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Cliff's O Gauge workbench - Heljan Class 60 DCC Sound conversion


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It has been a while, but here is a taster of recent work.

This is a JLTRT Class 40 as D210 Empress of Britain and has been a pleasure to do from start right through to weathering.

After an initial daliance with the prescribed motor units from JLTRT I quickly dropped using them due to noise with rapid excessive gear wear.

Now I use Brian Clapperton's finest ABC gearboxes with the best Maxon motor, not cheap but worth every penny.

 

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The loco went together really well and has had a Loksound XL decoder fitted with working cab lights and front/rear lights. There are twin speakers installed for maximum effect and the red jumper has been removed so the ohm rating of the decoder matches the 2x40mm ESU speakers. It is worth noting that with Maxon motors to remove low speed motor hum, surging and top end speed some changes to CV values need to made, having done a few DCC instals for clients I no longer use formulaes to calculate what they should be, I do it by listening and tuning them on the move. Once the ideal settings are found for the models I overwrite the DCC factory defaults so these important settings can never be lost.

 

Some more pictures of it as it progresses through some weathering:

 

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If you are thinking of dipping your toe into 7mm diesels then look no further than JLTRT for a good kit that can actually be finished!

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Hello Cliff,

 

The Empress looks terrific. However, you've now got me thinking that I should have gone for the ABC gearbox that you recommend for the JLTRT 24 I'm building at the moment. The Slater's motors appear to be backordered. I also wondered where you've placed the speakers in yours?

 

Hope, you don't mind but here's a maiden rmweb pic of my humble efforts...I plan to have a layout one day!

 

Alan

 

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Worth noting when doing a JLTRT Co-Co chassis for DCC operation it is best to ditch the bolts that fasten the centre pivot in place, there are too many risks of the bolts either not being recessed enough, or them working loose and causing a big short.

You take a length of brass tube (size escapes me right now) and a piece of brass rod which can slide into the tube, cut the tube to fit inside the fold up etched pivot, cut the tube so it is just flush with the chassis outer face.

Slide the two parts together away from the fold up etched stretcher and drill a hole right through off centre for a stake pin or small screw.

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Rebuild the components on the chassis and fit the stake pin or screw and you have a superb way of countering the problem.

 

Next up is the floating centre axle, as it comes it is pretty useless for longevity. The bearings can rotate within the resin chassis and as brass is the harder wearing item in time you will encounter issues, again with factoring in for DCC if you do not do the bogie pivot mod above.

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Take a square of brass and fit some nickel siilver wire to it in a U shape and solder it along the furthest edge.

Drill a hole through the resin chassis and the square of brass, solder an 8BA bolt onto the brass.

Also solder some square brass tube to the top of the centre bearings.

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Rebuild the bogie and you then have a properly sprung centre floating axle and you can release the spring plate and also the centre axle for painting or maintenance!

 

Whe painting the loco I like to put on several fine mist coats of Cellulose, or JLTRT paints depending on the colours to hand, hitting it wiht one final wet coat, which gives a fantastic finish.

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ANother shot for the cab detail:

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Finally the coach lurking behind the Class 40 in the first pic was a Loveless Dyno Car which paid a visit recently.

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Hello Cliff,

 

The Empress looks terrific. However, you've now got me thinking that I should have gone for the ABC gearbox that you recommend for the JLTRT 24 I'm building at the moment. The Slater's motors appear to be backordered. I also wondered where you've placed the speakers in yours?

 

Hope, you don't mind but here's a maiden rmweb pic of my humble efforts...I plan to have a layout one day!

 

Alan

 

 

They look good Alan!

Resin has good sound deadening properties so I have fitted speakers in a variety of places to get the best effect, you could try fitting the resin fan onto a strip of spare etch bras and hang it under the grill, this leaves a clear space under that for the speaker to sit and let the sound out.

Brass bodies on the other hand are a completely different prospect!

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Thanks Cliff - that's a really good idea. I'll try it on the 24 I'm building. In answer to Brian Daniel's question (who is responsible for getting me into modelling in the first place) the numbers are 40 184 and 40 016.

 

I always get the blame :sad_mini: They look great, got anymore pictures of them?

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi Cliff,

 

Came back to look at the tweaks for the CV settings and they have gone. Any chance of re posting them as I am having a few problems with the new class 108 DMU motor bogie I have from ABC gears.

 

Absolutely nothing to do with the gear box, 100% decoder, motor combination. If I disable load control / back EMF the thing runs very smoothly but has a high speed step to start where as with it enabled it starts at speed step 1 but jerks and stutters until around speed step 6 then it crawls like it should, very smoothly.

 

I would like to use the back EMF load control as it does make quite a difference.

 

Sorry if this is hi jacking yiour thred a bit.

 

The motor is a Canon, marked EN22-T17N1B as well as CN22-006001 BYHT

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Bingo, solved it.

 

Seem the auto tune feature in the V4 sets it all for you. Here is how to do it.

 

Place the loco on a longish length of straight track. Set CV 54 to zero. Press F1.

 

Watch out as the loco will set of like a scolded cat for a short distance, just over a metre, but it sets all the motor characteristics for you.

 

The ones in the load control back emf section for mine have all changed and the DMU now performs brilliantly.

 

Good result.

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