I’m very new to the hobby, and am in the process of my first locomotive project, converting an old Bachmann Spectrum PRR 4-6-2 K4 to DCC.
After some struggles and (hopefully) minor damage, I managed to take my train apart. I’ve got a new coupler on the tender, a decoder and speaker installed in the tender, and I (believe) have the decoder and motor wired up to the track pickups.
That leaves me with one problem- how do I get this thing back together? Now that the motor is wired to the decoder and the decoder wired to the pickups, Ive got the body, the motor, the tender, and the underframe all physically connected. Somehow I need to maneuver the motor into the diecast chassis, then mount that on the wheel assembly and underbody chassis, all while it stays wired up. Does anyone have some handy tips for how to accomplish this? I admit I am quite daunted by it at the moment.
Thank you for the help. I actually do still have the original schematic, its just trying to deal with the added complications my modifications have made.
I’ve never dealt with that engine, but I would start by connecting the motor within the cast weight surrounding it. Putting that aside, I would assemble the wheels, side rods and frame and make sure they run freely, rolling it by hand, before connecting the motor-weight assembly.
When I’ve done these kinds of conversions, I add a small connector for the wires between the tender and the locomotive. That way you can reassemble the loco and the tender separately, then hook them together.
Here’s a few shots of a brass loco conversion I did.
@Pruitt that is such a great idea! It probably wont save me at this stage of my rebuild but I shall definitely try that for my next project. Thank you so much!
I’ve worked on a similar model with the same arrangement (split weight holding the motor and gears). It’s a pain. You might have to file the weight to get some of the wires through.
