Thank you for great comment. For the money the 109 chassis is great value and as you say runs well on DC. Messing about with the CVs on DCC is getting me a slower running chassis which is good.
I was about to order some of these but your "3 volt motor" comment had me thinking twice. It is actually hard to find a definitive spec sheet online, but there's a couple of 'strip-down' sites, which state 12V coreless'. It would seem odd, to supply a chassis intended to run on N gauge (12V) which uses a 3V motor...
Hello Andy, Thanks for your comment. At the time I started using the Kato chassis it had been upgraded. From what I understand, the earlier chassis were 3v motors with an external resistor. The upgraded chassis does not have that external resistor which means either the resistor is inside the motor or the motor Kato now use is a 12v one. Trying to find the answer has so far proved elusive and if you search on line there are differing views. The bottom line is that the motor runs (whether it is a 3v motor with a resistor or a pure 12v motor) on 12v and will run on DCC. As a chassis they are good value but putting a chip in does mean having to alter CV values to get slow running. I certainly would not wish to put anyone off using them. Hope that is of use . Woody
@@woodysmodellingdiary Thanks for the reply. I did order four of the 109 chassis, along with some 009 body kits. I already owned a Kato Eurostar, which runs brilliantly, so expected similar performance. Tried 5 different DC controllers (4 Hornby plus my usual PWM jobbie) and the 109's ran horribly with all of them. However, they managed to run flawlessly with the Bachmann '5' box (as included with their sets) good linearity, from crawl to max. They also seems to like the expensive Gaugemaster offerings, at our local club :)
Hi Andy, Thanks for letting me know how you got on and your experiences are very interesting. It is strange how different motors characteristics can change with different controllers and it is not always the expensive controllers that can provide the solution as you found with the Bachmann 5. I had to get a controller for a friends sons layout and was recommended the Bachmann one by a model shop as the best controller for overall performance at a reasonable price. From what I understand it is still being used several years later. My DCC chipped Kato chassis run well with the Bachmann EZ Command controller as well. I do have a liking for Gaugemaster DC controllers though and the Combi, for the price has been a great controller for my DC locos. Woody
Awesome UK
Thank you and very much appreciated! Woody
The 109 chassis has a lovely mechanism. On DC it can run really slowly and smoothly. Great layout by the way 💪🏻
Thank you for great comment. For the money the 109 chassis is great value and as you say runs well on DC. Messing about with the CVs on DCC is getting me a slower running chassis which is good.
Nice model, and nice layout :)
Thank you!
Great bargains there and smooth running
Thanks! For the price you can pick the chassis up at they really are good and the £D print options are getting better and more detailed too.
I was about to order some of these but your "3 volt motor" comment had me thinking twice. It is actually hard to find a definitive spec sheet online, but there's a couple of 'strip-down' sites, which state 12V coreless'. It would seem odd, to supply a chassis intended to run on N gauge (12V) which uses a 3V motor...
Hello Andy, Thanks for your comment. At the time I started using the Kato chassis it had been upgraded. From what I understand, the earlier chassis were 3v motors with an external resistor. The upgraded chassis does not have that external resistor which means either the resistor is inside the motor or the motor Kato now use is a 12v one. Trying to find the answer has so far proved elusive and if you search on line there are differing views. The bottom line is that the motor runs (whether it is a 3v motor with a resistor or a pure 12v motor) on 12v and will run on DCC. As a chassis they are good value but putting a chip in does mean having to alter CV values to get slow running. I certainly would not wish to put anyone off using them. Hope that is of use . Woody
@@woodysmodellingdiary Thanks for the reply. I did order four of the 109 chassis, along with some 009 body kits.
I already owned a Kato Eurostar, which runs brilliantly, so expected similar performance.
Tried 5 different DC controllers (4 Hornby plus my usual PWM jobbie) and the 109's ran horribly with all of them.
However, they managed to run flawlessly with the Bachmann '5' box (as included with their sets) good linearity, from crawl to max.
They also seems to like the expensive Gaugemaster offerings, at our local club :)
Hi Andy, Thanks for letting me know how you got on and your experiences are very interesting. It is strange how different motors characteristics can change with different controllers and it is not always the expensive controllers that can provide the solution as you found with the Bachmann 5. I had to get a controller for a friends sons layout and was recommended the Bachmann one by a model shop as the best controller for overall performance at a reasonable price. From what I understand it is still being used several years later. My DCC chipped Kato chassis run well with the Bachmann EZ Command controller as well. I do have a liking for Gaugemaster DC controllers though and the Combi, for the price has been a great controller for my DC locos. Woody
nice
Thanks!