Barry Ten's Blog

Avert your eyes, Wenlock - such modernity may bring on the palpitations.

Tonight's homework was to strip down the chassis of this one and fit a Bachmann decoder:

 

 

This was an old split-frame chassis but it's always run well and when I got it all in bits, I was pleased to see no sign of any

axle muff splitting. The only tricky bit, after isolating the motor terminals from the frames, was persuading it all back

together. There turned out to be enough room to fit the decoder on top of the chassis. I'm always a bit wary of these

hardwired installations so was careful to test it all on the program track before applying full power. 

Very nice. I can definetely see the attraction of a well-worn black pannier. Few things capture the notion of a railway workhorse better than that (except maybe, er, a railway horse).

 

I would remove the fingerprint too, but I sometimes wonder if we should just leave them. They literally add a human touch, and the most personal touch possible!

Both loco's look excellent.

Looks great Al ,I really like the safety valve cover is it a replacement

 

1 hour ago, BRIAN T said:

Looks great Al ,I really like the safety valve cover is it a replacement

 

 

Hi Brian - now you mention it, I think the top of the safety valve was missing on the black one, so I transplanted a replacement from some other loco body. I think on the green one, it's just the Lima original.