Project Pendolino: Beginnings
Say wat you want about my impulse control - or lack thereof: some opportunities are just too good to walk past. Certain models fall under that category, especially when the price is attractive.
Like this model of a BR 610 Diesel multiple unit of Deutsche Bahn. I have a weakness for diesel railcar models, and something in the traffic red DB livery of the late 1990s had long tickled my fancy. Such models are rare here in Australia, so when one cropped up on a well known online platform, I kept an eye on it. Initially higher asking prices found no takers, and eventually the price dropped to a level that was perfectly palatable for me.
The BR 610 was commissioned by Deutsche Bahn in the late 1980s, to service a regional network of fast trains. For this purpose, the trains were equipped with hydraulic tilting technology, to allow for faster travel through curves, without reducing passenger comfort. While vehicle structure and traction were provided by German suppliers, the bogies and tilting technology came from Fiat's railway subsidiary Fiat Ferroviaria, who had been successfully equipping Italian trains with said tech since the 1970s. The system carried the brand name 'Pendolino', which by extension became the 610s nickname.
20 dual units were delivered by 1992, and stayed in service until 2014, by which time they had travelled a collective 100 million kilometres. For all intents and purposes, this prototype was a success. Ironically, the successor model BR 611, which according to requests from Deutsche Bahn had to be fully produced in Germany, was never as reliable as the 610, and even the succeeding BR 612 had issues for a long time.
Models of the BR 610 in H0 scale were produced by Fleischmann from 1994 to about 2003, who made 2-rail/DC versions under their own brand, and 3-rail/AC versions for Märklin. Later versions were equipped with digital decoders, initially for Fleischmann's DCC predecessor FMZ, but then also with TWIN decoders which worked on both FMZ and DCC systems.
The model I acquired is a version with TWIN decoder, so it would have been made between 2001 and 2003. It is an absolutely gorgeous model, and the exterior condition of the second hand exemplar is impeccable. The decoder reads and writes fine under DCC. The bit that really appealed to me about this model was that it is one of the few that has an actual tilting mechanic implemented. Given its age, it is obviously not a very fancy implementation - more of a mechanical property of the cab-side bogies on each car that cause the body to tilt slightly when passing through a curve. That's not overly prototypical, since the tilting is normally speed-dependent and would not happen at slow speeds. But it's enough of a curio to make this model really interesting.
However, it will need some TLC. A first driving test was unsuccessful. The motor starts haltingly and does not move the vehicle very well. Also, there appears to be no light function. I have only just received the model, so I have not yet been able to look at things any more closely. It is clear that there are a number of things to address, and a number of possible solutions to different problems. So this will become a loose series of articles, as I examine the model more closely with the objective to make it fully functional.
