RIO Nord-Pas-de-Calais - part 20

 

I finally got to the number plates for my RIO units!

I'll start with the E46 unit:

I cut each piece with a hobby knife:

With a sanding bar, I remove the excess material:

I use double-sided tape on a foam board:

I then clean each piece with 70% alcohols:

I airbrush some STYNYLREZ primer GRAY - link:

Here are some pictures I used to find the best colors and positioning:

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cv2bhGzozo8/

https://www.instagram.com/p/CKMHpgZnblx/

For these two colors, I choose spray cans:

• Montana Gold 2050 Orangina
• Montana Gold 6250 Dolphins

The blue looks a bit too blue ...

For these plates, I use a black sharpy and put some masking tape. I'm not super happy with the results:

For the "blue" plates, I use a fine sanding block and that works very well:

I use Zap-A-Gap Medium CA+:

I was concerned about the white residue or glue-haze from CA glue, but it seems that if you operate in a warm-ish and dry-ish place, it would mostly prevent the residue to happen - link: 

TEE RAe

 I was lucky to purchase the TEE RAe set ...

Prototypical unit

There were only 5 of those units and they were assigned to routes between Switzerland and Italy, with one route going to Paris - more details here:

• TEE Gottardo, Zürich – Milano
• TEE Cisalpin, Milano – Paris
• TEE Ticino, Milano – Zürich

https://www.flickr.com/photos/160979841@N05/52350769514/

Miniature model

My model was made by LS Models referenced 17021. I got the analog version and want to convert it to DCC Sound.

There are two sound projects on the ESU website:

But, when looking at the details of the available functions, it has a limited number of functions:

Especially on the lighting functions available on the notice:

I decided to open a car to make sure the lighting was already installed even though I bought the analog version, and great news, there's the lighting strip in the car:

We can even see that the destination panel can be lighted.

Looking at the units and notice, it seems that:

• Current is picked up from the two end cards
• Motor car, the one with the 4 pantographs, carries the PCB where to position the decoder and speaker

I'm now trying to find the original sound decoder from LS Models:

Thalys PBKA, TGV PSE, and TGV 2N2 EuroDuplex

 

Following the previous post, I worked on the other 3 TGV units I have.

Thalys PBKA

This is not the exact livery, but the Thalys PBKA passes through Ascq under specific circumstances:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jobiwannn/53080835339/

TGV PSE

https://www.flickr.com/photos/bindonlane/2993724844/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/86006896@N05/14259236179/

TGV 2N2 EuroDuplex

This unit does not typically run in the NPDC region, instead it is dedicated to the routes between France, Germany, and Switzerland.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/193884658@N05/51538044682/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/193884658@N05/51559038091/

TGV OuiGo

I got myself a TGV OuiGo for my bday!

Prototypical unit

This is the low cost offering from TGV. Here are a couple of pictures of the real TGV in Lille:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/johnybrauns/40804562383/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/185467976@N05/49339453171/

Miniature model

Jouef released this unit in April 2023:

• HJ2413S: Coffret de 4 unités, TGV Duplex OuiGo
• HJ3009: Coffret supplémentaire de 3 voitures, TGV Duplex Ouigo, composé de 2 x voitures de ex 1ére classe et 1 x voiture bar
• HJ3010: Coffret supplémentaire de 3 voitures, TGV Duplex Ouigo, composé de 3 x voitures de ex 2ème classe

The notice for the engines and the notice for the decoders.

And a short video :

By default, the ESU ECoS Command does not allow to have two decoders with the same DCC address. This is an issue for this unit, because there is a ESU LokSound v5 in the main engine and a ESU FX in the dummy engine. I struggled a bit with that before, until I read this forum:

 

Therefore, on the function decoder, I disabled the RailCom protocol:

And just like that, I was able to control both decoders from the same address: