Hello!

Here's my review of Re 421 (Re 4/4 II) from the M* starter set 29481:

In the box the loco lies on a long strip of felt - I should have dusted her before taking the pictures.

The locos has yellow LEDs (three front lights, one tail light), no red tail light. Tail light cannot be switched off separately.

Loco looks very detailed.
The dark frame at the big "g" from cargo is not prototypical. The mould is prepared for the number plate that the loco had in earlier eras.

The loco has spoked wheels and two different pantographs - just like the prototype.
It includes closed front skirts (that can be mounted after removing the NEM pocket).
However, the closed skirt collided with the truck - a piece of sandpaper solved this.
Before (left) and after (right) the sandpaper treatment:


The loco can be operated from catenary - but the manual is outdated (it describes a switch that was replaced by a jumper; this has been discussed here before, but though this is a new model they still have the wrong description in the manual.
The Mobile Station that comes with the set already includes 29481 in its database; the MS offers to set ACC and DEC separately (which is not supported by the decoder).

The decoder is mounted on a 21 pole plug underneath the PCB (there are free solder pads on the PCB and the light module):

Is there a way to activate red rear lights? I don't know, but maybe somebody else can tell...

The loco has a decoder of the 60760 type and the normal 5-pole high efficiency propulsion.
14 speed steps only, but with a long acceleration and braking delay it works OK.
The motor is rather quiet compared to other 5-pole locos (not as quiet as a c-sine).
Since the decoder is only plugged on, it should be simple to convert this loco to mfx (or DCC ).

The print looks very good and very detailed:

Manufacturer signs printed silver, other information printed white.
The text SBB CFF FFS Cargo should be on the height of the door handle, so it's too deep on the model.

You can see through the engineer's cab which has a reproduction of the interior.

Two more pictures:



I was too late to get a 37345 so I'm happy to have this loco now.


Note: Original review thread:
https://www.marklin-user...ts&m=10673#post10673

Edited by moderator 05 June 2010 01:39:31(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Thanks Tom for a very good report. This looks a nice loco. Pity though they did not sort the errors you have mentioned.

dave

Thanks for the review, the problems would seem fairly easily corrected if they wanted to. You'd think they try hard to get the starter set loco working right with the correct instructions. (cost cutting to help deal with the financial woes perhaps?)

Matt