EFE J94 any good?

[Blunderguts]

I've been looking at these for a small shunting layout. Does anyone know what exact alterations were done from the 'other' version that was really bad? I went through three replacements and gave up on the other version, they were extremely noisy and ran poorly.

[Bigmet]

The design is - by all reports I have seen - unchanged from the original DJM production. Personally I wouldn't touch it with a bargepole, intrinsically flawed mechanical design and access to make improvements is awkward. The old Dapol design, now with Hornby, is hardly a masterpiece, but can be readily worked on if it is a less then wonderful performer. (Alignment of the motor and drive train is dependent on plastic mouldings made from 40 year old tooling, and is often imperfect, leading to noise and less than smooth running at low speed. But it is screw assembled so can be accessed and adjusted, and when optimised it's a sweet quiet runner.)

A little sad that what is a useful model subject for many only offers the choice of an older design mechanism which is sound in principle but often needs work to get the best out of it, and a more recent introduction with a poor mechanism design and obstructive construction...

[Bigmet]

A thought breezed through my mind half an hour ago to the effect that there is something rather closely related available in OO RTR. Quick grub around to find it and:
https://rapidotrains.co.uk/hunslet-16-saddle-tank/
Now, my sole experience of Rapido steam models is the Stirling single that was commissioned by NRM/Locomotion, which is a complete treat, worth all of whatever it was I paid: quality is what is remembered, the price forgotten. If this model is only half as good as the quite wonderful single, I feel most purchasers would be happy...

[Dad-1]

O.K first what is a small shunting layout in your eyes ?

To me it's more or less the width of a standard ply sheet, 48" or the metric equivalent.
That is best with a really small locomotive. There was a wide choice, and certainly new
things have recently arrived as per Bigmet's posting. There is the 'Victory' that I've contemplated,
but I found the Hornby 0-4-0 Pecketts great (I have 2).
I suppose a slightly larger loco may be better if you want sound, although it can be put in Pecketts.

For serious shunting the puzzle idea is in my opinion best, as you work to a card, not just random, The
real requirements are for DCC to get reliable minimum speeds, and then Kadees to make the whole operation
hands free. Keep to live frog pointwork and thereafter hours of entertaining yard work !!

Locos I've used :-
Hornby Ruston 48DS & 0-4-0 Pecketts, the 0-4-0's being better than the 0-6-0. Kernow 1361 class, I'd miss
the Heljan 1361 series, my version as it took me ages to get that one running as I wanted.

Geoff T.

[Bigmet]

...That is best with a really small locomotive...

I would suggest that the problem quotient and therefore the operational challenge increases with something bigger. My own favoured 'small shunting yard' was just under three chains long. BR routinely worked it using an 0-6-2T, (N2 or N7, and for a brief period an N5) but the preferred loco was a J15 (a compact 0-6-0 tender loco of GER design from 1883), because water was a problem as it lay along a branch with multiple rail served industry sites, and the railway had no installed water supply on the route.

Now, you'ld a thunk that once diesel traction came in, the preference would have been the 200hp DM (03) or a 350hp (08) shunters both of which were available at the nearest mainline station. But the first one apparently didn't like the track, and the gronk was painfully slow and much needed in the mainline yard. If one was available, an EE 'thousand horse' type 1(20) or Paxman type 1 (15) could do the job, but these were few in number and also much in demand elsewhere: and had left the area by the mid sixties. So what typically did the work - until the branch stub was closed in the 1980s - was forty feet of Brush type 2 (30, 31) as they were numerous and freely available outside the commuter traffic 'crush' hours.

[SRman]

A thought breezed through my mind half an hour ago to the effect that there is something rather closely related available in OO RTR. Quick grub around to find it and:
https://rapidotrains.co.uk/hunslet-16-saddle-tank/
Now, my sole experience of Rapido steam models is the Stirling single that was commissioned by NRM/Locomotion, which is a complete treat, worth all of whatever it was I paid: quality is what is remembered, the price forgotten. If this model is only half as good as the quite wonderful single, I feel most purchasers would be happy...

Rapido also did the J70 for Model Rail, and while I don't own one, I do have some experience with that on a friend's layout. It is quite a sweet runner with good detail and finishes. I'd love one myself but cannot justify it at all.

[Bigmet]

Rapido also did the J70 for Model Rail, and while I don't own one, I do have some experience with that on a friend's layout. It is quite a sweet runner with good detail and finishes. I'd love one myself but cannot justify it at all.

I sat down a worked out a scheme to justify one. Suppose that during the mania a tramway branch was constructed West from Hertford toward Hatfield. (For the sound economic reason that there must be something that could be moved to market on it, and the proposers wanted 'in' on the railway boom.) But unlike the Hatfield to Hertford branch that was later constructed, the easy route obtained by following the River Lea was not considered, and instead the route went along the existing country lanes, to serve the thriving traffic sources of Hertingfordbury, Essendon and Wildhill, and eventually met the route of the GNR near Skimpans farm, south of Hatfield. Thus was born the 'Skimpans, Wildhill, Essendon and Hertford', rapidly contracted to 'the Swish'.

Then I returned to rationality, and decided that what actually got constructed was enough to deal with, fun though tram locomotives (and naturally water tube boiler compound steam railcars to follow) might be...