Vids of new TL45 Mallet (not mine!)

Zerogee

Zerogee

Clencher's Bogleman
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Looking around for other peoples' videos of the new 5901 Mallet, I stumbled across this chap's Youtube collection - four short vids of the TL Mallet including disassembly and some simple improvements, plus loads of other stuff both model (his own very impressive layout and others) and prototype; all narrated in German, but still great to watch and in many cases very useful!

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCerXE481rmPimm4dgHVptyg

Among loads of other nice stuff, he seems to have a Faur L45H on his own layout, not sure if this is a Blauturm kit like the one that James Hilton built (are you still on here, James?) or a scratchbuild of his own.
From the vids of the Mallet disassembly, it looks like he might have bought two of them.... :o

Anyway, hope some of you find these enjoyable! :)

Jon.
 
Question, what are the cables or ropes running along the roofs of the passenger cars used for on the prototype?
 
Very nice. From what I read he had a lot of problems with the engine hesitating and even more with the Massoth decoder. His was replaced twice after 2h each and in a comment another had his fail twice almost immediately. The Zimo he has in now sounds really great and I think this is the first time I have heard a steam sound where the engine actually coasts. I always think it's strange how a train coasts to a halt while the engine sounds like it's working hard.

Cheers,
Peter.
 
Madman said:
Question, what are the cables or ropes running along the roofs of the passenger cars used for on the prototype?
Click to expand...
A method of train brakes known as the Heberlein system....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heberlein_brake
 
The Heberlein cable brakes seem to have been used a lot on the Sachsen lines, which is why the LGB IK, IIK and IVK locos are all festooned with the cable pulleys on the cabs and funnels. A very primitive system that was apparently very tricky to keep in tension, as one would imagine. Many old photos of early Sachsen rolling stock show the pulleys and cables, on both passenger and goods stock. The LGB Sachsen historic coach set is supplied with separate Heberlein parts that can fitted to the coaches if desired, though there are none for the goods box van in the set.

Jon.
 
Beddhist said:
Very nice. From what I read he had a lot of problems with the engine hesitating and even more with the Massoth decoder. His was replaced twice after 2h each and in a comment another had his fail twice almost immediately. The Zimo he has in now sounds really great and I think this is the first time I have heard a steam sound where the engine actually coasts. I always think it's strange how a train coasts to a halt while the engine sounds like it's working hard.

Cheers,
Peter.
Click to expand...

Yes, a bit worrying about the number of decoder problems with these..... touch wood, mine seems to be OK so far, but then it's probably had less than 2 hours running as yet! :o
Mine certainly suffered from a bit of hesitation at first when it was up on test rollers, the front power unit was much more reluctant to start turning than the rear one was; this seems to have improved a bit with running-in, though, and now it's really only apparent on the rollers because the front and rear motions get gradually in and out of synch with each other. When on the track, the weight and momentum seems to even it all out and I've not noticed any wheel-slip so far.

Re the "coasting" effect, I think most/all modern decoders have this - it's certainly on all the more recent LGB sound locos I've bought, and is standard on the Massoth decoder in the Mallet too - when you turn the speed control knob down quickly, you get a coasting period of steam hiss only until the loco speed has dropped to what is set on the control knob - then the working sound comes back in again. The only decoders I've heard that don't do this are the very simple or very old sound systems where you get nothing but a rudimentary voltage-dependant chuff noise.....

Jon.
 
I haven't (yet) had mine apart to examine the smoke unit, Paul - but from the guy's video of dismantling his, the unit looks to be of a similar design to the Massoth one, but with the case moulded in red plastic rather than black. Maybe it is Massoth-made for TL45, or maybe they're getting them from someone else.

Jon.
 
get mine on sataday.. ???
 
Looking forward to seeing lots of pics and video of it, Mike - hope it's being thoroughly tested in the shop to make sure it doesn't have any of the teething troubles!

Jon.
 
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