Silver Fox C Class

burnthebox · February 8, 2015

Only collected this on Friday, haven't had chance yet to run it, I'm not sure this link will work, so here go's one thing for sure is the weight, holy **** is it heavy

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/s/?view=att&th=14b5c2dd3b2a6ece&attid=0.1&disp=attd&realattid=1492313094570901504-local0&safe=1&zw

Noel · February 8, 2015

Hi BTB. Looking forward to seeing it when you get a chance to upload or link the photo. What livery did you go for? And yes I too was pleasantly surprised how heavy the loco was. Enjoy, it's a nice model. Noel

burnthebox · February 8, 2015

Hi BTB. Looking forward to seeing it when you get a chance to upload or link the photo. What livery did you go for? And yes I too was pleasantly surprised how heavy the loco was. Enjoy, it's a nice model. Noel

Thanks Noel, just as it was on SF website, I didn't go for any "frills " I just wanted to get one & it was a Xmas present to boot

Paul

Liverbird81 · February 8, 2015

I plan my next purchase to b an NIR loco c class or NIR Hunslet

Alan564017 · February 8, 2015

Hi, Burn, I got one a while back. If you're fitting a decoder, i'd be interested to hear how its goes, what type, CV settings, slow running etc, thanks in advance.

DiveController · February 8, 2015

Hi, Burn, I got one a while back. If you're fitting a decoder, i'd be interested to hear how its goes, what type, CV settings, slow running etc, thanks in advance.

Noel has one by the sound of it. I know he has an A for sure. Noel have you DCC'd yours yet?

Thanks Noel, just as it was on SF website, I didn't go for any "frills " I just wanted to get one & it was a Xmas present to boot
Paul

I think Noel was asking what livery, silver, green, black, black/orange, supertrain?

Paul, any chance of a photo, btw?

Edited February 8, 2015 by DiveController

burnthebox · February 8, 2015

Hi, Burn, I got one a while back. If you're fitting a decoder, i'd be interested to hear how its goes, what type, CV settings, slow running etc, thanks in advance.

Hi Alan haven't thought of any of those just yet, I don'nt know anything about cv's or decodes, but when I do get to fitting it with a decoder I'll be asking around here, nearly forgot, it is DCC readyi if that makes any difference

Edited February 9, 2015 by burnthebox

Alan564017 · February 9, 2015

Burn, the one I got came DCC ready, to fit the decoder you have to lift the body off by cutting the glue line between the body and the chassis. I tried a bachmann 4 pin decoder and it jumped around the track. I then tried a standard hornby decoder, it was ok but not good at slow running. I then tried a hornby sapphire decoder, there was an improvement, and i'm sure if a mess with the CV's I could get it better. I hope this is a prompt for Noel to row in .

P.S. mine has rubber tractions tyres, and as its not all wheel pick it can stall over X crossings. I'm reluctant to take them off, anybody any thoughts on this?

irishthump · February 9, 2015

Burn, the one I got came DCC ready, to fit the decoder you have to lift the body off by cutting the glue line between the body and the chassis. I tried a bachmann 4 pin decoder and it jumped around the track. I then tried a standard hornby decoder, it was ok but not good at slow running. I then tried a hornby sapphire decoder, there was an improvement, and i'm sure if a mess with the CV's I could get it better. I hope this is a prompt for Noel to row in .

P.S. mine has rubber tractions tyres, and as its not all wheel pick it can stall over X crossings. I'm reluctant to take them off, anybody any thoughts on this?

Depending on the chassis you could probably replace the wheels that have traction tyres to ones without them. I recently did this with a Hornby deltic chassis. It's an improvement but you have to add a lot of weight to get any traction.

burnthebox · February 9, 2015

I

Noel has one by the sound of it. I know he has an A for sure. Noel have you DCC'd yours yet?

I think Noel was asking what livery, silver, green, black, black/orange, supertrain?

Paul, any chance of a photo, btw?

Hi DC did the link not open for you, I don't know how to upload photo's onto this site yet,

burnthebox · February 9, 2015

Depending on the chassis you could probably replace the wheels that have traction tyres to ones without them. I recently did this with a Hornby deltic chassis. It's an improvement but you have to add a lot of weight to get any traction.

Hi irishthump, whatever I have to do to get this loco running fast or slow, the one thing I will definitely not have to do is add weight, of any kind as Noel will I'm sure confirm

Paul

Noel · February 9, 2015

Hi irishthump, whatever I have to do to get this loco running fast or slow, the one thing I will definitely not have to do is add weight, of any kind as Noel will I'm sure confirm
Paul

Hi Paul.

I'm going to replace the basic Hornby decoder with a Lenz silver in the next week or so. Will let you know how it goes after the change. Likewise I certainly will not need to add any weight. So far I am more than happy with the SF MV. It looks right at home hauling a pair of IFM Park Royals behind a GSV, or mixed freight loose coupled wagons. I have a single MM 201 in green/silver, but hope to acquire a few more SF metro vics rathar than 201s. My favourite era is around the 1960s so these metro vics fit in really well with the 141 and 181 fleet I've been collecting. Black and Tan is the livery, but an SF in CIE green is next on my wish list.

Noel

burnthebox · February 9, 2015

Hi Paul.
I'm going to replace the basic Hornby decoder with a Lenz silver in the next week or so. Will let you know how it goes after the change. Likewise I certainly will not need to add any weight. So far I am more than happy with the SF MV. It looks right at home hauling a pair of IFM Park Royals behind a GSV, or mixed freight loose coupled wagons. I have a single MM 201 in green/silver, but hope to acquire a few more SF metro vics rathar than 201s. My favourite era is around the 1960s so these metro vics fit in really well with the 141 and 181 fleet I've been collecting. Black and Tan is the livery, but an SF in CIE green is next on my wish list.

Noel

Noel, that's great, even though I don't have a layout yet I'll be looking forward to your trials. & yes I really do like my Loco, even if it's only sitting on the dining room table, btw, I love the light dusting on your A Class, it looks mega

Paul

Alan564017 · February 9, 2015

Noel, i'd be really interested to hear how you get on with the decoder. Have you played around with the CV's on the hornby decoder? Would more weight be needed if the traction tyres are removed?

I'm also looking at the 70/80's era and a few SF's are on the wish list to go along with my Class C (but the 121 is still top of the list, looks like I could be waiting).

Noel · February 9, 2015

Hi Alan, Paul

Sure I will let you know as soon as the 8 pin Lenz is installed. Will try and video the loco at various transition speeds over insulfrog point work which is the real test. Crawling on straight track tells you nothing, crawling over insulfrog points tells you a lot about the chassis (and decoder). I tried adjusting CVs but the basic Hornby decoder doesn't support most of the usual CVs so it was a rather fruitless exercise. It doesn't even support CV5!!!

Noel

PS: Paul, what livery did you go for? and if you get a chance to post a pic that would be great.

Edited February 9, 2015 by Noel

burnthebox · February 9, 2015

Hi Alan, Paul
Sure I will let you know as soon as the 8 pin Lenz is installed. Will try and video the loco at various transition speeds over insulfrog point work which is the real test. Crawling on straight track tells you nothing, crawling over insulfrog points tells you a lot about the chassis (and decoder). I tried adjusting CVs but the basic Hornby decoder doesn't support most of the usual CVs so it was a rather fruitless exercise. It doesn't even support CV5!!!

Noel

PS: Paul, what livery did you go for? and if you get a chance to post a pic that would be great.

Noel, that's it in the link I have on the earlier post, exactly as it was on the SF web site, black over orange, I'll try & get some pics up

Paul

DiveController · February 9, 2015

I
Hi DC did the link not open for you, I don't know how to upload photo's onto this site yet,

No, presumably the photo is in your personal Google mail or somewhere so I just ended up on the Google main page

This is the unrebuilt version from SF website which is what I think you got

Edited February 9, 2015 by DiveController

irishthump · February 9, 2015

Hi Alan, Paul
Sure I will let you know as soon as the 8 pin Lenz is installed. Will try and video the loco at various transition speeds over insulfrog point work which is the real test. Crawling on straight track tells you nothing, crawling over insulfrog points tells you a lot about the chassis (and decoder). I tried adjusting CVs but the basic Hornby decoder doesn't support most of the usual CVs so it was a rather fruitless exercise. It doesn't even support CV5!!!

Noel

PS: Paul, what livery did you go for? and if you get a chance to post a pic that would be great.

I would highly recommend the Lenz decoders myself. I use Lenz standards when hardwiring old Athearn Blue Box locos and the slow running is absolutely perfect, even with the crappy old open-frame motors.

jhb171achill · February 9, 2015

I noticed on the Silverfox website that the rebuilt "A" class has full-height orange on the sides; this should be lower band only as per their model of a 101 in same livery.

Their railcar liveries are all very wrong in some way or another....

Just saying......

burnthebox · February 9, 2015

DC yes that's it, exactely except my number is 230, don't know why you cannot see the link on page 1, don't understand what "unrebuilt " is, anyway I have a question for all you technics, I have a N Class which has been hotwired but there is a wire disconnected on it, however having got it fixed, can I get a sound card for this, & where, Thanks in advance,

Paul

Noel · February 9, 2015

PS: Best prices for Lenz decoders seem to be from German web sites or amazon.de. Up to 37% less expensive than UK sites. It kind of makes sense Euro2Euro skipping UK trade channel currency hops.

PS2: Has anybody installed off the shelf lighting kits in their SF A or C class locos? I presume there are kits designed for BR outline diesels that would do for the Hornby class 55 now used in SFs.

Edited February 9, 2015 by Noel

DiveController · February 10, 2015

I noticed on the Silverfox website that the rebuilt "A" class has full-height orange on the sides; this should be lower band only as per their model of a 101 in same livery.

Their railcar liveries are all very wrong in some way or another....

Just saying......

JHC, jhb! I was thinking of buying some of the them. Now you're forcing me to save all my money!

Care to elaborate, maybe a photo or two as you go……?

Eh, do we need a new thread for that?

DiveController · February 10, 2015

don't understand what "unrebuilt " is, Paul

Directly from the SilverFox website ( to save me typing it)

The C (201) Class was manufactured by Metropolitan Vickers as less powerful versons of the 001 Class locomotives for mixed traffic use on branch lines.

Unfortunately, they suffered badly from the unreliability of their Crossley engines, which were also underpowered. The entire class we re-engined with General Motors engines.

Originally, these locomotives were numbered C201-C234. As the locomotives were re-engined (rebuilt), they were renumbered B201-B234 to reflect their increased power. The prefix letter was later dropped.

Hope this helps

IR/IE 201 Class Orange, Black Band, after rebuild B230, later just "230"

Edited February 10, 2015 by DiveController

jhb171achill · February 10, 2015

Ok, Dive...!

Their reference to CIE / NIR "2600 class" is not right - the GNR, UTA and NIR never numbered them, or called them that....

Ok - first off - the UTA ones. Light grey roofs should be dark grey and valances at bottom were black, not green; though the UTA like NIR ran them without, ie with the engine showing.

CIE green - the shade is wrong and the roofs are light grey again - should be black, though some might have the very front bit in green as discussed earlier.

GNR - the blue is way too light, more like what they had on locomotives. It should be very dark blue, verging on navy; actual example may be seen on the Fintona Tram at Cultra. The lettering is the wrong colour and style.

The black'n'tan version is fine, though lacking CIE logos on the sides.

I know that for economy's sake, it's a "repaint" of a British railcar - fine - not everybody, unfortunately, can afford the more high class models, and it's good that Silverfox recognise this. But for any manufacturer, it's a shame to see something as absolutely elementary as the colour of something, poorly researched....

I'll trawl and post some photos later (just out of books - any "real" ones I can put my hand to are black and white).

I'm truly and genuinely not on a rant about silverfox - I completely respect and support any manufacturer who enters the Irish market - hardly a business decision guaranteed to make them rich. In my day, Irish modelling meant paper overlays on Hornby Mk 1's! But just looking again at their site, their "G" class have livery errors too. Green G601: should have green chassis, not black. Silver version: silver roof, not black. Black, and black'n'tan versions: the white band is way too thick, and there should be a silver or white colour on the small strip of beading round the front of the bonnet.

Overall, "tan" looks too orangey and probably is closer to the post-1990 shade. Having said that, I'll qualify it by saying that I haven't seen one of these "in the flesh".

Edited February 10, 2015 by jhb171achill

aclass007 · February 10, 2015

I suppose one option would be to buy the Silverfox models in kit form and paint them in the correct livery.

Dhu Varren · February 10, 2015

GNR - the blue is way too light, more like what they had on locomotives. It should be very dark blue, verging on navy; actual example may be seen on the Fintona Tram at Cultra.

According to E M Patterson's 1962 book on the GNR, the railcar colour is 'Royal blue'.

Blaine · February 10, 2015

I'm truly and genuinely not on a rant about silverfox - I completely respect and support any manufacturer who enters the Irish market - hardly a business decision guaranteed to make them rich. In my day, Irish modelling meant paper overlays on Hornby Mk 1's! But just looking again at their site, their "G" class have livery errors too. Green G601: should have green chassis, not black. Silver version: silver roof, not black. Black, and black'n'tan versions: the white band is way too thick, and there should be a silver or white colour on the small strip of beading round the front of the bonnet.

Overall, "tan" looks too orangey and probably is closer to the post-1990 shade. Having said that, I'll qualify it by saying that I haven't seen one of these "in the flesh".

You should JB, Id love to know if Silverfox consult anyone with regards to their Irish stock, as a lot of it is terrible

Noel · February 10, 2015

You should JB, Id love to know if Silverfox consult anyone with regards to their Irish stock, as a lot of it is terrible

Well all I can express as a recent customer, is that I was more than happy with the three items I have bought from them so far, and I will be buying at least four more locos from them. As I said in the thread that was unfortunately hijacked a few weeks ago, their products ticked enough boxes for me personally. I appreciate that's only my opinion. Live and let live.

Satisfied customer bought these:

GSV Black&Tan (mk1)
Dutch GSV Black&Tan weathered
A Class Loco Black&Tan weathered

Garfield · February 10, 2015

You should JB, Id love to know if Silverfox consult anyone with regards to their Irish stock, as a lot of it is terrible

Can we avoid getting bogged down in another yay-or-nay Silverfox discussion please? There has already been plenty of them on the forum lately.

As I said in the thread that was unfortunately hijacked a few weeks ago...

We'd appreciate if instances like this could be reported at the time, Noel.

Thanks folks.

jhb171achill · February 10, 2015

To stick to my original point, rather than appearing to concentrate on Silverfox themselves (which I didn't intend to), with regard to colours, yes, the option is always there to repaint. The thing I generally try to concentrate on is purely to share information re what is a correct appearance for something, what's a not-too-bad compromise, and what is not prototypical.

The "12 ins to the foot scale" preservation world and the model world, unfortunately, abound with liveries which are not accurate, or ones that were never carried, or both. That's fine in two senses: (a) if it's full size, no bystander has any right to just criticise the efforts of volunteers who give up their free time to restore something, and (b) the modeller - who, at the end of the day, is entitled to do exactly what he wants with his own layout, which is none of anyone else's business! Personally, I've been in both camps. But I think it's important that all concerned at least know what something actually did look like in use, otherwise incorrect versions seen on preserved things and models enter folklore as the assumption of what things did look like.....

I would reiterate my support for any manufacturer who enters the Irish market.

Anyway; onwards and upwards!

Blaine · February 10, 2015

Can we avoid getting bogged down in another yay-or-nay Silverfox discussion please? There has already been plenty of them on the forum lately.

There have been plenty of other 'bogged down' conversations and these have been let run.....

Garfield · February 11, 2015

There have been plenty of other 'bogged down' conversations and these have been let run.....

Views on the merits of the Silverfox Metro Vicks are currently spread across a number of threads, so there's no need to start on about it here, too, especially when nothing new is being brought to the discussion. If you have an issue with this, feel free to take it up via PM with the mod team.

Edited February 11, 2015 by Garfield

burnthebox · February 11, 2015

feel free to take it up via PM with the mod team.

A question I have not related to this topic, except I would like to know who, or what are the "mod team"

Broithe · February 11, 2015

A question I have not related to this topic, except I would like to know who, or what are the "mod team"

Down at the bottom of this page - http://irishrailwaymodeller.com/showgroups.php .

burnthebox · February 11, 2015

Down at the bottom of this page - http://irishrailwaymodeller.com/showgroups.php .

Thanks Broithe for that, but I must say there's nothing like that on my screen, top or bottom,

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