National Model Railroad Association Inc.
Australasian Region
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
from Austrains Gerry Hopkins MMR In this article, I will show you how to make this loco a good runner and pull well, add a headlight to the earlymodels and add backup lights to all versions. I will also show you how to add pickups to the tender and sound decoder.
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
By Laurie McLean MMR To answer some questions I have received regarding how I do my Classification Marker Lights on my Hon3 locos you will find below the hints & tips that I hope help you to give it a go on your little girls. This is pretty tiny stuff we are dealing with 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
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
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