Leaderboard

Some substantial progress to report in the last few weeks. Here goes ... This model is supposedly DCC ready, but the chosen chip (ZN68 from DCC concepts was a tight squeeze, so I removed the built in socket and soldered the 8 pin connector onto the pickup strips directly. A bit of a pin, and two of the pickups needed to be replaced with phosphor bronze strip as they broke off. Alls well that ends well, and a working chassis ensued, in fact it runs very nicely indeed. Next job was sandpipes. Inexplicably missing from the Bachmann model. Inspiration struck while my mind was wandering one Sunday morning in our local church, and a couple of assemblies were swiftly put together. The picture above shows these assemblies, along with a fall plate, tender coupling bar, and brake rodding. The sandpipe assemblies were designed to fit the retainer plate. They were coloured using a black sharpie (as are the wheel rims and other sundry bits of pipe work). This is a vast improvement over nasty chemicals, ant takes paint very well. So now we are ready for a good test run around South Pelaw, to be followed by renumbering, coal, crew, and some weathering.

Nice work Al!

Don’t be so hard on the Terrier...