Rocket Surgery on the PRB brass ATSF 3400 Pacific

[bbunge]

Following your experience with the speaker.  Everything I've read says you don't need holes in whatever is holding the speaker.  This has certainly worked for me with plastic tenders with one or more speakers with enclosures.  I'm currently looking at a brass Pacific that will get the sound treatment.  I've been planning to follow the same procedure I've used with plastic tenders with it (no holes anywhere in the tender).

Bob

[randgust]

OK, the painting was a success.    Grimy black, redo the lettering, paint everything and then Neolub anything that moves.

Reassemble everything, and on DC, everything still runs just fine.  REALLY well.  So short of wiring in the decoder with sound (which you won't see) this is about it.

I just can't get over how much difference the repaint made.   This is truly a beautiful brass locomotive when you can see all that detail.



Years and years and years ago, there was a feature in Model Railroader about 'The Santa Fe Roster of Bob Kjellander' (sp?) and it was all the HO brass locomotives he'd done, mostly PFM.  That was just so stunning.   This many years later I can say that article was my inspiration.

[ATSF_Ron]

Wow!  Such a difference in appearance after that paint.  Great work, man!

ATSF_Ron

[mmagliaro]

The repaint looks positively splendid, Randy!

[NorthWestGN]

Great writeup, great photos and a beautiful locomotive ! Well done!

Brent

[u18b]

Randy,
as for wiring a decoder....

I like the idea of sockets.

So if you go with a Nano which has an E24 board.... then you have options for troubleshooting later.

The E24 board can take a LokPilot/E24.

But you can also get an E24 jumper dummy board that now makes the loco analog (it's what an Atlas modern analog locos uses and the dummy plug Scale Trains Uses (I think).

I find tracing problems (like a bind) easier in analog than DCC.

[randgust]

I had such results with the Tsunami 1100 in the PRR Decapod I got another one of those.   Speaker is installed.   I have the TCS 6-pin disconnect between engine and tender, and the 'ultimate solution' I came up with on the Decapod was doing a second 'straight DC' Trix tender so that if I have mechanical or electrical problems I just swap tenders for debugging.   That DC tender with the plug will be interchangeable with the 3429 in one manner or another - it just saves me the headache of trying to get jumper wires in there for the inevitable WTF moment that all N scale steam creates.

I have been so preoocupied with the Warren station project that the 3429 has stayed DC for a while.