The story of four medium sized Rio Grande locos

[Schraddel]

Hello,
here in this thread i describe in a nutshell the converting of 4 D&RGW to running condition in terms of DCC and sound.


The beginning was several years earlier when i purchased this Rio Grande Mikado. No Narrow Gauge, it's Standard Gauge D&RGW class K59.
A nice model mady by Samhongsa an imported by Key, has a simple boiler backhead, but still a open frame motor. It was also affected by the notorious red foam and therefor stained. This was also the reason to get it much cheaper. I thought that red staining does'nt matter because the modell will be painted lateron.





The open frame motor was removed ...





... and replaced by an Faulhaber coreless coil motor. The drive shaft is configured out og NWSL parts.





Electric cable harnesses were made in loco ...





... and tender.





Improved current pick ups.





Tender





The bell was rearward angled. Bell and bellframe were one castpiece. I disliked the angled bell.





The bell was cut out with a thin saw blade in a motor tool.





And resoldered in a normal position.





Front and rear light were cored an equipped with 0603 type LEDs of warm white tone.
In this stage the model remains several years.
Until January this year. At a Fremo meeting the decision was made to put the loco into working condition für the Fremo meeting in Riesa.





The loco hat to be painted therefor. The running gear was disassembled for brush painting by hand.





Loco and tender shell should be painted pro by airbrush.





Back from the paint shop.





The cab was glassed and a crew added.





Even the doghouse was glassed.





As decoder the brand new Econami 100 Steam was elected and paired with this Zimo Speaker. There are 2 Sugar Cubes in a relative 3-d printed box. Initially intended for G-Scale, and the 2 speakers are in series and have an impedance of 16 Ohms. This makes the speaker compatible to the Tsunami which needs speakers with a mimum impedance of 8 Ohms.
After some CV adjusting ( RTFM!) and familiarising with the new decoder and it's functions and thereof resulting possibilities, it sounds and runs simply great.
The notorius lurching when starting can be completely shut down to non-existent. Even with coreless coil motors no jerking und lurching.






The final test running was at the Fremo meeting in Mannheim between the sessions. The police in Clearwater Industries was not interested, they were distracted of chasing the Blues Brothers.

This was the first chapter

Cheers Lutz