Best Of New Brass EP-2 assembly & Mod clinic

[u18b]

As promised.
It is like a puzzle.  Might not see it at first, but then you get it and it's easy.
I remember I did it wrong until I figured it out.

Like a Leggo booklet.  No words!

[peteski]

As the phrase in the Staples commercials goes: THAT WAS EASY! 

[central.vermont]

Thanks Ron. Once I saw the side view of the floor it was clear to me how you were going to get it in. Like Pete said " That was easy" !!

Jon

[central.vermont]

As the phrase in the Staples commercials goes: THAT WAS EASY! 

Not to thread drift hear but Mr Newick (mec_fan) and myself always wanted to take one of those Staples buttons and change the voice to say "Shut up and run your damn trains!!!!".   

Jon

[u18b]

Remember, it did not come with instructions.

The very first time I applied the floor, I screwed it on with the drawbar supports on the bottom because the floor plate just fit naturally that way.  But then I couldn't drawbar the whole loco together.

What?  Dang.

Unscrew.  Remove floor.

Now how the heck does this go on..... cogitate....cogitate....

Oh!

 

[spookshow]

NOW it is starting to look like a locomotive!  But it still doesn't run as well as I would like.
With the shells in place, I am now going to add a better jumper wire between the two Cabs.  This will double the electrical pickup to each side.

The suspense is killing me! 

Cheers,
-Mark

[u18b]

Haha.  Me too.

Sorry to all who have been following this thread (and yet, thanks).
The holidays are such a hugely busy time for me.  I either have not had much time.... or when i do, I'm exhausted.  I'm sure some of you can relate.

But I'm hoping that I'll add some more this week.

One progress that happened since my last post was that I finally obtained decals.   That ended up being a bit of a challenge.  But I am glad to have them.

I also obtained two decoders.  Still have not decided if I'm going to do one or dual.

Thanks for the interest!

[u18b]

After a busy Christmas season with work and family, time to blow the dust off and get back to work.

When we left, we had just gotten the loco to run.
But now we turn back to the wiring harness to make an important addition- connecting the two locos.

The key part I'm using is the 2-pin MICRO connector by TCS.



They come with black and white wires.  TCS will make them any color you want.
I decided to just make my own.

I'm going to mount a SOCKET in each vestibule.  I'll then create my own plug with pins at each end.

Here is a first draft plug.  This goes through the boiler room cabin.  It has to be long enough to have enough to grab at the final end.  The length here is approximate.  Could be a little shorter.



As for the socket, I decided to rewire them as DCC colors.  Remember from way back- the shell is charged to the black wire and the red wire is insulated and connected to the front truck.
Here I have made new wiring and I'm seeing how long the red wire needs to be.
The black wire will be short and soldered to the shell.



Looking at the inside of the shell you can see two things.
1.  I think I may have forgotten to say on p. 8 when tapping the holes in the shell that I also used a motor tool and smoothed down all projections INTO the shell so that the clearance on the inside was maximum.
2.  You can see that the shell sides are not symmetrical on this end.  The top side has an indentation.  Therefore it appears best to mount the plug on the bottom side of this photo.

[u18b]

I want the socket INSIDE the vestibule away from anything that might cause an obstruction.
Here, I made a starting make with a small drill.  You can see it on the right-inside of the vestibule wall.


For cutting and shaping small holes, here is my new favorite tool.
I know a widow who's husband was a dentist.  She offered me pick of his left-over tools.
This is a hard steel tiny bit for drilling out cavities in teeth.  Works great on brass.



I'm starting to open up the hole.



I've opened up the hole enough to get the wires through, but not the shrink tubing.  More to go.
By the way, I'm picking an orientation for consistency.  Black will go down toward the track and red will go up.  Both shells should match.



Now it should be wide enough.  I DON'T want to make it too big so that the socket will push through.  The brass wall should be a back-stop for the socket making plugging in more secure.


Now the socket is looking pretty good.
I will glue it to the wall for extra support.



Hmmmm.  This angle shows I should have gotten a little closer to the wall.  I'll do better on the next one.

[u18b]

I use a tiny file to remove burrs and sharp edges.



I'm going to solder the black wire right on top of the drawbar.  There will be no obstruction there.
The wires are inserted and the socket is in place.  I now curl the black wire to see how much I need.



While still holding the wire, I cut off the excess.



Pull the socket out and expose the tips, fluxing, and tinning.



Inside the shell, I use a blade to scrape the intended area to expose fresh brass.



Using flux and fresh solder on a hot iron, I tin the spot-- not letting the shell heat up too much to damage anything.



Once the socket is soldered in, I'll bend the wires out of the way and glue in place.

[u18b]

Oh Fiddlesticks (as my Mom would say).

Dang!

When I gently bent the wires on the inside of the shell, one of the metal brackets pulled out of its hole.
There is too much insulation.  Back to a re-do.



Starting over on the socket.  This time, I'm cutting the socket mounting pins in half.



Fluxed and tinned.  With a short-tipped wire soldered on.



Here is both sides.



Here is a comparison between the first try and the second.  Second is better.
And yes, I used a tiny piece of shrink wrap on the black wire.  But the black wire will be soldered to the shell- so it does not matter.  The red one is really the only one that matters.



Second try.  Measuring.



Black wire soldered to the shell.



Hmmm.  While the wires are not MUCH better and shorter..... I forgot the weight.  It would not quite fit.
So I filed the brace that passes over the socket wires when installing the weight.

[u18b]

Time to affix the socket.  I use plain old Krazy Glue superglue a lot in my modeling.
I use the tip (or a fine wire) when I need to CAREFULLY apply just a TINY amount.
Get some on the pin.....



And run the pin on the object.  This controls the glue.  We don't want any in the holes!



With the socket mounted, I can now try it out.



It is all pretty tiny, but still manageable to use.



Easy peasy and reliable is what I'm after.



Hmmmm.  I see the weight is NOT contoured perfectly with the shell-- such that there is a gap.  Perfect for our red wire.  I also see a notch on the side-- almost like KMT wanted me to do this!



When taking the shell on and off, this red wire will need to be plugged and unplugged from the wiring harness socket over the motor.  I'm getting an idea of how much/little I need.

[u18b]

I had some problems mounting the wire in the tiny socket over the motor.  Remember, I had just stripped, fluxed and tinned a wire and inserted it into the sock before.  The wire itself acted as a pin.

But now I'm having trouble.  So I soldered actual pins to the red wires.



Ok.  This part is finished.


Notice that:

1.  The small socket back wire goes to the 4-pin wiring harness.
2.  one red wire plugs in from the front truck below.
3.  The second red wire is from the socket in the vestibule (and hence from the other loco).
4.  I have added heat shrink to the two pin socket and wires.

Whew!  That was a lot of work.

Now to do it again to the other shell.

[mmagliaro]

Elegant, neat, and very professional wiring, Ron.   Great work.

[u18b]

Thanks Max.

The wiring is actually a lot of work and time consuming.
But the advantage of this modular approach becomes more apparent with DCC, as well as if I need to disassemble anything (like for painting, or for changing out the motor).

I actually though of one small tweak on this harness.
I'll make the change when I do the second Cab.