First taste of MTL SW1500

[John]

I wonder who got the old heave ho.......

 

[JanesCustomTrain]

That picture has potential to end up in the left upper corner, right ?   

Jane

[JoeD]

Tom Mann Early Years Fob overseeing the uncoupling of a new Teddy Load.  The coupler height is correct on the production models, I just don't have the shim in it the lab unit.  When we got the production batch of chassis, for some reason they sat differently than the samples we had.  It's been resolved and we also had Walthers work on the insulated spacers for a better fit and proper spacing between chassis halves.

[CBQ Fan]

Ok, so if MT had to work with Walther's on an N scale offering that explains all issues.....Walther's hates N scale.  Let's all mull that one over now!  LOL!

[tom mann]

What does Fob stand for, anyway?

F********* o** b***********?

[JoeD]

" a small object that is a decoration on a watch chain or a key ring"    It's also a term we used at Disney for small sculpts.   These are small 1" Vinyl toys I made for my friends to decorate as a keepsake.   

[u18b]

That picture has potential to end up in the left upper corner, right ?   

Jane

I agree with Jane.

Except maybe this shot.... cropped, etc
And then the header
RAILWIRE
Seeing things Differently
Hahaha

[Bigdaddy]

Joe, what are the actual chassis mods? Can you share that with us?

The thin metal leads from the motor brushes that use to pick up power from the chassis have been extended to the top of the motor cradle and isolated from the chassis with insulating tape. Then solid core wire is soldered to the strips and run along the top of the motor cradle and plug into a socket on the light board. Pop the wires out of the board, pull out the light board, slip in the digitrax board and plug the wires into the sockets, you now have DCC control.

[Chris333]

Thanks for the photos. Now could you post one of the SW1500 next to a single window coach?   

[Rich_S]

Just so you all know, I'm in the process of designing Flexi-Coil truck side frames for future releases and later we will be doing the body mounted hand rail version.

Steve Ward
Micro-Trains Line Designer

Looking forward to the body mounted hand rail version and if at all possible maybe add on extended front sandboxes?





Thank you in advance Steve and Joe 

[johnh35]

The thin metal leads from the motor brushes that use to pick up power from the chassis have been extended to the top of the motor cradle and isolated from the chassis with insulating tape. Then solid core wire is soldered to the strips and run along the top of the motor cradle and plug into a socket on the light board. Pop the wires out of the board, pull out the light board, slip in the digitrax board and plug the wires into the sockets, you now have DCC control.

Fantastic. I have used the TCS Z2 and swapped the motor leads top to bottom to get the bottom lead above the frame halve to solder to and fee the power to the Z2 from the original light board. I had showed this arrangement to TCS trying to get them to put the Z2 on a board similar to their CN decoders with wires to run back to the motor. Looks like MT and Digitrax beat them to it. Kudos for the DCC arrangement, and thanks for the information on everything else. I feel a lot better about purchasing the BN units sight unseen after knowing what provisions have been made. There are a few druthers, but all in all, I'll take it.

[wazzou]

When the Flexi-coil trucks are tooled, would you consider re-tooling the AAR trucks with roller bearings?

[Ian MacMillan]

I LIKE TURTLES

[Rich_S]

I LIKE TURTLES

HUH???


and what is the Zeus dam "Boat Movie"???     

[Rich_S]

Fantastic. I have used the TCS Z2 and swapped the motor leads top to bottom to get the bottom lead above the frame halve to solder to and fee the power to the Z2 from the original light board. I had showed this arrangement to TCS trying to get them to put the Z2 on a board similar to their CN decoders with wires to run back to the motor. Looks like MT and Digitrax beat them to it. Kudos for the DCC arrangement, and thanks for the information on everything else. I feel a lot better about purchasing the BN units sight unseen after knowing what provisions have been made. There are a few druthers, but all in all, I'll take it.

I just installed a couple of TCS CN decoders on a Atlas/Kato GP35 and Life-Like GP38-2 and really like them. Nothing against Digitrax as my current system is a Digitrax Empire Builder, but hopefully TCS will create a decoder for this new MTL locomotive as well. Just my 2 cents, but I feel it's always good to have more than one option