|
| |
Tender Electronics
No 3 will be constructed as a radio control battery power
locomotive. I haven't made final decisions as to the brand I will use as I
have both an Aristo Train Engineer on-board setup and a RCS setup
available. Major issues other than brand faced in installing a radio
control system are:
 |
Location of the batteries - In this engine batteries will
need to be in the tender. I may make provision for pulling a
supplementary battery car. |
|
Sound - At this point I'm not installing a sound system but
I want to make sure this option is available later if I change my mind. |
|
Receiver location - I disassembled another Bachmann 4-4-0 to
use the drive train in fabricating NPC No 21, their cab forward that was
built using drive train parts from a wrecked 4-4-0. Along the way, I
discovered there is little room in the
engine for a receiver. Should room not be available in the engine the
receiver will need to go in the receiver. |
|
Wiring - How will the wiring feed power to the motor, sound
(if installed), smoke generator, and lighting. |
Tender Shell Modifications
A significant amount of electronics has the potential of ending up in the
tender. As a result, as much room must be available inside the tender as
possible. For that reason, I decided to remove the recess in the tender
where the coal load was placed. The following photos document the
modifications I made to the tender top shell.
 |
This shot shows the disassembled tender with the coal load
removed. A fairly deep recess held the coal load. This
recess significantly reduces the amount of space inside the tender and
is unnecessary because the wood load will pile on top of the
tender. Click photo for a larger image. |
 |
This shot of the bottom of the tender top shows the top with the shelf
removed. Repeated passes with an Exacto knife dragged across the
plastic with the dull side of the blade cut through the plastic.
Click photo for a larger image. |
 |
After the cut was sanded flat, I used epoxy to glue a piece of styrene
to the underside of the tender, filling the opening left when I removed
the shelf. Click photo for a larger image. |
After the shelf had been fabricated, the modifications were painted flat
black. You may want to return to the Tender page to see how the wood
load was installed. The rest of this page will include information on the
electronics modifications once they have been completed.
|
