murphaph

Great stuff. Already looking forward to a re-run with the red oxide bogies! I honestly think if two or three packs with different running numbers had been produced they'd have sold out almost as quickly this time, at least if I am anything to go by (and I realise a sample size of one doesn't provide statistically significant results lol). I "restricted" myself to two packs because they are duplicates. If a rake of uniquely numbered ones had been available as a bundle I'd have ordered it. I'm not moaning by the way. Just giving a bit of feedback on my purchasing motivations Well done again lads.

Any date to the picture?

Was it a mistake by someone or were there complaints by the public?

Why was it controversial?

Everyone enjoys different aspects to a greater or lesser extent. Why do you ask?

I'll have to have a 121 in my hands before I can say if the switches can influence anything under DCC. Noel are you using a MM decoder?

What sort of part would you have in mind? I'm no expert to be honest. My electronic days in uni are long behind me! I happened to have all the parts except the spdt relay so just went with it.

Ah that's good to know about the 071. I've fitted a sub miniature relay to a 201 but I haven't had a chance to test it yet. It requires a couple of additional components, even when using a v5 decoder. The aux 5 output is used to energise the relay coil but as per the nmra spec for the mtc21 connection, aux 5 is at TTL power level which can't do that energising and the signal therefore needs a small transistor (capable of switching 150mA or so) and associated resistor to amplify this TTL to a usable level. I'm not entirely sure if it's required with the ESU decoders but I put in a clamp diode across the terminals of the relay coil to prevent induced voltage spikes damaging the decoder when the relay is de-energised suddenly. I'll stick up a basic schematic once I've tested it.

I would really like to be able to buy a bag of those.

I'm assuming that you can certainly use the mm decoder out of the box to control the headlights, marker lights (cab lights?) as with the 071 and 201 but it was noticed on those locos that the complementary marker lights are always on or off, meaning when one end's white lights are on, the other end's red lights are also on. This is not prototypical when the loco is actually hauling something. The red marker lights should typically be off when hauling a train, with the red marker lights being on the last coach/wagon instead. A hardware change is required in the 201 (not yet sure about the 071) to enable the white front marker lights to be on without the red rear marker lights. This appears not to be the case with the 121. The lights are independently wired so can be (but aren't from the factory it seems) mapped to allow independent control. Anything that a Lokprogrammer allows in this regard can be done by modifying CVs with a command station like the ecos but it's more difficult and fairly error prone compared to the LP way. If you don't care about the red marker lights being on when hauling a train then you don't need to do anything.

Good post. There will be plenty of time for a more in-depth discussion of mods or small improvements people may wish to embark upon (I may well replace the speakers for example for a double iPhone 6s job, for example). I'm looking forward to hearing the sound belt out of the open vents. Where is the factory speaker located within the body actually?

Great stuff. Ordered!

Great to see the marker lights can be controlled independently.

I'm almost never successful on eBay for MM stuff. The price I set the bid sniper to is almost always too low. A handful of people on there have more money than sense. Or just more money than me lol. As for the £275 buy it nows... I don't think a single one has sold yet and they've been up a few weeks.

Thanks for the clarification!

It's fine like that IMO. Better to use a high quality ESU recording of the same prime mover in a very similar body (the recordings are from little US road switchers, which is basically what the 121 is), rather than use a less than optimal 121 recording. @irishthump can you clarify if the full throttle features are not or are enabled by default? I think there's a small typo in your post which makes it unclear.

Fantastic news about the tippex ones. Can't wait.

Plenty of images of a long ballast train topped and tailed with a plough, ploughs facing inwards on both ends to be fair. Short ballast trains often had just one plough. It's pretty difficult for the likes of IRM to predict the ratio of sales of the ballasts to the ploughs. Different people will build up rakes of different lengths. Many will have bought the ballasts to use as Gypsum wagons. How could anyone know this in advance? The ballasts are due to be re-released in the coming months according to IRM emails. The market is growing but it's still small. For now it's going to be limited runs of this or that I suspect as a small company can't have cash tied up in stock that may not sell for years.

The prime mover in the sound file sounds very similar to the 8-645E available on the ESU website: http://projects.esu.eu/projectoverviews/search?q=8-645 (ESU bizarrely have no SSL)

Hmm, can't clear the quote for some reason. Please ignore. The good thing about the ballasts is that they were also used (much more extensively probably) as gypsum wagons, running from Kingscourt to the Irish cement factories several times a week. I'm gonna need two full rakes of those for gypsum trains (empty and laden) and one rake for my ballast ploughs, which are waiting patiently for the re-run lol.

I would really appreciate if it could be put in a plastic wallet rather than splashed across the box if that's possible. Even my DHL lad (only half jokingly) said it was an invitation to theft inside DHL! I understand that Brexit is complicating matters however Back on topic.... I don't have any of these grey ones ordered. I never liked the livery on the prototype to be honest. But the pictures and video somehow look much better than I've seen this far. It really whets the appetite for the IE/IR ones I have on pre-order. Roll on suitable mkIII push pull RTR stock from IRM

Such pictures clearly show that a mkI GSV model would be even more viable than the mkIId ones. You will never see pictures of a mkIId train like that to my knowledge. Many people have smaller layouts. It would be ideal to be able to run short but prototypical trains like the above. Loads of Cravens out there waiting for that GSV

I'm guessing the latter but it's not obvious to me either.

You can most certainly add my name to the well-wishers here. It was the bravery of the initial runs that I admire most. The size of the market for highly detailed, quality RTR was I would say pretty much unknown. The locomotives are always going to be the most difficult thing to build yourself. Having them RTR has unlocked the door for others to follow and indeed build upon that work. Philip Murphy.

Exactly. They're not toys and compromises must be made in choice of materials or else the cost would be impractically high.