ESU 31096 – Diesel loco, MRCE 245-501, black, Ep VI, Sound+Smoke, DC

With the class 245 a very modern diesel locomotive is introduced to model train layouts almost at the same time as the first prototype locomotives. As you have become accustomed with ESU products, our model with metal housing offers many visual and technical highlights. Let us first do a walk around the locomotive. The typical shape of a Traxx diesel locomotive with its crash optimised body is perfectly well modelled. The slightly tinted cab windows allow a clear view of the furnished cab interior decorated in several colours. Of course, you may switch the cab lighting and the illuminated driver’s cab-control panel separately.
The separately applied perforated fan grills set into the side walls correspond to the latest design modifications applied to the original in November 2013. The fans on the roof are powered by two separate motors. The chassis is quite impressive due to a large number of separately applied pipes and armatures.
Besides the attractive design the 245 also inspires with its comprehensive technical package: the locomotive is equipped with two load dependent smoke generators that can be separately switched, sensors for triggering situational sounds in curves, a LokSound V4.0M4 decoder with two speakers and a power storage unit assuring trouble-free uninterrupted running on dirty tracks or longer sets of points. Thanks to RailCom Plus® the locomotive automatically registers with suitable command stations (e.g.: ESU ECoS). Complete lighting including cab interior lights, illuminated driver’s consol, interior lighting in the engine compartment as well as shunting headlights round off the technical features.
The chassis and the housing of the model are made of metal and due to the considerable weight of about 500 g facilitate prototypical driving power. A powerful ESU skew-wound precision motor with noise optimised commutator sits in the metal chassis. Power is tamed by two flywheels and transferred to the three axles via a combined worm gear and helical gear box. The class 245 is also equipped with the universal electronics with clip-on centre pick-up and universal wheel sets already proven on other ESU models. The LokSound decoder delivers original sounds of the Caterpillar CAT C18 ACERT diesel engine. The sounds of the 6-cylinder engines are particularly accentuated due to the perforated fan grills in the chamfered roof part.