Sonic announce a RTR OO A5 GCR 4-6-2T

[Bigmet]

I know nothing about this operation. If they make a good job of it, I will buy one. Good subject choice in my opinion, neatly supplements the three available GCR design tender locos from Bachmann.

[Mike Parkes]

They have just released a N gauge 56xx and have announced a J50 in N. Has been set up by a former Graham Farish engineer.

[Bigmet]

Ah, so that's probably the 'why' behind the grumbling of turning to the fleshpots of OO, instead of staying exclusively N.

Whatever, having now examined the pictures of the hand painted EP samples, and seen the video with operating examples, I am smitten; and a BR early crest version with side window cab shall be mine! Stand out for me, the Robinson chimney, really elegant in reality and the model truly gets it; welcome on my layout, even though it should have a Gresley 'flowerpot' chimney by that date! A thing of beauty is a joy forever... (This class put in intermittent service from KX, so legitimate as a visitor on my KX inner suburban area operation.)

The spec is good, lots of diecast weight in it, and a five pole motor. First pacific tank model in RTR OO too, and for my money the best looking UK example of this type; so all around a good subject choice by Sonic, especially as it well complements the three available GCR models from Bachmann.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6nfyH9ZaME&t=223s

[Bigmet]

https://railsofsheffield.com/blogs/news ... ank-update

All being well then, should be available February / March 2023.

Which will neatly give us a passenger tank loco for all the 'Southern half' constituents of the LNER (A5, N2, N7) and with the announced TMC/Bachmann G5 still to come, all the major English constituents. Will the NBR get a passenger tank sometime to join the J36? (The LNER modeller is prodigiously well supplied with wide firebox engines from past half a dozen classes and class parts, not so much from the very extensive stock of smaller black engines which outnumbered the bigguns roughly 20:1...)

[PeterH]

Mine arrived today, what a beauty!

[Bigmet]

Me too, ordered Tuesday afternoon, appeared 48 hours later. It's had the recommended hour running at moderate speed with no train 50/50 forward and reverse, and quickly quieted so that the loudest sound was the wheels on the rails, able to crawl smoothly at scale for 1.5mph on a basic resistance type DC controller. I am otherwise engaged for the rest of today, so fitting a Zimo MX618 must wait for now, that'll be tomorrow's little task, but on the basis of the DC performance I would expect it to be very refined indeed.

Appearance is excellent, leading dimensions are correct, a decent weight of 340g should deliver plentiful traction for its rating, well presented poop sheet included with clear diagrams and spare parts listing. Something I had noticed in the advertising photos was finer than normal wheel flanges, and this looks very well on the model. I will measure tomorrow. Hasn't caused the slightest problem on test, over a mix of Peco code 100 and 75 medium and large radius points, or code 75 kit and handbuilt points.

Everything to like in short...

[Bigmet]

It's had some prolonged test running following fitting of a Zimo MX618. On track performance all it should be. Came out of the box running well, all pick-up wipers in contact, and now with the Zimo decoder fitted is smooth and quiet down to a very slow crawl; so this model is fully 'ready to run'. (It will go way faster than prototype, I have trimmed the maximum speed well back.)

Flanges are 0.67mm deep according to my micrometer, so scale for 2", same as Heljan, Hattons and Accurascale use, to the considerable benefit of their various model's appearance. The thoughtful provision of an easily detached cab roof for adding a crew is very neat. Plenty of things to fiddle about with yet for a portrait of a loco at the end of its service life. The weight means adequate traction for any load likely to be assigned it; still more running time required to polish up the tyres before testing if it matches or beats my current large tank loco champion, Bachmann's very neat Fairburn 2-6-4T.

[PeterH]

I took 373 to a friends to run, a little noisy to start with but it settled down.





And No.6 in L&NER guise also arrived.

[Bigmet]

Very fine looking in both GCR and the very early L&NER livery. I hope this model does as well commercially as it deserves for Sonic. I can really only justify one, as it was a rare visitor to the KX inner sub area in the final years of steam, but am feeling the temptation...

[Phred]

On a side note, the platform-view photo looks great. Very atmospheric.

[Bigmet]

I have been fiddling with mine, firstly to fit a Zimo MX618 decoder last Friday (usual outcome, good as the running was on resistance controller DC, now very refined indeed) and yesterday to reduce the spring loading and increase downward travel of the bogie.

When I set about the bogie, first thing was to find the retaining screw which had dropped out undetected during my usual extended test running! Anyway it is now hopefully not going to drop out again, as a little threadlock has been applied.

It's had a total of 10 hours running now, which is more than most owners will rack up in a year, so overall I'd say it's a goodun all around. (And if you have the artistry of 'PeterH', the lovely GCR and early L&NER livery versions can grace a suitable layout.)

[Bigmet]

Another month of operation and mine is going as well as ever. An old mucker came around last night and liked it so much he's buying, on the grounds that it must have wandered into his LMS area layout, as the ex-GCR route was so closely entwined with the former LNWR and MR lines.

[thirdline]

I agree with all the above, however one thing has really impressed me about this model was when I came to fit a decoder the body securing screws came undone easily, they seemed to be torqued to the right amount for a fixing that size, not like some of the established manufacturers who massively over torque them!

[Bigmet]

The artful arrangement of the coal rails and moulded coal heap concealing the cab retaining screw is another neat touch. It does require some patience with a fine tipped tool to release the coal rails, thereafter all is simple. Great access for adding a footplate crew, and the moulded coal easily replaced with the real stuff for better appearance.

Very much hoping that the sales results are sufficient to suggest opportunity for further OO productions from this brand. There are endless handsome pre-group designs that survived in service to the withdrawal of steam going begging...

[Buelligan]

I got one of these as well last week. It's a lovely smooth runner, done its running in on the rolling road, just needs the DCC chip fitting now.