Big Hector

Last Saturday, we visited the toy train swap meeting in Houten. This proved to be an excellent location to find myself a present; big Hector. In other words, Merkur's 9171 diesel electric locomotive T458 of the CSD. The model is available in s few different liveries, a blue-white one can also be found on the web. The originals were built in the sixties in Czechoslovakia, but their design crudely resembles diesel electric switchers running in other countries. Personally, I find it perfect for running Lionel tinplate rolling stock with. But I am sure others will disagree.

The model train has two engines, directional lightening and a sound generator, which generates a diesel rumble and additionally produces horn blasts at random intervals. It is a relative strong engine and it can pull a longer string of railroad cars. I received the engine with Merkur couplers, which I swapped for Bing style hook couplers. This is quiet easy, especially in case the skirts are loosened (but do not completely unscrew them, since you will need much more time to screw them back on again) and tilted to enlarge the room for unscrewing the retaining nylon metal nut.

Several web-videos show the original engine and one striking feature is different, to resemble the original even better, a smoke generator needs to be installed, which is able to belch out tar black smoke during operation. Furthermore, the original Hector in the blue-white livery has a red star on the front, as a scar from the past. Personally I am a bit allergic to red stars, so I am quiet pleased with star-less Hector in red and grey.