Well, after some months I’m back on the blog. As you’ve read in the previous posts, I’ve redone from scratch the whole layout (yeah, I know, I should make a post about it 😀 ) and this took me too much time. Now that’s at a good point I’d like to continue with my reviews about the loks I have.
Today I’m gonna talk about the DB BR140 from Minitrix in red livery (with catalog number 12569). I got it a couple of years ago coz found at a low price, but left it on the shelf. I thought to use for some goods wagons at first but after doing some picture search on the web I decided to use in a regio train with some coaches I love: the DB Modus-wagen. Those passenger coaches are hard to find right now; if you have the chance to find some around, I suggest to grab them! At first I put the BR218 with them, but I’m very happy now with the BR140! In the pics below You can see some of those.
I think that only Fleischmann did them. Are very detailed, great-looking on the layout. They remind me the Lint Desiro diesel train for Local Traffic. There’s also avail the dummy tail wagon. If you own a standard DC layout, according to the travel direction, you got the red/yellow lights on. I have a DCC digital layout, so I got both turned on together; this is a common issue with this coaches; later I’ll show you how I fixed this. 🙂
But now, let’s talk about the lok itself. One of the strenght point is the lighting. It cames with smd leds yellow and red, that change color according the travel direction. Has a very nice slow speed, very smooth and silent. I’ve tested with the Lenz Silver Mini+ decoder (I got tons of these 😀 only a couple of Uhlenbrock on the first loks I bought, so in each review you’ll read of me talking of these decoders) and put instantly on the layout with no troubles. Very easy to open, no screws to remove. The only thing I’ve noticed compared to all my other loks, is the maximus speed; it’s not too fast, so don’t expect and high speed lok; maybe working on CVs or fitting another decoder would increase it, but I’m happy with this.
No bulbs for the lighting, but leds; SMD are very small and bright. IMHO I don’t like the yellow as main light, as Trix uses in all his loks. I’m thinking about replacing them with white ones in the near future.
The price is not too high; I’ve seen prices ranging from 70 euros and up for the version with NEM651 dcc plug. Other versions (mainly old ones) start from a lower price around 50 euros.
Here’s some pics on the layout:
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- BR140 Minitrix
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- BR140 Minitrix
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- Modus wagen Fleischmann
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- BR140 Minitrix
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- Modus wagen Fleischmann
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- BR140 Minitrix
N-Gauge Blog 
It’s funny, I have no “DB red”, but when I see photos like yours, I really want to get some! I have never seen those coaches before and I agree they are quite cool and look good behind that locomotive!
😀 Yeah, I agree.. the most loks I got are red, even 2 SBB Re460. Chan also be seen on the pics of the other post. They give a great contrast in term of colors on the layout against the green of the landscape.
I found a couple of those coaches years ago, then hardly I got other 2 last year and finally the last one few months ago. Searching on eBay you can find easily the tail coach at reasonable prices, but I see the other ones are hard to find. As far as I know, only Fleischmann did the coaches in N gauge. If may help I can send you the numbers 🙂
Regards,
Alessandro
Hi there. Really nice report. If you’re interested in the prototypical use of this rolling stock, the 140 (most are phased out) is a cargo loco. You may have seen pictures on the web with the very similar looking 110 or 141 pulling regional trains. The 140 would be highly unusual in that role, as it’s not really set up for push/pull operations. The modus coaches were modernizations of the ex-DR Halberstädter coaches and had only a brief operational history (1999-2012), almost exclusively on the Nürnberg-Würzburg-Frankfurt(Main) line and only in combination with class 111, 112 or 146.2 engines (briefly also class 218).
Thank you EmmKay for the great resource and infos. Since I live in Italy I don’t know much about the Modus. Yes I was looking on the images on the web and they look very similar, so I have to thank you again for the great infos you gave us 🙂
Best regards,
Alessandro 🙂