I haven't worked on the BR 601 3-rail conversion project for almost 3 years now. I was stuck on a mechanical drive train problem, how to install lights, and how to power the sound decoder for the rear motor unit. In addition, the full train is too long for the Welztalbahn. So several intermediate cars stayed in the box, and a shortend train with the two power cars sat on a storage track in staging.
Now I have an opportunity to run the train in its full-length glory on a larger layout in public, so I finished swapping all wheel sets for their respective AC counter parts and installed the hand rails at all doors. I'm not going to be able to finish installing the sound decoder in the second motor unit before Monday, nor lights or passengers. That will have to wait for another time. I hope that I can resolve the drive train problem today or tomorrow.
The red tail lights are micro LEDs mounted in the shell. There will also be a cab light, so I need a way to route power to all these LEDs and keep the arrangement pluggable. Here's my solution: a header soldered to the decoder "breakout board" and a perf board fragment with resistors to be kept with the shell. The "pins" are wire cut offs from resistor installs in other projects. Never throw anything away ....
Here's a side-view with the cab light LED installed, and tail lights wired. The cab LED reaches too far into the cab, and is visible from the outside. I'll try to pull it back a little bit and also limit light leakage into the machine room.
I might have to redo the breakout board, since I did a fairly poor soldering job on that, but for now let's see how this pans out.
Here's a short video of 601 001 demonstrating the light effects. I still have not closed the chassis and engine roof yet.
First test run of the whole train on the Welztalbahn. Chassis and roof of the engine car are mounted only temporarily, hence the gap if you look closely. Lights are not connected yet. The non-motorized engine car doesn't have its sound decoder yet. I'm hoping that that installation will be dramatically easier than with the lead unit.
The ESU Loksound 4.0 decoder comes with a round 4 Ohm speaker. While the speaker is just small enough to fit into the machine room hood of the VT11.5, I have been struggling with mounting it in a way that the locomotive remains serviceable. Eventually I gave up and ordered a ESU 50321 "sugar cube" speaker. It fits much better, and sound quality is outstanding, especially considering its size.
I spent some more time organizing and routing cables between power pickups and decoder. It's getting close for a test run.
I left this conversion alone for a while after I learned that I needed a different truck assembly for the Maerklin version. The shipment has since arrived. Let's see if I can finish wiring this unit this weekend.
Truck replaced. I might have to mill the frame a little bit to ensure that the cable from the pick-up shoe doesn't get squished between locomotive frame and truck assembly.
I have started work to digitize this Roco 43012 class 601. Before I take it apart to install a replacement motor and decoder, I'm verifying that the unit works on DC. It runs, but gets going only at about 6 volts, which seems high for a straight DC model. Thus, I should probably take a closer look at the gear towers and axle lubrication.
Here's a short video of the front unit running. The noise you hear is vibration of my test rig. I need to work on that, too.
I converted this BRAWA Koef II to digital operation using a regular Lokpilot 3.0, which just barely fit into the cab. Switching cars with this little locomotive is a lot of fun, so I sprung for a Lokpilot 4.0 micro DCC and the ESU Powerpak.
Here's a view of the locomotive with the cab roof off. It's easy to see how much smaller the new decoder is...
The first step was to connect the Powerpak to the respective soldering pads on the decoder. The pads are just as small as one would expect from such a tiny decoder.
Technically, the fine tip of my soldering iron is still too big for this job but I managed to solder the cables in place with the edge of the tip. Using a magnifying glass, reading glasses, steady hands, and going slow helped with this step.
The motor and pickup wiring inside the locomotive is hooked to a 4-pin connector. I unsoldered the existing decoder, soldered connections for the new decoder (I should have ordered the version with wires attached... ), and after some time --- interrupted by tonight's Halloween activities --- I'm testing the decoder on the layout.
Out of the box, with no tuning in the decoder settings whatsoever, the Powerpak already improves performance on the not so commonly used track in the industrial area. In speed step 2 the loco smoothly rolls over turnouts where it used to stop when going that slow. The only indication that the Powerpak is doing its job is a slightly jerky motion on dirty track. I should be able to tune that in the decoder settings.
Time to dress the cables a bit more, program the decoder, get a "Rangierfuehrer" in the cab of the Koef, and put the cab roof back on.
I finished the digital conversion of a Maerklin 3065 V60 class switcher. Not only was this my first attempt of using a motor kit from sb modellbau, but also I'm very happy that I managed to find a way to replace the light bulbs with LEDs, and still have all lights operational without having to resort to dealing with SMD LEDs. As you can see in the photo above, the arrangement of the lights is a bit tricky.
Light package in long hood
I started the lights on the long-hood side of the locomotive to get some experience working inside this very narrow and somewhat shallow hood. Since I'm mounting the LEDs in the shell, I needed a way to disconnect the shell from the chassis, so I built a low-tech connector from header pins.
A 5mm warm-white LED feeds the ditch lights, and a dedicated 3mm warm-white LED feeds the headlight at the cab.
The long hood also houses the decoder
The white, yellow, and blue cable were left just long enough that I can take off the shell and pull the connectors from the header pins.
Short hood light package
The short hood houses the motor, and in particular the flywheel, so space is at a premium here. I decided to route the wires along the insider corners of the shell, as well as mount the 3mm LED into the exhaust block. That required some gentle drilling to make room for the LED. I also had to reposition the 5mm LED in a sub-optimal way to avoid the LED touching the flywheel, which now spins only a few millimeters away from the LED contacts.
LEDs and wiring inside the shell
And that completes the digital conversion of this loco. Things left to do are some paint touch-ups on the shell, and tuning the decoder programming.
This loco comes with a TELEX coupler on each end, which are wired serially to function output 1 of the ESU Lokpilot 3.0 decoder.
Finally, here's a short video that shows the completed locomotive in Talheim. The motor is so quiet now, that the locomotive is almost begging to be equipped with sound.
BUT! ... not here. That gap between the buffer sill and the walkway is not supposed to be there. The motor assembly is too tall and doesn't fit inside the locomotive. I double-checked the instructions and verified that I did all the metal working exactly to plan. Hmmm ...
I added a dab of paint on top of the flywheel, put the chassis on,
and we immediately see the problem: The clear plastic piece conducting light from
the light bulb to the upper headlight is in the way. Then I remembered hearing about that specific problem a few years ago. For now I removed the light conductor from the chassis and everything fits properly.
After installing the NEM 652 plug and the decoder it was time for a short test run on the layout.
I'm very impressed with how quiet the locomotive runs now. There seems to be some occasional binding in the original gears when running very, very slowly in speed step 1. We'll see if I can track that one down. So far, so good.
I really dislike working with Epoxy glue, but this stuff works. Here's another test run of the 260 417. The Maxon motor is now glued down permanently. There is sufficient (but not too much) play in the gears, so that everything runs smoothly. The flywheel on the motor is very effective. Even at medium speed the wheels rotate a couple times when I remove power abruptly.
On to installing the wiring harness with 8 pin NEM 652 plug, relay for remote uncouplers, and fitting the decoder.
The remaining gears and axles of 260 417 are cleaned and oiled. Now I just need to find some quiet time to prepare the epoxy glue and get the motor glued in place.
This is the ubiquitous Maerklin 3065, DB number 260 417-1 a first generation switcher for light and medium duty switching, as well as light transfer freights. This is my next victim for conversion to digital. I'm doing this one differently than all the other conversions so far. The motor in this locomotive is awful and the gears are super-noisy. Two years ago I ordered a re-motor kit from SB Modellbau that fits this locomotive. It consists of a small Maxon DC motor, and adapter gears to fit into the Maerklin drive-train. This promises a much smoother running engine and I heard many good things about the SB Modellbau motor kits.
Before I start...
The only catch is that doing this conversion requires extensive modification of the motor block, thus the kit is labeled as "difficult" on the SB Modellbau Web site. "There is no difficult", I thought and ordered the kit.
I've never done a conversion like this before. You can send the parts to SB Modellbau to have the milling done professionally for a fee, but I wanted to try myself.
Today I worked up the courage to start grinding away the motor block with a cut-off disk in the Dremel and working out the more intricate bits with a milling bit. The zinc metal is relatively soft, so a fresh cut-off disk worked very well. The milling bit is a bit harder to control, but manageable at low speed setting. I used painters tape to keep the metal shavings away from gears and wheels as much as possible.
The digital conversion of the V200, Maerklin model 3021 is done. Since I had the lights and decoder working already, I just needed to put shell and chassis back together.
Here is a quick run-by in Talheim with an express train made up from appropriate vintage tin plate passenger cars.
This is the last post on the V200 conversion. The earlier posts are part 1, part 2, and part 3.
Since I already decided that I would rip out the analog insides of this Maerklin 3021 and put a decoder in I did not want to keep the original light package either. I do want to do the model justice and keep the outside appearance as it was manufactured in 1958, thus I'll refrain from drilling out the 3rd headlight which is merely suggested by a bit of silver paint, as much as that offends my prototype instincts.
Light-board Mark I
I built a new light-board from some strip board and DCC-friendly 14V miniature light bulbs. I used some stacked styrene bits and double-sided tape to mount the board inside the locomotive shell, carefully paying attention to leave enough room for the motor assembly right next to it.
Light-board Mk I mounted in the shell
I hooked up my workbench 12V power supply and ... was underwhelmed.
Yes, the lights look ok. In fact they are looking better than with the original light package, but if I'm going through all this trouble might as well choose something with less maintenance burden. I remembered that I still have a pack of 3mm warm-white LEDs in my supply cabinet, and built a light-board with two LEDs arranged in series, protected by a 1.5kOhm resistor. After taking the photo I glued the stack of styrene and double-sided tape to the light-board assembly and mounted it the same way as the first one.
Light-board Mark II
The light looks similar and this was a somewhat pointless exercise after all, but now the old lady has LED lights. Woot.
Time to wire up the lights with the decoder in the chassis and see how well this all works on the layout.
The paint on the V200 Maerklin 3021 is showing signs of its age and eventful life.
This doesn't look particularly good as a close up, but the impression of the locomotive improved dramatically from merely fixing up the lettering on the side. At the moment I'm not planning to do a wholesale repaint of the body of the loco but rather leave most of the scruff marks. After all, it's almost 60 years old. It's allowed to have a few wrinkles.
This is Maerklin's 3021 model of V200 006. This model must have been produced around 1958, since Maerklin used the 200 006 number only from the introduction of the model in 1957 to 1959 (see this link for a description of the various model versions).
I've installed an Uhlenbrock 76200
multi-protocol decoder which also has cabling for driving the original Maerklin
motors without turning them into a DC motor first as I usually do.
And yes, the old lady is now being tested on the Welztalbahn.
I did some minor detailing, added couplers and put the Koef to work. A transfer run to Talheim was completed successfully. However, the return with only two cars barely made it up the hill. This model simply doesn't have enough traction to pull more than two cars on a 2% grade. That's ok. It's intended to perform switching duties in Emsingen only. As expected, the Koef II also does not forgive dirty rails, but performs significantly better than I expected. I might spring for a LokPilot Micro 4.0 with Powerpack if switching with this little loco is as much fun as I'm hoping for.
To finish off the conversion series of BRAWA's 0458 Koef II, here are some shots of the Koef working in Emsingen.
Koef II switching cars in Emsingen
I'm pleased to confirm that the Koef II and the work crane fit on the turntable together.
[Previous installments of the Koef II conversion: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3]
[This is part 3 of my Koef II digital conversion. Part 2 is here.]
Test-program the decoder
I used an ESU Lokpilot 3.0 as the decoder for the Koef. When closing the roof I noticed that the decoder just barely doesn't fit. The LokPilot Micro version would actually fit under the roof as designed. I squeezed the decoder into the cab for now. Wires be damned.
To finish off the evening, here's a short video of the Koef in Talheim.
[This is part 2 of my Koef II digital conversion. Part 1 is here.]
The roof is off!
Instead of a screwdriver, I used a wooden clothes pin to push hard against one edge of the Koef roof and it just popped off. No damage to the roof or the body of the locomotive.
The cab housed a shrink-wrapped assembly to make the loco work with Maerklin-style AC power, and includes two capacitors wired in series to provide some extra juice for dead spots.
View into the cab with the connector leads to motor and pickups.
