Favorite HO Models

[Russ Bellinis]

Andrew, I haven't figured out how to quote a post yet so I'm just responding to your quest to put a decoder in your rail bus. I have a P2k sw7 that needed a decoder, but had very little space available. I didn't want the decoder to be visible in the cab, so I found an n-scale decoder that was small enough to fit in a small space created with a false roof in the cab. Looking at the pic if a small decoder won't fit under the hood, I'm wondering if it would fit under the floor boards below the driver's feet? You might have to amputate the lpb's feet to put in a raised floor board to give enough clearance for the decoder. If you want sound, you could probably locate the speaker in the baggage compartment in back. I'm presuming that the model is powered by the front truck with the motor being under the hood. If the model is actually powered by a motor in the baggage compartment driving the back wheel, then it might have room for a small decoder under the hood. For a speaker, if there isn't room in the baggage compartment, you might be able to raise the floor in the passenger compartment and amputate legs of lpb's to allow it to be mounted there.

Thanks Russ...

To quote, click the "Quote button which should appear in the upper right of each post. We do not have the multi-quote in place yet, but the single one should at least work. If you're not seeing it, please let me know.

Thanks for the suggestions. A bit more about the interior of the bus might help and maybe you have more suggestions...!?

The baggage compartment (at the back) is available, but is only about 1 cubic inch. Under the hood is even smaller, and the space there is not contiguous with the interior of the bus. The interior is full (seats, and a couple of passengers & driver who are already double amputees). The motor is below the floor. The other challenge (if that's not enough) is that the pickups are only from the rear wheels, and they are placed so they go almost direrctly to the motor. It would be very hard to isolate the motor. I'll try to get some more pictures up so you can see what we're looking at. Because of the limited pickups, it stalls at every insulated turnout, and would need a capacitor to keep the decoder from resetting all the time.

Thanks!

Andrew

Interesting, this is the third time I've tried to reply with a quote. Th first two times the "enter" key, "space bar" and "backspace" wouldn't work. I started a post in the telegraph office, but before posting it I decided to go ahead and post this with the problems, and then reference this post to illustrate my problem. Naturally it is working now! Oh well, I don't need to post the problem now.

Anyway, Andrew, the decoder I used in the P2k Sw7 is an M1, I don't remember the manufacturer. If I remember correctly it is about 3/8 to 1/2 inch square and about 1/4 inch thick. With that information, you might see a good place to put the decoder.

Also, with regard to your electrical pick up problems, could the front truck be used for pick up? I'm thinking you could solder a couple of wires to either side of the front truck, and then tuck them up under the body back to the rear wheel area where you could drill a small hole in the floor to pass them through to tie into the wires from the rear wheel.