Robin Verth

Hi This is probably a bit late the newer Peco code 75 flatbottom rail has pilot holes every 4th sleeper on the underside I thought it was for the SR conductor rail chairs the holes would need to be drilled before track laying comenced,

The older Mainline/Replica/Bachmann bodies do not fit the latest Bachmann 03 chassis I know from experience.

Expo do a nut spinner 2.5mm/12BA this fits the small coupling rod nuts on the Hornby L&Y pug the stock number on the label is 78032 I have had mine for some time now I think it came from eBay not only does it fit most of the modern Hornby locos it also fits Bachmann coupling rod nuts.

To remove the body of the OO Works C class there is one small crosshead screw at the front of the footplate behind the middle lamp iron remove this and the body will lift up it can then be slid back to clear the body from the chassis the pick up wire from the tender goes through the body so it can not be removed completly this being an earlier model the boiler is solid there is still room for a decoder.

Richard I have converted a number of OO Works engines to DCC, so far 6 x 700's, 2 x C Class, 2 x 2F, 3 x L&Y 0-6-0ST, 1 x L 4-4-0, 1 x E4 0-6-2T, 2 x H 0-4-4T I still have 2 x H & 3 Adams radial tanks to fit DCC chips in I also have a C13 4-4-2T this was DCC fitted when I brought it I only discovered it was DCC fitted when I took the body off to fit a DCC chip. The tank engines are very easy to hard wire in the H class remobe the 2 screws holding the front part of the chasis with the motor in it to be removed it comes out quite easy there are pickups from both driving wheels, I undo the motor retaining screw at the rear of the chassis this allows the motor to be tilted foreward allowing space below the motor to get the soldering iron in I unsolder the wires to both the top and bottom connection plus the supression from the motor I then solder the orange wire to the top of the motor and the grey wire to the bottom then restore the motor retainer and screw, it is then a case of cutting the red and black wires to length and joining them to the equivelent wires from the decoder test and reassemble there is plenty of room in the body for the decoder I useualy put the decoder in the boiler. For the 700 it is almost the same procedure the black wire comes in from the tender to the bottom connection of the motor again I undo the screw holding the motor retainer the terminal of the motor is solderd to the retaining bracket this needs to be un-soldered and excess solder removed while the motor retainer is off I solder the red wire to it on my locos I found that the tag on the top of the motor could be moved round though it is not nessesary in some of the early conversions I just bent the tag up a little so it no longer touched the motor retainer connect the orange wire to the top motor tag and heat shrink the joint again I also unsolder the black wire from the motor and solder the grey wire to the motor, join the black wire from the tender to the decoder black wire, test and refit body again there is plenty of room in the body for the decoder. I have come across this system of pick-up before and have always known it as the American system it avoids having wiper pickups. Since the introduction of the Bachmann E4 & C class and the Hornby 700 and the Hornby & Oxford Radial Tanks the price of the OO Works models has fallen they were cheaper than the Hornby models I expect the H class price to drop when the Hornby model is released. Robin