Electrotren 592 conversion to 592 3/5

ellocoloco · July 7, 2022

I have two of the excellent Electrotren RENFE 592 DMUs - E3402 Regionales and E3404 Cercanias, both Era V - which are exquisite models and excellent performers. Both are three coach units with directional LED lighting and a chunky can motor in the centre coach. They are close coupled and will manage R1 curves without issue. Both are the digital versions and have the ESU Lokpilot of whatever version Hornby were using 2008ish when these models were released.

I was aware that some of the later releases of this model had suffered from zamak rot and when I saw an affected model on Ebay, I developed a cunning plan! Two of these DMUs had been converted to two car units after damage and were used out of Valencia on the C5 commuter (Cercanias) line between Sagunto and Caudiel. My wife is from Valencia and we had travelled on one of these units on a trip to the end of the line at Caudiel. I studied the exploaded diagrams of the three coach units I had and decided it was within my ability to transfer the motor from the distorted and crumbling centre coach into the outer unit and create one of the two coach 592 3/5 versions, specifically 592.302.4, so submitted a bid for it and it shortly arrived. I also had an even more cunning back up plan if I couldn't transfer the motor. Hornby had announced in 2020 a single coach 596 DMU into the Electrotren range. These were derived from the similar RENFE 593. I had one on order. It would be able to provide a donor chassis if needed.

Moving the motor into the other coach wasn't too much trouble. The outer coaches had a plastic chassis so I used the ballast weight to mount the motor, There was some work involved opening up space to mount the geared bogies and get the height correct. I also had to spend some time modifying the kinematic mount and wire it back to the PCB. I have sacrificed the lights at the 502 end as the gear tower for the front bogie intruded into the cab too much. I won't miss them. And of course the E3407 I had just acquired was the wrong Era and livery. I repainted it into Cercanias livery similar to the E3404 I already had. Paint is RAL code car touch up paints thinned and sprayed and decals were from Trenmilitaria all followed by Railmatch varnish.

Its back together now and overall I am quite happy with it as it is by far the most complex modelling job I have tried and it certainly - to my eyes - passes the 24" rule! Mechanically there are no issues and it is running a Lenz Std+ V2. Although my paint job is not the neatest, I can live with it. I just don't want to paint anything white again! It was a challenging conversion, but recently I have decided that repainting models is one of the things I enjoy most in the hobby. I have three Spanish locos in various stages of completion and next it will be some wagons.