Large (1:20.3) Scale Workbench

[Mayner]

Back to the wreckbench to restore #464s headlight and get RGS Motor #6 head and marker lights when running in a forward direction.

#464 headlight ceased to function after one of the jumper cables between the loco and tender failed several months ago. The wiring on the Bachmann K27 2-8-2 is quite complex with a circuit board in the tender and smoke box linked by a cable loom with two multiple connectors between loco and tender. 

The connections from the loom to the multi socket on the RHS of the loco wasn't in a great state when I picked up the loco well used second hand about 8 years ago, luckily most of the wiring was redundant since I converted the loco to on-board battery control ending up with one functional wire the -feed to the headlight which failed several months ago.

The smokeboard circuit board control lighting functions, headlamp, marker, cab/possibly firebox lighting and redundant DC/DCC changeover and smoke unit switches.

Original plan was to link the headlamp LED with the marker-light circuit but ended up blowing the marker light circuit instead!.

In the end used a Kiwi style no 8 baler wire repair crude but effective. 1st did some testing with a multi meter and discovered that some of the loom and LED wiring did not follow the usual conventions for + - the negative lead to the headlamp was red and positive feed to the lighting circuit board white. To complicate things further I used orange and brown for + & - jumpers from the circuit board to the headlight.

Actually managed to run some trains on Christmas Day. Thankfully #464s headlight fed through a resister now works, though I have not connected the marker (classification) lights. Apparrently marker lights were not usually illumiated in daylight.

Motor #6 is fitted with very small  filiment bulbs rather than LEDs, capture the atmosphere of 1930s 6v automobile headlights.

 

Looks like the prototype may have kerosene marker lights, possibly from a caboose. The RGS was very much a boot strap operation that would make Forbes County Donegal extravagent in comparisson.

Interestingly the entire RGS Goose (Motor) fleet has survived some in operating order on heritage lines and museums in Colorado & California, someone actually built a replica of the origonal goose Motor 1 which was used as a source of parts to build Motor 6 during the mid-1930s

Getting #6 lights functioning going forward was basically a case of soldering a jumper between the F & R lighting pads on the radio receiver/decoder