EuroCity 344/345 "Avala" (Vienna-Belgrade 1991)

A while back, ACME released two car sets to recreate the EuroCity 344/345 "Avala" from Vienna to Belgrade around 1991. There were:

• ACME 55074: 4-piece car set “Avala” consisting of 1x Alm and 3x Bl, Ep. IVb-V

• ACME 55310: 3-piece car set “Avala” consisting of 2x Bl and 1x WRm (Spiesewagen), Ep. IVb-V

 

It's a beautiful formation but it was lacking the locomotive V43 from MÁV, as shown on the box and catalog:

 

Piko released one at the time, but it was too recent as it displayed MÁV START which is a very recent name for the passenger service. The correct version just got released:

Piko 51447

 

I gave it the DCC address of 4365:

 

 

Avala - Winter 1992 - Wien -> Beograd

Sadly I could not find a photo or a video of the Avala with a V63 ; instead ACME provides one with a V43 engine - which is announced by Piko ...

https://www.vagonweb.cz/razeni/vlak.php?zeme=%C3%96BB&cislo=345&rok=1992

It nicely matches exactly what is provided on vagonweb.cz:

Description	Image	Reference	In stock
MÁV V63		ACME 60661	✔
JŽ Bl		ACME 55074	✔
JŽ Bl		ACME 55074	✔
JŽ Bl		ACME 55074	✔
JŽ Bl		ACME 55310	✔
JŽ Bl		ACME 55310	✔
JŽ WRm		ACME 55310	✔
JŽ Alm		ACME 55074	✔
ÖBB ABm		RailTop 32301	✔
ÖBB Bm		RailTop 32203	✔
ÖBB Bm		RailTop 32203.2	✔

And here's the video:

 

PKP EP08-009 and MÁV V43-1282

 

Recently purchased two new engines.

 

PKP EP08-009

 

MÁV V43-1282

 

MÁV V63 005

 I purchased this engine for my Avala and Drava formations. It came in DC and found a DCC Sound decoder from the Hungarian brand DigiTools that I ordered from Vasútmodell.

 

I found that the "extra" piece needed to be glued again by the buffer on the left side.

 

It wasn't easy to remove the body. I did follow the instructions; there are no screws or pieces to remove; it was just stuck and I had to force a little, but no damage was done!

 It took me a while, a long while, to figure out that the decoder was going underneath the main board. It was my mistake since it was actually written in the manual, but looking at the black plug from above, it seemed logical to put on the top rather than removing screws to put it underneath. Anyway ...

 

 

Everything works perfectly on this one (different from my PKP EU07). However, I cannot find out how to change the address from 3 to something else ...