Diesel locomotive
BB 63901 R37

Now for the long list of annoying little flaws:

• a buffer popped out when I was removing the standard couplings (why were they fitted?), and I can’t get it back in place, as if its housing was half blocked;
• the left-hand railing on the large bonnet side has a curious deformation, the cause of which is not easy to determine. The decking also appears to be deformed. See photo;
• A registration plate is glued on slightly crookedly, and traces of glue can be seen around it. In addition, these registration plates are simply stamped, whereas REE offers photo-etched plates as detail items, which is not the case here. See photo. What’s more, they are positioned too high (thanks David): compare with the photos of the actual machines;
• the horns are not hollow;
• the headlights look upwards. See photo. Secondly, they are fitted with two separate LEDs, whereas bi-colour LEDs are available in a compatible size. What’s more, they are not arranged symmetrically in relation to the machine’s plane of symmetry. Finally, it would have been better if they were on a vertical axis. See photo;
• for the buffer beam equipment, apart from the lack of a simplified hook already mentioned, some brake hoses fit well: those whose mounting hole corresponds to their tenon, which is square… For the others with a square tenon too, but with a round mounting hole, you’ll have to explain to me how to square the circle… See the previous photo;
• There’s nothing in the instructions about dismantling the wheelsets, and there’s no obvious way of dismantling the bogie housings.

I’ll stop here. For my first purchase from R37, I’have rather mixed feelings.

See:

• the Loco-Revue forum;
• gamos81.altervista.org for the list of the BB 63000 references released in scale models, but forgetting the 63500 R37. On the other hand, there is a long list of LS Models that will probably never be released…

• Acoustic cornets, bonnet grille and buffer glued back.
• Brake hoses installed by making round holes square.
• Vertical deformation of the railing corrected by discreetly cutting the excessively long upright.
• Headlights and handrails straightened.
• Installation of an ESU Lokpilot 5 DCC PluX22 decoder. Contrary to some fears, this decoder does not interfere with putting the body back in place. Programming this decoder is rather complicated because the four white lights are connected separately to four outputs, two of which are traditionally used for the red lights (AUX1 and AUX2). The latter are relegated to the AUX3 and AUX4 outputs:

  Output correspondence
  Use	ESU output	Zimo output
  White Ft L	Front light
  White Ft R	Rear light
  White Rr L	AUX1	FO1
  White Rr R	AUX2	FO2
  Red Front	AUX3	FO3
  Red Rear	AUX4	FO4
  Cab	AUX6	FO6

The 63901 is one of four “heating” machines (63896, 63901, 63902 and 63906) at the La Plaine depot, fitted with an alternator in 1965 to heat passenger trains connecting the Gare du Nord and Gare de Lyon stations on the Petite Ceinture round Paris. The maximum authorised load was seven coaches (or more with reduced heating). Weight 70.4 t. 400 kVA alternator (source: DocRail).

The BB 63901 was brought into service on 28 December 1964 at La Plaine. Successive depots: Avignon in October 1980, Strasbourg in June 1982, Nîmes in January 1986, Avignon in November 1987. Written off on 18 May 2012 (sources: Trains du Sud-Ouest and EC64).

• Wikipedia article.
• trains-europe.fr website.
• History on derbysulzers.com.
• DocRail website: les 63500.
• R37 instruction sheet.