IXION MODELS: J CLASS STEAM LOCOMOTIVE REVIEW WITH DCC AND SOUND 

The devil is in the detail and the devil is good here. I know a friend who has Oz trains moulded and made in China. He's been having a tough time of late because those who do his work often need an oversight to keep on track (no pun intended). I like the on track static rolling device, never seen that before.

You just convinced me to get a sound equipped coal version. Really looks the goods

That's a really cool engine. Regarding DCC decoder installation, it's actually extremely easy if the unit is equipped with a DCC ready circuit board. Maybe I can see if I can do a how to video one day.

another excellent review Will!

Great looking and great sounding loco mate 👍

Beautiful model, looks Amazing especially with the red detailing and smoke gaurds

Excellent video as usual! Thanks!

Yet again Will great info from and video from you, can't wait until I have mine at home

Great video as always. Thanks

I got one myself J519, It really is a beautiful model. Fantastic review mate

Very useful for me, I'm getting one shortly. Great review!

Watched this review a few times and then I've finally ordered the loco, should have it next week :D Another great review Will!

You’re doing a good job convincing me to buy this model. Just be careful of the electrical pins connecting the loco and tender. I have a eureka r class with the same kind of connection. The drawbar can spring off, leaving the loco and tender only connected by the electrical wires. This can cause the wires to be pulled out of the pin, which is what has happened to my loco. I need to look into getting a new part.

Oh, great vdeo once again. You are doing a top job!

Hi Will! An Excellent presentation! Keep up the great work. It’s Really good to see more about the Victorian steam locos and learn some facts about them. Keep safe! Tris 😊

Hey Will, great review of your latest addition to your roster.The engine looks great and from watching your video seems like a dream to operate. Have been subscribed since just before your 1st layout building video

That's a nice looking locomotive. Cheers from the US, :-D

Wow! This really is a nice model! I’ve seen the thing for myself (a mate of mine got both versions) I quite like the ripe redness of the smoke deflectors and running board ect. I absolutely agree the lights are a bit bright and white, I think if you paint over the LED with a yellow/brownish transparent paint that could work? As for the price It seems alright compared to the previous versions as mentioned. I don’t know if I’ll look into the J class but this should set the precedent for the upcoming D3, (which is becoming more and more tempting for me!) K classes and hopefully more Victorian steamers! Great review Will! I’m excited to see more stuff like this!

Good job.

Lovely model

Awsome looking model. I seriously wish i could have this but obviously nothing this good comes cheap enough for me haha

I got the oil burner type, waiting on my preloaded Esu decoder to arrive 🙂 however had a spare 21 pin decoder to get it up and running. Very happy with it after such a long wait.

They look great, i ordered 1 through dcc sound, looking forward to its arrival this week. You could probably colour the lights with tamiya clear orange ,to make them more golden. Thanks for the review Will.

A good and balanced review, thanks. I got mine yesterday with sound via dccsound and I am very impressed with both the model and the sound project. The loco is a very smooth runner and crawls well at speed step 1. The lights are a bit ‘white’ but with dcc the brightness can be dropped using the ‘dim’ function and I have some tamiya x26 clear orange paint that can be used to make more yellow. As you noted the noise from the mechanism is quite loud, can be heard even with sound on. I contacted Ixion to see if they had any advise for this, seems they have had this complaint from a few others also. They suggested that I should relube, and failing that return it. I will relube and and update. Any other suggestions on reducing the mechanism noise welcome.

Very nice video Will. J512 might not see main line running however now restrictions have eased again in rural Victoria, more work is been done on J515

That seems to be a break through for Australian model trains in general. The detail and function is good value for money. Compared to the numerous Marklin engines in my collection it is getting up there in terms of the overall package. The noisy motor is a concern, but still you do get what you pay for. The white light is a sign of the times. LEDs were never intended to imitate an incandescent light bulb.

Great review! I think the price is steep specially with no DCC or sound or even smoke. Still on the fence whether to get one or not. And can I say very impressive how you have replied to all 107 comments now that's dedication

Thanks for this very nice review. I’m a fellow modeler in the USA and am seriously considering purchasing one of these.

Hi Will, the train in the video was at Diamond creek, the wagons are mine, the GY's, and GJF's being towed, are weighted in accordance with NMRA standards.

Excellent video Will! What a lovely model! Price is great for beginners, but sadly they'll surely be hard to come across for new people to the hobby in the future.

WOW I didint know that v/line owned a Steam locomotive! And plus the detail on it is incredible! omg its so cool. I really liked this video thanks for making it!

very nice model

Great review Will. Ixion have done a great job with this one. I am considering getting one in the future I do hope that they do another run of these J classes in the future. As for the price I 100% agree with you there $595 is not a bad price at all! I'm just glad it's not being released at Trainbuilder or PSM prices!. Look forward to seeing more on this engine.- Nicholas.

I have got 2 J's coming, looking forward to them. 515 & 549. Getting the sound fitted from Trainworld too like your's mate.

Being from NSW I don't know much about the J class but that looks like a nice model and well worth it. Trainworld in Melbourne is a great shop. I noticed your scenery has come along very nicely. It looks good. 👍

I agree about the colour temperature of the lights and also the headlight is pointing up at the trees, hopefully it can be adjusted. I noticed some other little flaws as well and I think that, for such a high price, it should be perfect. Apart from those little niggles it looks terrific and the sounds are good too. Your layout is looking good too. 😊

The warm headlight was expected over thst white headlight. Still keen for when I get my DCC Sound fitted J class. 😛

Mine arrived with an intermittent fault in the motion gear, and very rough running at low speed. Ixion have been very helpful so far and it's been sent back to them to be looked at. Just quickly weighing in on the hauling capacity issue - it is interesting how different people are having very different experiences here. Mine was barely able to haul two passenger cars up the 1 in 30 ramp on my layout. For reference, all my diesels (even something like a T class) can handle at least 5 cars up there with no issues. I'm hoping this is also something repairable, possibly just with a good clean of the wheels. I reckon it would be worth carefully painting those visible pickups between the drivers wheels too, doesn't look like it would be too hard to do. My only other thought so far is the marker lights - it's a bit of a shame the front marker lights don't light up, and the rear ones can't display red. But... as you say, overall great model, and hopefully I see mine back and running again soon!

Hello Will, a great review of this model. I personally know the producer and they had big expectations for this model and have delivered it although to be fair a lot of the production and quality control is out of Australian producers control. I am waiting for mine but have seen one in the flesh yesterday and it was a little noisy and had a little bit of trouble pulling up a 1:30 grade with two Tait Trailers and a dummy but removal of the dummy dragging it went away with no problem.

A terrific presentation, well done Will. I thought it cute to talk about the pulling power of the J, suggest some say it is mediocre and then show a video clip of a J pulling what a thousand wagons. But on a more serious note you and other presenters ask that we SUBSCRIBE and hit the bell. How do we do this if we watch all our youtube on televisions .

Great video, would love to get myself a J class but way out of my budget, may wait for the Ks. Butt I do agree the head lights a bit off putting, and I also noticed the front buffer beam looks a bit strange especially the plates, but oh well, from any reasonable distance it looks great!

OK, i finally got my J Class. Some thoughts... First, Will's review is spot on. And also first, Startrack couriers - just awful, and funnily enough it took a drivers' strike for me to actually receive my delivery. How weird, while drivers are on strike we actually see an improvement in service. They should do it more often. Metro Hobbies were very helpful, but do you need to use Startrack Metro Hobbies? I won't be ordering online again, far too stressful. The loco is lovely. Nice detail, I appreciate the representation of motion gear between the frames, particularly since the J's boiler sits so high. It's a lovely looking model, really is well done. It will look stunning under a light coat of weathering. Tender uncoupled for storage - this is stupid and annoying. There is no reason for this and no one else does it (that I know of) It's loud, like a groaning tractor. I was wondering if this will settle down as it ran in - nope, not so far. I haven't got mine sound fitted yet, but it's the noisiest loco I own by far. Light are far too bright. This is annoying and makes them unusable. They just look silly. Like you could read by them. Point work. I don't get this. It blasts through complex pointwork with slips and diamonds (and looks fantastic doing it), but derails on the simplest set of Peco long points - not all the time, maybe 20% of the time. This is frustrating because it shorts the whole layout (I don't have blocks yet), but I can't see a reason why it does this. The Eureka R has no problems here, and thats a finicky (albeit stunning) loco - in fact none of my locos have a problem here, and it's an old reliable layout. Maybe the pony truck 'hunts' and this is causing the issue. I think the price is about right, that's what you pay if you want to model Aussie stuff. All in all, I reckon it's pretty damn good.

With the discussion of smoke units, people planning on going to the effort and expense of finding one that may fit might also check with clubs with club layouts. My understanding is that some clubs ban smoke units being used. This is due to them finding the vaporised oil used for smoke settles on the track and scenery leaving an undesirable oily deposit. Even sixty years ago some smoke units left oil drift on loco bodies. Luckily with DCC the smoke units usually now fitted can be turned off as I understand.

I love j549 it’s a train I have seen and rode on in real life

Still loving these videos Will. Do you do your own weathering? If you do, that is my video request on your method 👍🏽👍🏽

Got 549 coming love a video on fitting sound chip and speaker

Make a video of u just running some trains, I’d love to watch them on the layout thing!

Might have to see if I can get a sound decoder fitted to my Trainbuilder brass model!

Missed the first run however I will be getting J549 from their second run when it arrives in May 2023.

I have a DB150 set as the booster, track only bus+DCS5I that I use as the main bass station± accessory bus.

I was doubly convinced about the Ixion J even before your welcome review. I have been helped with some useful advice in the past few days from people you likely know that convinced me to purchase before they quickly sell out. Your earlier video of the pulling power at this year's Diamond Creek Exhibition was a big part also.. My guess a few reports of low pulling power may be related to something not installed correctly like the DCC tender connection complication that I could do without. Hoping the noise will be reduced with running in or lubrication and not indicative of a design weakness. Good that these are available in many local outlets. Next on my purchase list is the SDS or is it Phoenix D3 models.

Hi Will great review a potential fix for the white headlight and markers could be as follows borrowed from Marcus Ammann's Main North Site it was a fix for white marker lights on the Eureka CPH models "Coat the Marker Lights with Tamiya Acrylic Clear Orange X-26 paint, to eliminate the blue tinge of the Whites. It won’t affect the colour of the Red Markers".

In terms of the un-numbered sets, is that the only way to get number plates? and also should i buy myself one

What are the red rectangular panels for on the front of the engine, Will? I've noticed quite a of the engines in your video have them.

I gather the head lamp is easy to bend upwards?

Hi Will just a quick question. In the video you mentioned you got it DCC fitted at Trainworld so what is the process for me sending in a model for DCC fitting? do I have to supply my own decoder or do i buy one from them? How do I organise for them to fit a decoder and how much does it cost ect. As I have a loco that needs DCC fitting. Really hope you can answer my question.- Nicholas.

it will be interesting to see how many get returned. as we had 5 of them running today at my local railway club and 2 are being returned to the dealer with locked up drivetrains ( before they could even get run in) and 2 now have very noisy geartrains after only short running times.

Hi Will, yes l have purchased a J Class 525, as you know l live in the United States, so l hope l get it before end November. It would have been nice with DCC sound, hopefully l will be able to find a place that l can purchase the right sound files at fit it myself, cheers mate.

I feel like I gotta have one already

I'm pretty sure the J class at Noojee is in working order, but just doesn't have permission to run, and not enough track. But having looked at it, it is being regularly maintained, for running condition. I went past there recently on a weekend, and I'm pretty sure it was fired up.

Mine is currently stuck with StarTrack somewhere between Dandenong and Tullamarine with a delivery date of last Tuesday. Here's hoping.

Hey will, nice video mate, I was wondering if you were gonna get a pheonix reproductions K class loco? Great video as always cheers

My J class runs very noisey and can’t pull a train over a meter on level track, should I be concerned or is this the expected performance?

How long before Train World offer a smoke feature?

I really want Ixion to do well and I am grateful for Vr prototypes, but I must say I am disappointed with the low speed running and the mechanical whine. I cannot get it to run smoothly at very low speed. Hopefully the second run will have some improvements. Thanks for the review.

Did you oil the model and run it in for at least 30 minutes each way

A very nice review. Do you reckon you will grab a 930 class from trainorama?

Yep same as you found noisy and did a bit a lubrication, made no diff, but noise get notice only at high speed step in your vid couldn't really tell mine is more like a wine, anyhow oh run on smaller radius pretty well also compared to what it is recommended for.

This is an awesome model and beautiful replication of the JClass. I have J549 - it is simply stunning. It is however all let down by that atrocious tender connector. It is simply not good enough. It continues to come apart on the best of track. Over points etc. And what is left - as has been pointed out, is the tender being dragged by the wires. What is the point of such a beautiful effort in reproduction if the model is let down by such a fundamental flaw in the tender/loco design and physical connection point? Obviously Ixion would be aware of this issue. Are they going to recall the model or issue a different hooking mechanism part for all their customers? Frankly if they don't, I feel our models will be lucky to last 12 months before those wires rip out of the plastic ends or snap - rendering this beautiful locomotive useless. Which is such a shame. Has anyone approached the manufacturer for a resolution to this design flaw? Thanks

James I have a question do you know what the length is between a SAR 600 series and a 900 series I would be really grateful if you could let me know thanks Damien

Good thing they are sold out already or I might buy one. Two complaints about the decoder configuration, the directional lighting, I hate it, real locos can have the front headlight on while it is going backwards. Second is the light starts before the genny! Nice tarps BTW, tea bags like mine?.

Nice looking locomotive just wondering on the 24" inch minimum radius I have down to an 18" so more than likely not suited to my layout. Pity looks like I'll have to give this one a miss.

6️⃣0️⃣3️⃣🚂😎. 🚂❤️wicked awsum 🚂❤️👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

Man if i have thought about buying one of these but all my locos are 1.76 😭 this would be so tiny compared to my class 37

Where can I get a R class in HO scale

Will there be N scale loco's to come?

Does anyone know where I can by a DCC sound chip with DCC Sounds *authentic* file?!!! Anyone?!!!

Need to check your spelling in regards to the word brakes,my daughter writes it like that in our workshop booking diary