Well a few weeks ago I started taking apart the Bachmann Ivatt 2-6-2 Tank. After a bit of fiddling around I managed to remove the cover and then got rather worried when I saw the split chassis underneath... One hour later and about 10 screws I had succeeded in removing the wheels, baseplate, two chassis halves, the cylinders (that was a mistake and will have to glue those back) the cab and the motor. In fact the engine didn't look remotely like an engine anymore. With the engine in bits I was able to see that I required a rather small chip and ended up buying a TCS M1. At this point I gave up with this project and moved onto layout building.

Last night I started work on it again as I have now received the chip. I had a look at the cab floor as a space for putting it although there seems to be a slot in the bunker if I can stretch (& disguise) the wires that far. I drilled a hole in the location of firebox as to gain wire access to the motor and soldered up the orange and grey wires to the motor pickups and covered them with heatshrink.

(Tip While doing soldering and drilling it is best to not have a train running round and round as this can be a bit of a distraction)

I started putting the chassis weight blocks back together making sure to remember that the red & black wires were clear. The pickups for this engine are located on the front bogie.

(I have made a slight mistake with this one as I forgot to take a small power spring out that is now being bypassed by the chip wires - I am going to have to take the whole chassis apart again to get it out otherwise I will have a short circuit on my hands and a possible blown chip)