TT Scale. The Ideal Scale.

This is a CO-CO diesel with 15mm between axles. Distance from bogie center to bogie center is 122mm with bogie pivot points offset 2mm forward - for a distance of 126mm from bogie pivot to bogie pivot. This is a long loco!
Lighting is directional 3 forward 2 rear, electrical pickup as well as drive is all 12 wheels. There are 4 traction tires.
There are provisions for DCC and also(!) for a speaker (see closeup picture of belly tank).
The model is super smooth and quiet. Detail is downright exquisite. The walkways have a detailed diamond plate look, the paint is sharp, the various vents and exhausts have minute detail in them. There are metal grab handles across the top of the hood on each access panel, metal handles at the doors of the cabs and the railing is metal as well. To get an understanding of the level of detail and closeness to the prototype, you have to look at the railing. At one end of the hood, the railing "steps out" a bit around the radiators.
A truly exquisite model!
There is a small bag of parts.
Comes with Tillig type and N scale type couplers.
I consider this model THE state of the art in TT scale manufacturing. The Brawa E95 is a close 2nd.
Manual is in 7 languages.

It must be noted that the instructions, while written in 7 languages are very terse, and are missing some crucial information, such as how to remove the housing! After spending a lot of time on German-language forum search, I seem to have found the description, which I will post, once it's confirmed to work. To make things worse, the location of sound speaker seems to only be accessible by removing the engine mount. Again, if I succeed in following the poorly translated instructions, I will report back on the way to do it. ESU Loksound decorder is on order, and once it's here the fun will begin!

I will post instructions on removal of the housing when I get home tonight (it's a Haggis).

ConducTTor wrote:I will post instructions on removal of the housing when I get home tonight (it's a Haggis).

Thanks. I understand that headlights have to come out, which I already tried (duct tape or any other adhesive tape works great tull them without risk of scratching the lights or housing). I am still not sure if the removal of handrails on the cabs is absolutely necessary. And, I don't have good instructions on the removal of motor mount (other than removing the railings and prying with a screwdriver...) to access the speaker space.

I can give you the housing instructions but the rest I haven't done. I assume you bought it on ebay from a Polish seller? If so, contact him - they do speaker and dcc installs on these models and I'm sure he would know.

ConducTTor wrote:I can give you the housing instructions but the rest I haven't done. I assume you bought it on ebay from a Polish seller? If so, contact him - they do speaker and dcc installs on these models and I'm sure he would know.

Good idea! I will drop him an e-mail and see what he has to say.

Okey dokey, here you go (click to see full size images - arrows are hard to see in thumbs):

Pull out headlight glass and remove 4 tiny screws from the underside of each cab:



Next pull the cab "floor" including coupler and buffers forward and off the model (pay attention only to the bottom arrow - piece to remove has been outlined):



Now that the floor has been removed, the cab will be somewhat loose. Pull it slightly forward and up and you can take off the cabin grab irons. I found it easier to pull the bottom out first then the tops of each grab iron.



Now comes the most pain in the Haggis part. If your model is like mine, the cab has a very tight fit. The key to its removal is downward pressure on the area right behind it and pulling the cab itself up and slightly forward (upper half arrows):



The last thing to do is flip the model back over and find the 4 "clips" that hold the housing to the chassis. Squeeze the clips together and push them up into the chassis:



Now the housing should lift right up.


Be patient and gentle - some parts may fit very tightly but with so many fine details all over, it's easy to break something

In preparation for the expected arrival of ESU Loksound for the Blue Tiger, attempted disassembly. Good news - I managed to remove the shell without taking out the cab floor. Bad news - I failed miserably in trying to remove the motor mount to access the speaker space in the tank. It definitely looks like this model was not built with disassembly in mind.

I ended up removing walkways and railings (relatively easy to do - just pry up gently, here are 4 pins holding them in the chassis). I also removed cab interiors to release the wires going to the lights. After all that, I tried to pry the motor mount out of the chassis, but the fit is incredibly tight. Looking at the parts list I see that there are 4 latch tabs (2 on each side) that hod the mount inside the chassis. There is no space at all between the sides of the mount and the chassis to slide even the thinnest metal piece to release them. And I am afraid that simply pulling up with any amount of force would snap those tabs and/or resul in me damaging the wiring.

I will ponder the problem for a bit longer, but I am close to the point of giving up trying to access the designated space, and will simply mount the speaker in the empty space on top of the boogie mount on th eopposite end to the one where the decoder is located. I wonder how this will affect the sound I can get out of the speaker.

Before giving up, let me give it a try tonight on mine. I'll let you know how it goes.

ConducTTor wrote:Before giving up, let me give it a try tonight on mine. I'll let you know how it goes.

Make sure you remove the cab interiors to release the wires and also remove the walkways/railings. The last thing I would want is for you to mess up your model while trying to help me!

P.S. I am taking apart my Poollok version and will take pictures befoe/during/after re-assembly to post in the library.