Maerklin's 37180 model of BR94 in early era IV livery is a beautiful model. In addition, it's lettered for BD Stuttgart, Bw Crailsheim which makes it perfect for use on the projected Murrbahn layout.
Even though I don't have any photographic evidence that a BR94 was operated between Backnang and Gaildorf/West in the early 1970's, the opportunity to pick up a model that could have been running at least nearby was too good to pass up.
Meanwhile, it's a great switching engine for sessions on the Welztalbahn. There's only one catch: The power pickup seems to be a bit finicky and there is minimal run-out distance on my model, despite the motor having an -- admittedly small -- flywheel. Other modelers reported not having any problems, so maybe I'm particularly picky, or the pickup shoe needs some love. In any case, I want to use this engine in situations that require slow switching moves and nothing is more annoying than the locomotive getting stuck on a yard ladder turnout. Hence, I looked into what it would take to install a keep-alive, in addition to a mechanical review of the pickup shoe.
This is a tender locomotive, which are not exactly blessed with space, so I searched for really small keep-alive units. Tams usv-mini have a nifty way to hardwire with any decoder, so that the keep-alive is turned off during programming, which I would have preferred for this application. However, the TCS KA2 is much easier to source in the U.S. Since the locomotive has a MTC21 connector, the KA2 can be hardwired to pins 16 and 20 of the plug. No modification of the decoder is needed.
No comments:
Post a Comment