P&WV 2-8-2 1053

[nickelplate759]

Well, my 1.5mm channel arrived, and it's clear that I should have ordered the 1mm channel instead 
Gonna try again.

[nickelplate759]

Here's a question - does the headlight lens on the Kato USRA 2-8-2 go into the smokebox+headlight casting from the front (outside) or the back (inside the shell)?   I'm trying to get it out and it doesn't want to move, and I don't want to break anything....

[ edit ]
Answer - it goes in from the front.
[ /edit ]

[nickelplate759]

Prepping tender for DCC.  The tender is a Bachmann USRA Long.   The circuit board makes DCC easy, including a 6-pin connector that I plan to use, but what I think are the filters (red oval) are in the way of the DCC install I want to do.  Any harm in just removing them?

[peteski]

You are correct, those chokes/coils/inductors are part of the motor's RFI suppression circuit, and the sometimes confuse DCC decoder's motor driver.  Best to remove and replace them with just some wire.  You can actually leave them where they are and just a$$ a piece of wire parallel with each coil, or unsolder each coil and replace it with a piece of wire.

Few years back I posted inof on another Bachmann tender circuit.  While the PC board is smaller, I suspect that the circuitry is very similar on this PC board.

See https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=43310.0

[Iain]

fwiw, I've always just yanked the board entirely.

[nickelplate759]

fwiw, I've always just yanked the board entirely.

I considered that, but the circuit board is also the suspension for the truck contacts (see picture above).
Did you replace it with something else?

[mmagliaro]

Long strips of .010" thick phosphor bronze would be better than those PC board mounted truck contacts anyway.  Those short things don't have much flex in them, which kind of undermines the whole floating design of axle point pickup trucks.
If you pull the whole board, just screw (or glue) two long PB strips in there, with stranded flexible wires soldered to them, and you can then connect those to your decoder power inputs.

[mike_lawyer]

I have only done this with Bachmann USRA medium tenders, but I always remove the PC board as well.  If you remove the two screws on either end, the board will come out.  As I recall, the two phosphor bronze strips are not held in place by the PC board, but by clips of some sort on the tender floor.  It might be different on the Bachmann USRA long tender though, so take it for what it's worth.

[nickelplate759]

as you can seen in the photo I posted above, on the board in the USRA long tender the bronze strips are riveted onto the circuit board.  That said, I have an idea...

I'm going to see if I can remove only the center portion of the board (between the front and rear bronze strips), keeping both ends.  I can then jumper them together on the red and black DCC wires.          I would like to keep the 6-pin plug at the front as well (but will only use the 4 center pins) - I need to see if I can solder the DCC leads (orange, grey, blue, white) there and still attach a female plug for the engine.

[mmagliaro]

If you are going to try to preserve those short stubby bronze strips, I wouldn't go to all the work of cutting the board apart and jumpering the sections together.  Just cut out or bypass those choke coils like you originally intended. 

Unless you get rid of those short bronze strips entirely and replace them with a long one that is only anchored to the tender floor at the center, there is nothing to be gained.  The problem is that those strips are so short, they do not flex.  They keep rigid, firm pressure on the "thumbs" that push up inside from the trucks.  The axle-point pickup design should allow the wheelsets in the truck to rock up and down on either side independently, while maintaining contact from those bronze strips from above.  You need a long strip with some "give" to it in order to make that really work.

[nickelplate759]

The way this tender interior is laid out makes installing full length bronze strips a little challenging, albeit not impossible.  The holes just behind the front bronze strips are where the screw posts for the coal load attach and cannot be obstructed without re-engineering how the tender shell is attached.  I'm going to stick with the board that's there for now and see what does or doesn't work.  If I have tracking problems I'll redo the contacts.   I did discover that one of the four holes where the truck contacts come through the floor was partially obstructed by flash from the floor insulator casting (the floor is metal - the insulator keeps the truck tabs from touch the floor).  Easily fixed with a knife.

[Iain]

Long strips of .010" thick phosphor bronze would be better than those PC board mounted truck contacts anyway.  Those short things don't have much flex in them, which kind of undermines the whole floating design of axle point pickup trucks.
If you pull the whole board, just screw (or glue) two long PB strips in there, with stranded flexible wires soldered to them, and you can then connect those to your decoder power inputs.

That's what I did.  Works great.

[nickelplate759]

Back to the smokebox front - my 1.0 mm x 0.5mm channel arrived from Eileens, and I need to make those two steps on the smokebox front.



They're darned tiny - maybe 9" long or so (about 1.4mm).  I need to figure out how to shape them and attach them. 

I see four steps:
1. File to shape as part of a longer piece of channel. 
2. Cut to length
3. Solder or glue to a piece of bronze wire, so the channel sits over the wire and the wire sticks out the back of the step. (this was the suggestion of @Chris333 and I think it's a good one).
4. Drill a hole in the smokebox front, insert the wire, and glue.

I think I know how to do steps 1, 3 & 4.   I'm a stumped on step 2 - cut to length.    My thinking is to cut it overlong, somehow hold it securely, and file it to length.

I'm afraid it will be too delicate to put in a Panavise, although I will give it a try.  Any suggestions?

[mmagliaro]

I think your suspicion is correct.  Cut it longer than you need, then grip it in some fine needlenose pliers (tweezers, if you can't find pliers small enough), and file to the correct length.  In fact you could solder it onto a flat piece of brass or something, file it, and then heat up the brass "holder" until the solder lets go and your part falls back off.  You might have a little solder to sand or file off, but that should not be too difficult, just tedious.

[nickelplate759]

It turns out the channel can be successfully cut with an X-acto chisel blade!   I've got one step shaped (and one failure -- too short) Pictures when I get them done and on the smokebox.