Di6 nydesign from NMJ

Introduction

Di6 is a brand new model from NMJ. It's produced in cooperation with ASM that have created DE2700-editions of the same locomotive. I deciced to buy this locomotive because of the appearance being somewhat similar to Di4, which is a locomotive I have seen in real life. Di4 is also a locomotive thats still in operation in 2024. Di6 was supposed to replace Di4, but that never happend due to several problems with the locomotive. Lets hope the model is more reliable than the real-life one!

Unboxing the locomotive

The locomotive came in a sturdy box with proper protections. The packaging is similar to the one that came with my spanish Class 251. Some detail parts had their own compartment right next to the locomotive. This compartment is a bit to tight for my liking, but it have so far not caused any problems.

None of the couplings where assembled from the factory, so I had to snap them into their NEM pockets. The locomotive comes with two different snowplows. One with carvings for the coupling and one without. I had to swap one of the snowplows on the model, as one end had the wrong one. Bellow is a picture of the two snowplows.

The snowplows where attached with two screws, which is something I think is great compared to the snap-in snowplows that for example the EL17 from NMJ have. Its much easier to swap snowplows with screws and they are less likely to cause problems during operation as a result of improper mounting.

A great thing with this model is that it came with a proper manual! Most NMJ locomotives comes with manuals that tells a lot about the history of the locomotive, but almost nothing about how to service and maintain the model. Another great thing about the included manual is that it actually lists the function mappings programmed into the decoder, which is usually something that is missing with NMJ locomotives. My Y1, EL11 and EL17 all came without the function mapping, which is annoying as I will have to figure out the mapping using JMRI and by trial and error.

First run

The first run of the locomotive went great. I have to say one thing right away regarding this model. The sound experience and operational smoothness of the model is fantastic. It worked flawlessly straight out of the box even without running in first. This locomotive is eqipped with sensors of some sort and those sensors are used for detecting when the locomotive turns, which in turn triggers a sound effect when turning.

I have uploaded a video showing the first run of the locomotive. You can watch the video here.

Decoder adjustments

The first thing I adjusted on the decoder right away was the sound volume. The default sound volume is 192 for master control and 64 for faded volume. The speaker in the model can have high volume, which means that the default setting of maximum volume will be way to high for me. I don't want to bother my neighbors to much with my model trains! I therefor decided to reduce the volume to 64 for master volume and 32 for faded. That makes the volume level similar to that of my Y1 and BR class 31, which is more appropriate for my use. The fact that the volume is loud from the factory is in my opinion a good thing, as its better to be able to have high volume level rather than having a volume level you barely can hear.

The second thing I adjusted was the way the lights where controlled. I prefer to have the lights controlled independently of direction of travel. That means that I can reverse the train while having white lights in the forward direction. I programmed the lights for cab 1 to F30. Cab 2 where programmed to F31, while F0 was programmed to toggle cab lights for cab 2. I also had to reprogram F5 to control the fog lights based on the F30 and F31 functions instead of direction. All of the programming where done with JMRI. Bellow is a screenshot from the "Function map" tab in JMRI.

All other functions are left as they where programmed from the factory.

My opinions of the model

I have to say that this model is easily the most amazing model I have bought so far. It has lots of functions, great sound experience and smooth operation. The only thing I have found a bit annoying is that you can't have white lights in both directions at the same time without also having red lights in both directions. That might be realistic though, as I do not know if this locomotive is capable of having white lights in both directions in real life.

Lets hope the model will keep running as smoothly as it does now for years to come.

Superspeed500 2024

Date: 14 December 2024