Hi everyone! While working for a speaker connector for HO locomotives, I also made one for Z scale locomotives which are prone to pickup power interruptions. The candidates for this mod were a pair of 4-axles AZL GP30 and GP38-2 with pick-up problems, the former being the most stubborn. I wanted to have a detachable connection to transmit power from one locomotive to the other and back. I started with single row connector strips for Arduino (1.27), 0.6mm heatshrink tube (both from Aliexpress) and very thin display hinge wire from an old laptop. For HO scale I made 2-pins connectors (male and female) like the TCS ones but for a fraction of the cost. But these were still too big for Z scale, so instead I made 2 separate connectors using only the male and female pins and heatshrink tube. The connector strips are very easy to cut and you can pull out the pins without any problem. I cut the male pins in half and I cut also the tail from the female pins in order to have a very compact connector. After soldering the wires, the heatshrink tube is keeping now the connection in place instead of the original plastic. Also the tubes needs to be cut short to cover just the soldering, also for space reasons. The first version was supposed to have the wires connected to the chassis by the plastic clips, but after opening the shells, I decided to solder the wires directly to the power tabs of the decoders, which already had some previous soldering for better connection and fitting. After that, I routed the cables through the hole in the decoder, over the chassis tabs in the space between the two halves, so they will not interfere with the transmission. I used black and red wire, and I wired the locomotives back to back (because from some reason GP30 is running better backwards) Finally, I reinstalled the shells and linked the power connectors, taking into account the colors of the wires. I you are using DCC, I don't recommend trying this without using a 12v auto light bulb protection on the power line from the DCC station feeding the tracks. This solution is cheap, fully reversible, very effective and visually acceptable. Now both locomotives share the power pickup with each other and the overall experience of running them on clean tracks is close to the newer 6-axle AZL locomotives. I tested them on 220mm curved track and the power connectors did not interfere with the MTL couplers. Both locomotives creeps at the lowest speed, so switching is now possible. Some pictures during construction and installation. photos.app.goo.gl/X1hWbhp8hc6jbiQx9 Here are a footage with the pair before and after installing the power connectors. Have a nice day and Merry Christmas! Bogdan
Great idea. I did something similar back in the 90s with MTL F-7s, minus the plugs. It is one way to work around pickup problems! Steve W
Update: Since it was my first attempt to validate the concept, I felt the need for some improvements. First I trimmed the tubing from the female connectors to the same lenght as the male ones for a better fitting in the tight space between the coupler and the locomotive shell. Second, I used a piece of 1 mm heatshrinking tube cut on one side (no heating applied to this one) to keep the 2 connectors together over the couplers for a better visual experience.
Hi Bogdan, looking very nice and effective. I really like the weathered look on your loco’s, could you share a bit of how you did that? Matt
Thanks, I bought them already weathered, so I can't help you with that. I had to exchange the chassis for the GP38-2, the old one was broken, now the tank is like new.
