Improving The Colas Bachmann 37

The 2019 release of the DCC sound fitted version i have is a beautiful model it really is, as usual with Bachmann the weight is excellent and so is the body's detail including the wheelset area.

But I need to make people aware of one problem that seems to be affecting a lot of both the modern N scale and OO Bachmann models, its the lettering/logos, they are very fragile, on my 37 i took the shell off to do some wiring upon picking up the body shell with bare fingers i started noticing pieces of the text were missing, i really couldn't believe it! i thought the OO scale variants were more robust in this department as many of my N gauge Farish locos now have most of their factory decals in bad shape, but obviously not, this problem is back again as iv'e mentioned in a forum post i made recently i truly think this is happening because the bodyshell has no protective lacquer layer to stop this from happening, i have ordered the correct Colas Rail waterslide transfer set to correct the issue, these once done and sealed will be far more robust than the factory print. In the end the bodyshell will be coated in a gloss finish i really do not like the factory satin and of course in real life locos are gloss not satin, the only two parts that are going to be done with a matt finish are the roof and the wheelsets/bogies, i know i know...

At the moment i'm working on the electronics side of things an am leaving the cosmetics until last, every single component on the PCB has been removed as they were causing various small but annoying problems, the suppression components have been replaced with jumpers (staples are a perfect fit) the only two components left on the PCB are the two resistors for the cab lighting, i have replaced the factory 1.5k resistors with two 4.7k Ohm resistors, the cab lights were way too bright and the wrong colour, therefore i also replaced the dark yellow LED's with SMD 0402 warm white at both ends, both the cablights are now wired to AUX1 and AUX2 of the loksound 5 decoder, the tail lights are now wired to AUX3 and AUX4, iv'e taken the CAB light switch at the bottom of the model and have repurposed it to something far more useful to me, it now switches on/off the internal 680uF capacitor circuit, i simply scraped off part of the letter B to a letter P so now it says CAP and not CAB, the tail light switch i have rewired to switch off the tail lights at one end (opposite the driver) doubt i will ever need to use it though as the model will never be run on DC current. Basically now every lighting function is separated. 

As you may know these loksound 5 DCC decoders have a massive amount of functions, so now AUX5 and AUX6 operate dial instrument light in the cab, i must say it looks very effective, i used a piece of PC plastic dust mesh to model the 5 main dials of a real class37 found directly in front of the driver in the holes i used tiny pieces of optical fiber cable, these are fitted with 10K Ohm resistors at either end, therefore they are dimly lit just like the real thing but are very noticeable when they're switched on, the factory fitted driver has had a haircut, i have filed down his hat and reshaped his head (poor bloke) he looks much better now. After working on N gauge models for many years i'm finding OO a doddle!

Going back to the dust filter plastic mesh, i cut a square piece of this and attached the roof fan to it, this will now allow the sound to come through the top properly without and obstructions, i have ordered some Square shaped sugarcube sealed cabinets speakers, for this loco and future class 37's i got these from the Roads and Rails shop on ebay. I've heard how good these little speakers are on the Roads and Rails youtube channel, i really couldn't believe the difference compared to the much bigger factory fitted 8ohm oval speaker, the difference is immense the 20x40 factory speaker is all midrange, it has no bass whatsoever and has a sound that grates on me even in an enclosure, these tiny sugarcubes totally destroy them in sound quality and they're half the size!

Here are a couple of pictures, i'll keep this updated as i work on it.