A while back, I purchased the Bachmann Class 20 Railfreight Grey, Red Stripe livery (32-029A). It's a DCC ready model, and comes complete with a full set of indicator discs so that you can customize it according to operating duties.
My full review of the Bachmann Class 20 loco was not very complimentary. Now, despite the negative comments and implications that I don't know what I'm talking about, it was a true and fair view of my own experiences.
It doesn't run well over points at low speed, the lack of lights makes it look cheap next to the excellent Class 37, and it's a noisy little loco, with a persistent engine whine.
However, all of these are probably fixable. For a start, I'm going to swap the Hornby Sapphire decoder for a Lenz or Gaugemaster equivalent. Then, I'll borrow a proper controller so I can program the decoder properly - as regular readers will know my Piko Digi Fern is a great infra-red controller, but can't program beyond setting the address!
Finally, lighting is going to be fitted internally, and probably externally, although I'll need to read up a bit on how to control it via the decoder (if that's even possible!) so that they can be switched on or off.
What I'm going for is a DCC sound and lights version of the Class 20 Railfreight Grey Red Stripe livery to rival the features on Bachmann's Class 20 D8138 in BR Green which, by all accounts is a bit of a cracker!
All in all, I want to prove that just because a loco doesn't quite work as I want it out of the box, even a novice like me can turn it into something that I'll be happy with!
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