I'll dust off the good camera and see if I can take some better ones tomorrow and see if I can get the shell off without breaking anything to see what the mechanism is like and how easy DCC will be.

so it runs smooth? i only care if it runs smooth i already know their are well detailed heheh.

I don't mind noise too much as long as it's not jittery

From running it up and down a couple of modules it seems to run smoothly at slow speeds as you would want a freight engine to do.

Well I can't find where I've packed my camera away but I've started pulling the D61 apart. Some pictures below of the mechanism. The headlight is in fact an LED. There is a weight glued into the top of the boiler shell.

DCC installation looks easy. A TCS Z2 will fit just in front of the motor but I may have remove part of the weight. The motor takes power from two brass strips contacting each half of the frame, by removing these I can solder the grey and orange leads to the motor and the red and black leads can go to where the LED is attached to the two brass bullet things after the LED is connected to the blue and white leads.

Decoder installed ok. I left the weight out for the time being to leave a bit more room for the wiring, seems to pull ok without it. It does seem to run a bit rougher after I put it back together but I generally have that affect on steam locomotives. I don't have enough modules at home to make up a full oval so I'll have to take it over to the club next weekend to give it a good running in and see how it goes.

I gave the D61 a run on the club's N-TRAK layout yesterday. It pulls well, still without the boiler weight, the train in the video was about the limit before it started slipping. It still seems to run a little rougher than it did out of the box so I may have gotten something in the mechanism out of alignment while I had it apart installing the decoder, I'll have to strip it down again and have a good look.

wow looks to pretty good much better than what i have heard.

I'm going to jpn next year for a few weeks i'm hoping to go to a show if there are any on and catch one of their premium models if they have any.

It really does have strong pulling power! Has any other steam engine used real coal for it's tender?

Pulling power seems about equal to the Kato D51 498.

Bachmann On30 steam locos come with a small packet of coal to spread on top of the molded load but I can't say I've seen it in N scale. I always paint the molded plastic coal in the tender black and sprinkle on some coal while the paint is still wet.

how is this one going mate?

any issue arise or problems?

i'm about to receive a payment request on the 12th and i am really really really considering getting this one http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10139580 d611

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10132693 had this one on waiting list a long time now but i don't think it will ever come in stock.

It is on the realline website but they won't ship to me. i sent em an email in japanese and the said no. :( i fear it won't be available on their store either when i am in japan next year.

how is this one going mate?

 

any issue arise or problems?

 

i'm about to receive a payment request on the 12th and i am really really really considering getting this one http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10139580 d611

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10132693 had this one on waiting list a long time now but i don't think it will ever come in stock.

 

It is on the realline website but they won't ship to me. i sent em an email in japanese and the said no. :( i fear it won't be available on their store either when i am in japan next year.

No problems so far.

great!

Btw which one model did you get as i can't tell from your pics

This one.

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10139581