EA 060 Locomotive, from ACME

Here you have the models of three Romanian electric locomotives. All three models have three real locomotives which correspond to them:

The first one, with inventory number 40-0520-3 belongs to Suceava depot.

The second one, with inventory number 41-0105-1 belongs to Braşov depot.

The third one, with inventory number 91 53 0 477 773 2 belongs to Bucharest depot.

The class 40 real locomotive was produced in România with license from ASEA Swedish company. Then it was modernized, and that’s how other 4x classes have appeared (such as classes 41 and 47 of the other 2 models in this article).

We return now to the models. They are the same on the inside; only the outer shell is different. The shell is made of plastic (unfortunately). This model is an expensive one (due to limited edition) that can be powered from the catenary and that supports digital decoder. The digital control is available only when powered from the tracks (at least that is what the manual says). I have only used it as an analog locomotive. I opened it, in the name of science, but I haven’t found how the locomotive is powered from the catenary. It has a jumper that needs to be switched, but I couldn’t see how the electricity is conducted from the catenary to the main board of the locomotive. There are no wires. Maybe the screws touch some contacts on the board, but I’m not sure. I have published the manual of the locomotive, which offers more information.

The models come with a few accessories, such as coupling rods, mirrors and other fragile plastic components which can be attached to the locomotives.

Enjoy the pictures!

BR98 DB Piko – Steam locomotive with tender, HO scale

This is a cheap locomotive from a cheap start set. It’s a 12V DC model from Piko.

It is a very light locomotive, so don’t expect it to pull heavy wagons. I don’t think the model is too realistic, because it reaches too high speeds, because of the transmission. At top speed, it almost flips over in tight curves (but as it starts to lift one side from the tracks, the power supply is cut off, and then the locomotive comes back on the track without derailing). It’s fun to see it move at high speed. It doesn’t have lights at all, but at least the coupling rods are mobile. The visual effect is great. Unfortunately, the locomotive is very noisy and the electric engine’s sound doesn’t fit with a locomotive which is supposed to be powered by steam.

I don’t like the way the tender is connected to the locomotive, but I can’t ask much from a cheap locomotive. The tender has 3 axles and it is the most vulnerable part when it comes to derailing. The 3 axles have a certain degree of liberty, so that the tender could turn in curves, but when the locomotive derails, it’s usually because those 3 axles from the tender were not properly aligned when crossing over points or track joints that were not fitted well. Because the tender is light (it doesn’t have any extra weight to make it heavier) it tends to hop when it runs over track joints which are not fitted well. Now don’t get me wrong, the locomotive works just fine in most of the cases, but when it derails, it’s usually because of the tender.

The locomotive is a great slider (it doesn’t come with rubber rings for its wheels, against sliding), so if you want to have some fun, you can turn it on at high speed, to see its wheels turn around on spot, until the locomotive starts to move. You can also make the wheels turn backwards while the locomotive still moves forward :D.

And if you go to a speed competition, you may win with this locomotive 🙂

Siemens BR 189 locomotive RTC HO Piko

This is a model for a class 189 locomotive from RTC (Rail Traction Company – an Italien transportation company). This HO model is a 12V DC locomotive from Piko.

You can find the manual that came with it by clicking on this link. The manual includes detailed schematics.

Here you have some pictures of the locomotive:

Siemens ER20 Hercules Diesel Locomotive WLB HO Piko

This page contains pictures of a Siemens ER20 Hercules locomotive from WLB (Wiener Lokalbahnen – an Austrian transportation company). The Locomotive model is at HO scale and manufactured by the German company Piko.

You can find the manual that came with it by clicking on this link.
The manual includes detailed schematics.

Below, you have a first photo gallery of this locomotive:

I didn’t like that the locomotive didn’t have rear red lights, so I modified it. This locomotive is a rather cheap one, so I experimented on it. Don’t try do this with an expensive locomotive (but then, of course, expensive locomotives already come with white and red bidirectional lights).

Let’s continue with the modifications I made to it.

The first question that first came to my mind was how to make the red back lights turn on with the white lights in the front and how to make them turn off when the locomotive moves the other way. Fortunately, the logic already existed, because the locomotive already had white frontal lights that were turned on and off depending on the sense of the movement. So all I had to do was to connect the wires for the red lights with the wires for the white lights at the opposite side.

Now, initially the locomotive had light bulbs that can light up when powered between let’s say 1.5 Volts and 12 or 16 Volts, but LEDs have a rather fixed input voltage, and they require a regulator so that they don’t burn out. This is where the Zener diode comes into place. Let’s look at the scheme below (click to enlarge):

As you can see, the scheme is symmetric. When “Vin” from above is positive and “Vin” from below is ground, the right half of the scheme is activated and turns on the front lights and the rear lights at the other head. When the polarity is changed, the left side of the scheme is activated and the corresponding front and rear lights are turned on, while the other are off. I took the liberty to power the circuit directly from the input power (from the tracks), because I didn’t want to modify the existing circuit except the light bulbs that I removed. I connected my circuit in parallel with the existing one. Besides, I didn’t need the semiconductor diodes used for the light bulbs, because LEDs are themselves diodes and only light up when connected in one way.

The list of the used pieces is the following:

2 Zener diodes at 3.0 Volts, 0.5W
2 Resistors of 1K Ohm
2 Resistors of 300 Ohms
6 white LEDs, 3mm, at 3.2-3.4 Volts
4 red LEDs, 3mm, at 2.4 Volts (I think);
one capacitor (non-electrolytic) of at least 7uF

The Zener diodes are used as voltage regulators, so that the LEDs don’t burn out.

The 1KOhm resistors are needed for the Zener diodes (the rest of power has to go somewhere, and that’s the role of these resistors)

The resistors of 300 Ohms were needed for the red LEDs, because the Zener diodes offer them a higher voltage (3Volts) than the red LEDs need. Also, the red lights shouldn’t light too powerful, so I would have used these resistors anyway.

After I finished the circuit and tested it on the locomotive, I realized that from time to time, when the locomotive was passing with high speed over the rail joints, the WHITE LEDs at the rear would sometimes flash shortly. So I added the capacitor to solve this problem. I didn’t have just one, so I added 7 capacitors, each having around 1uF capacity, and connected in parallel. The 7uF capacity was determined experimentally.

In this case, I used 3mm LEDs, because I thought there was enough space for them, but I had to polish them, so they could fit. Next time, I will use SMD LEDs.

Oh, and next time I’ll read the specifications of the locomotive more carefully. It’s embarrassing, but… after I modified it, I realized that the model was actually a 16V AC one. I was under the impression that it was a 12V DC (at least that’s what I thought that ordered from the shop). It works fine in direct current (I think the diodes inside of it convert the AC to DC anyway – half wave rectification, probably – but that’s just an assumption, I haven’t investigated the electrical part too much, because my electrical circuit is connected in parallel with the rest, so I didn’t care too much about it) and the lights may work just fine in alternative current (if you’re all right with lights that pulsate at 50 Hz… hardly noticeable; Oh… the 1KOhm resistors may overheat at 16V – my scheme was designed for a maximum 12V input voltage).

Here you have pictures of how it looks after I modified it:

I found on the internet some pages about ER 20 that you may find useful:

At this link you have more pictures of the dismantled locomotive, including the transmission. I think it’s the DC version (the electrical circuit looks different).

Here you see a comparison between the Piko version and the Kuehn version of the ER20 locomotive. They seem to be TT models and the Kuehn one comes with reverse lights.