I can happily state that I continued to fly under the " family radar " again today & have completed three 44 class Tsunami installs complete & have just about finished the 442 install which is the subject of the last couple of posts.
It has been great to spend a weekend disconnecting with work & just fiddling with trains. I must say though that a couple of exchanges overheard during a weekend where I was having such fun made me think...The first was between two employees at the local newsagent this morning & in part went "As slow as a wet weekend" while the second exchange with a similar intent was overheard elsewhere & that was " As slow as a month of Sundays " .
As much as I have heard these sayings many times, the origins of both had me puzzled. Now I don't know about you guys...but I find that whether a weekend is wet, hot, cold or other....they all go way too fast & I wasn't sure you had a speed option. The second saying had me thinking that I would like to try this option out... all in the name of research... of course as 30 or 31 Sundays in a row sounds good to me!!!
Anyway I guess I had better complete this post...
The 442 is now completely wired up & has been tested and is operating as it should. The only issue left to address is the speaker. A search through the DCC section of the workshop failed to uncover a speaker that is a good fit for the intended spot so I will order a number of the correct ones this week so I have spares on hand for the next jumbo install. I hope Warren from Gwydir Valley is reading this post...as he will be getting a call in the morning....( Yeh I know Waz...you love my calls...NOT ).
While the attached photos speak for themselves... A couple of things require clarification & explanation I guess.
The first is the speaker used in the shots...As stated above I have no "fit for purpose" speakers so I utilised a 35mm x 20mm unit roughly mounted in the chosen position so all decoder functions could be tested. The other item still to be mounted is the capacitor. This will find a home adjacent to the speaker but I will finalise it's location when the correct speakers & enclosures arrives The capacitor wires can be seen leaving the decoder & travelling down the existing wiring gallery that is cast into the weight...they then travel adjacent to the bogie ( firmly attached to the inner wall of the weight ) with the capacitor itself visible near the trial speaker. I originally had visions of mounting the speaker at the other end of the chassis...but both the speaker & capacitor will easily fit at the one end saving the need for running extra wiring.
I will now commence detail work on the pilots, bogies & staff exchangers of the body & chassis...while I am at it I had better replace the handrails underneath the windscreens as both are bowed badly....seems that this issue is a very common problem with this loco.
One last piece of advice i would offer to anyone contemplating this project is to take the time while you have the loco stripped & ensure all parts of the mechanism are cleaned & where applicable lubricated before reassembly....You will never have a better opportunity to do so.
Work nearly complete...Please disregard the speaker & capacitor....
I love it when the calculations work out correctly...The decoder is sitting at the right height & should just clear the inner roof of the body
A close-up of the new voicebox for the jumbo...
Good to see you getting some "you time" Rod! Got into the cave myself yesterday, first time in weeks, bench work for the lower (storage area) nearly finished. Built my first set of points last night (FastTracks jig from Warren) they came out very nicely me thinks for a first crack but gee I hope I can get the the build time a bit !....only 150 or so sets to go :-(
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