PHOENIX REPRODUCTIONS/SDS MODELS VICTORIAN RAILWAYS D3 CLASS WITH DCC & SOUND FITTED - REVIEW 

I really must make the effort to go see it one day! Thank you very much!

My childhood memory too. Though, in my case it was D3 677, plinthed at Ringwood Lake. It was removed to Steamrail's yard some time ago. And later J516. I helped with the removal of this locomotive from Poulter Reserve at Greensborough, to the Yarra Valley Railway.

Yeah it was a pretty good decision to do it!

I agree, wait till the K’s come out! Thanks mate, much appreciated!

Thank you for sharing that story!

Thank you very much for sharing that Dean! Glad to hear you’re enjoying your model! But yes we’re all very much looking forward to the K’s!

Thanks! Yeah that’s something I actually want to do! Just not enough time at the moment! Haha

@@WillJamesRailways The J class at Donald is awesome. There are some wagons and a buffet car on display to. Bit of a drive to get there, but worth it😎

Cheers Andrew!

Thanks Adam! Great to hear, let us know how you go!

Glad to hear you’re enjoying your model!

Thanks Topha!

Thank you very much Nicholas! Yeah hopefully they’re not too far off the rerun!

Still love them now!

Thank you very much mate!

Thanks Robert.

Thank you very much Michael! Let us know how it goes for you!

Thanks Cody!

That’s really unfortunate it’s had such a catastrophic failure! Still good they’re taking care of it!

Thanks Tim!

It’s a big squad here! Haha

Thanks mate!

Thanks mate!

Thanks Josh! Oh nice! Didn’t think you would run something broad gauge on your layout haha!

@@WillJamesRailways SDS have been kind enough to send up a D3 and K for us to play with and give them our thoughts on the locos. Some surprise visitors along with our R719 haha. Keep up the great work mate! Can’t wait for the next review

Thanks Peter!

Thank you for the suggestion! I’ll certainly have a look!

Thanks Jesse! No unfortunately I didn’t get any! Maybe next time!

An excellent lash up!

Thanks Michael! I agree that packaging isn't great, which is why i have the round house boxes now for transporting the steam locomotives so i don't have to seperate them! Agreed on the considerably better lighting on the D3!

100% Agree with everything you said @ Mikhail ! Partic the bit about the tender connectors. D is way better than the J. So is the general running. A way better model IMO

Some excellent choices! Great minds!

Thanks mate! I reckon that’s a pretty good idea!

Well you're in luck! I don't think they'll be too far off another run!

@@WillJamesRailways Hopefully not too close though as there is already heaps coming out that i want to get lol.

Great to hear!

Thanks Shaquille! Hope that fixes it! It’s strange seems to be a mixed bag, some folks say theirs pulls well, and the rest of us they don’t do very well!

Thanks for sharing that with us TJ! That’ll be handy information for some people out there! Really disappointing it’s just some models concerning the price!

Absolutely. Ah I reckon one wouldn’t go astray in that mix or perhaps the up coming K class!

@@WillJamesRailways good excuse to install a turntable!

Thanks for that! I'll have a look and see!

Thank you! Yeah here’s hoping the K’s will be better, then again I feel like most people and myself included want more than one, so no issues if I always double head them! One of the club members made it. Thanks again.

They sure do Joel!

Yeah Harry, having the 10 linked up they didn’t quite run perfectly! Was still a bit of fun seeing so many go around the layout!

It is unwise to increase factory sound volumes. There is a chance you will damage the speakers. It is probably set to the maximum. Most quality sound speakers that fit in small H0 steam models are no louder than the D3 model. It's a good volume for a home layout.

@@terryflynn8830 I agree, the factory sound level should not be increased as you say. I should have worded my reply better - I was meaning “what is the sound level as per the factory setting?” by reading CV63. If it is a low level it may be an indication that the factory has tested with the speakers and found it should not be turned up loud as the speakers are under rated. I have purchased a number rtr dcc sound locos in the past months all with Lok V5s and all were set to max volume (CV63 = 192) from the factory, without noticeable distortion.

Thanks Dean! Ill certainly take a look at the speaker sound settings to see if that helps at all. However since releasing this, a lot of people have been just fully replacing them and have gotten a much better result!

Thanks Will, do you know which speaker/s others have been using as replacements ?

Gday James! I might have one somewhere! Yeah once I glued up the speaker housing it made quite a bit of difference however. So far the only remedy to run the d3 with the e cars is remove the weight from the E cars (an absolute pain in my opinion) or yeah add weight to the d3 for better adhesion to the rail (which is my next project for it) Might be worth email sds although I know they’re not the best a replying to emails!

@@WillJamesRailways Thanks again Will, your glue solution worked pretty well and the sound seems much better now, but for a brand new expensive loco that is pretty poor quality. I will email SDS on it and see what happens, if we as a community of modellers accept this level of quality this is what we will get consistently. Next step is like you is adding some weight to the loco.

I never replaced mine, I know some folks have switched them, however I’m not sure.

@@WillJamesRailways all good mate. I will ask them and see what they suggest. Thanks tho👍

Seems to be the same problem for almost everyone Greg! Thanks for watching and sharing that with us!

Hello David, not a stupid question at all. The long and the short of it, is they’re the same company. Phoenix reproductions mainly deal with former Austrains and Eureka releases/re releases

Ah right! Unfortunately that’s a bit beyond my knowledge!

I think you're on the money with that comment Dennis, I've now seen a few people swap out all the gear in the tender to better speakers and chip sets and it seems to really improve the quality of the model!

Hello Michael, it seems that would be the best fix, It’s just a matter of doing it, and I’m very reluctant to pull the body apart! Looks like I’ll just remove the weight from carriages in the meantime!

Yeah we weren’t going to speed match all of them for a quick run around they layout!

Cheers Damien!

So far so good, but I haven’t pulled it apart since, and I don’t know anyone who’s had any issues, at least not yet!

Yeah I reckon! It seems it also depends which batch you got as some people seem to have no issues with pulling power!

It would seem so!

lol finally got one

Thanks for that Kane! I’m sorry to hear about your model, that’s really bad, especially the builders plate! So far nothings fallen off mine yet so here’s hoping it doesn’t. Going off a lot of comments here, I think you’re spot on about the quality control!

Thank you very much Stephen! I agree, although some I guess lesser models from say Hornby have tremendous pulling power! It’s a bit of a mixed bag to what we get

Great to hear Michael!

Thanks John! What a great bit of footage, I really appreciate you sending that!

I guess it’s just the way it is! If we had the population or popularity of the US or UK they would be no doubt cheaper! But smaller runs and smaller market means higher prices! But, I think it’s all worth it in the end!

@@WillJamesRailways Yeah that makes lots of sense, i understand now thanks, great review btw these are always really helpful :)

Ah mate, that money pit that is our hobby!

The speakers are definitely a fault with the model, however I don't believe it's due to cheap speakers, as they appear to be the same speaker as the ESU 50321 sugarcube speaker (not counting the enclosure). However it does seem that they are not well sealed, which causes a lack of volume. OTOH weight is a different matter. The D3 does feel to be a reasonable weight for it's size. As far as I can see, just about everything that can be metal is metal. Even the ashpan doors underneath appear to be metal. What I have found though is that some rolling stock is far, far, far too heavy for use on graded layouts. Having several brass vehicles in my fleet, with interiors removed to reduce their weight, these are still at least double the weight (by estimate, not specifically weighed them yet) of many of the locos in my fleet; there's a reason PSM produced very heavy powered guards vans and baggage vans to haul their passenger sets! It also needs to be noted that many layouts have gradients that are closer to branchlines than mainlines; as in 1:30 and greater. From what I understand, AMRA Vic has grades of about 1:30 in several places on the mainline. The expectation to run single locos on extremely heavy trains over these grades is definitely asking a lot, when in reality those same trains would have either been double headed, used larger locos, or been banked up those grades. OTOH my D3 happily hauled my Auscision E car set, with the weights removed, around AMRA. Taking it further, I've run the D3 with 6 PL type cars from AustrainsNeo, plus an Auscision CE with the weight removed around AMRA Vic, and potentially could have added at least 1 more PL car to the mix. It should be noted that the PLs are substantially lighter than the E cars.

Thank you very much for the Zec!

A 3 D printed model will pull even less, as the SDS model boiler and footplate are metal. The Auscission E cars are overweight.

Understandable Carmen!

Thanks Tim!