National Model Railroad Association Inc.
Australasian Region
Gerry Hopkins MMR ELECTRICAL PICK-UP ON BRASS STEAM LOCOMOTIVES WITH DCC DECODERS FITTED – TENDER PROBLEMS. By Laurie Mclean MMR I would like to share some interesting information I have found in fitting Soundtraxx Tsunami Sound Decoders to my HOn3 Brass locomotives. In particular, this article deals with the locomotive tender and its electrical pick-ups. I use a white dot … Read more
Adding sound and working marker lights By Gerry Hopkins MMR The CL/CLP is a great looking well detailed loco. It runs very smoothly and could pull a brick dunnie – even occupied. It is a very easy matter to fit a non-sound or sound decoder – even a plug & pray. When removing the body, … Read more
Gerry Hopkins MMR The Bachmann Tamper was fitted with a TCS M4 decoder. This gave me enough functions to run white lights, red lights and the Rotary Beacon. The Decoder sits down beside the motor, held in place with double-sided tape. The white and red lights are 3mm LEDs with fibre optics. The Rotary beacon … Read more
Gerry Hopkins MMR The Lima XPT requires some extra work to make it a reliable runner. There is nothing we can do about the “pizza cutter” flanges but we can get it run well. The first and most important thing to do is replace the “motor”. The normal method is to replace the armature with … Read more
by Gerry Hopkins MMR Some views of the extra work undertaken for the sound install in a Brass O Scale Big Boy. The decoder is a TCS WOW v4 501 decoder. The underside of the tender – plenty of wheels – added pickups to the right hand side. I used a length of pcb sleeper … Read more
These are the marker lights we are going to “brighten up”. I have touched these with white paint so they are easier to see. I used a sharp pointed tool to dimple the centre of the ‘lense’ as a starting point for the drill. Do not use a power tool they are too ‘powerful’ and … Read more
Fitting a decoder of your choice. The latest release from Train-O-Rama has a number of “new” features. It has marker lights front and back that change from white to red as the direction of the loco changes. These can be switched on/off with a wand. This photo also shows the nice detail on the underframe … Read more
A few hints about the 49 Class not in the manual. The new 49 class released by Trainorama is a beautiful model and comes with a few features not mentioned in the instruction that come with the loco. THE HEAD LIGHTS – ON DC Besides the obvious reversing headlights are the reversing marker lights. When … Read more
With the release of the NSW 44 class, there are many people wanting to fit decoders to the loco – both sound and non-sound decoders. I have done a number of these now so I have taken a few photos and added text that might help you. If you click on any photo below it … Read more
Tsunami Sound in the Genesis Turbine The Genesis Tsunami is a magnificent looking loco but the magic of the prototype units was the sound they produced. This page will give you two options for the install – the “quick and easy” way and the “better” way. There is also a section on the programming of … Read more
HO Proto 2000 Diesel LocomotivesDiesel with 4-wheel trucks (Clicking Noise – Split Gear) Text by Ron Solly While these locos are good value, they have a common mechanical problem. After some running & things get warm, the plastic gears on the axles tend to either split or break into a couple of parts. If they … Read more
The 0-8-0 loco from P2K runs perfectly at all speeds but does suffer from a lack of picks on all wheels. The tender trucks were designed to take pickups but these were never fitted in production. This page will show you how to add picks in less than an hour. The P2K 0-6-0 is supplied … Read more
The SD7/9 locos from Proto 2000 are smooth running, quiet locos. However, after a few hours of running they can get erratic due to the pickup design. Below is the procedure I use to combat this. My locos have decoders for DCC and they are programmed for a top speed of 35 mph and do … Read more
Fitting Pickups to Brass Locos for Reliable Running Brass locos are built to be displayed on glass shelves, but, a few people like to run them on a layout. The problems start here. The locos do not normally have a flywheel fitted to the drive shaft or motor. They have minimal pickups to get the … Read more
NR Class – Decoder Installs This is the second release of the NR class by Austrains and this time consideration has been given to installing a sound decoder and speaker as well as a good light selection. This page will show you how to install a Tsunami AT1000 GE sound decoder and a reasonable speaker. … Read more
80 Class – Decoder Installs With the body removed, remove all wiring and then remove the weight from the chassis by removing the 4 screws. Remove all the garbage pieces attached to the motor. It is only required if you take the loco to Europe on holiday with you. Add the two motor wires as … Read more
LEDs have been around for over 40 years and some people are still afraid of them. LEDs come in many shapes sizes and colours. The big advantage for us modellers is that they do not generate heat (no damage to the plastic shells) and are very forgiving of voltage variations. A 1.5 volt lamp will … Read more
With advancement and availability of small parts suitable for model railways, some people like night running with lights on the locos and lights in rolling stock. Here is how I installed the interior lights – this one is an NSW SHG (Australian)- first with track power for the lights then updated with a Function Decoder … Read more
It is always best to have your track near your programming device (Command Station, SPROG, or Computer). For greater flexibility, the track should be part of the layout trackage. The reason for this is to minimise the handling of the finely detailed locos on your layout. To prevent a running loco from accidentally shorting the … Read more
For many years we have had the twin solenoid machines (Peco, Gem, Tenshodo), then along came the motor driven screw machines (Fulgarex, MannMade), then the stall motors (Switch Master, Tortoise, Cobalt). All this time other modellers have just been using a single unit to do all the motion and animation duties on their models, model … Read more
Turnouts are the least understood of the items associated with model railways and to compound the problem upgrading to DCC has brought more misunderstanding.