I absolutely agree. It takes some guts to try it. Especially at that price. However, having said that I've discovered that everytime I take something apart I learn. Sometimes a painful lesson but often times not. If there was one peice of advice I'd give anybody in Z scale is to try and take apart every loco and reassemble, clean and lube. Sooner or later it will have to be done. Why not by yourself?
Thanks Robert. I am going to put in a TCS Z-2 for now as I don't have the other decoder. Trying to get this running for the Medford show. Later I will get the 82463, but thanks for the correct decoder. I will leave the leads long on the Z-2 so I can reuse it later. Medford ho!
Challenger "Challenge" It's the old addage David, easy once you know how to do it. You are a pioneer, just like the rest of us. Shall I bring you the passenger cars for you to pull? or the 36+ UP PFE's that I have amassed? It sucks that you have your warranty voided. Give me some dimensions of your planned power pick-up piece, I am about to get some frets etched. What's another part to add.
haha! I did not know that any Z Scale item ever came with a warranty? I often put new stuff immediately either in a box for a couple years waiting for me to modify it, or tear it apart and modify it right then. In either situation, what good would the warranty be? Expired when I pull it out of the box in a couple years or expired when I tear it apart, either way expired!
Robert and I are the pioneers - among others. The DCC was going to happen anyway. I took the pictures and posted them for Jeff"s perusal. Turns out I enjoyed the picture taking anyway.
Got er done! Runs nicely and has the dual red/yellow LED flicker in the cab. No video yet as I figure Medford will make a better backdrop. Bill H. of ZoCal has actually seen it run today. So video coming... in at least a week.
Robert, I got the above decoder and the speaker should fit. I plugged the six prong plug into my Loksound decoder tester and connected it to my NEC DCC. I get throttle, forward and reverse lights but no sound. What am I doing wrong?
And for those of you who were not there (or left the convention when it technically closed) I put the Challenger on the main DCC module layout and ran it. After Matt graciously ground down the inside of one of his portals, the engine would make it all the way around - pulling sixteen AZL autoracks. No video by me, but there were others there shooting video. The next show for ZoCal will be The Big Train Show in Ontario, CA the first weekend in June and then we will find out if it can handle John's portals on his end unit. The boiler swings out about 1/2" and has those smoke deflectors sticking out. I kind of like them, so they are not coming off. At Ontario we will find out how many MTL cars with FVM wheels it can pull. I have ordered some UP passenger cars for it to pull along with Don's. This time I will shoot more video (but of course) and include the Challenger pulling a load. Hopefully with sound!
Got my eight BNSF auto carriers today. Put seventeen MTL cars with FVM wheels behind them and pulled all 25 cars with the Challenger. No upgrade on the decoder yet. Not till I can get the sound working on the tester!
I got a functioning Loksound 3.5 decoder 82863 installed. I used some small speakers from another Loksound decoder (about the size of a dime each) and managed to squeeze them into the tender. Literally cut off the old non-functioning headlight and glued in a golden sun LED in its place. Ran the wires up the frame under the boiler to the back. Put another golden sun LED in the tender. Connected everything up yesterday and everything works! Ran the engine and it sounds great. Taking it to the Big Train Show in Ontario tomorrow. Video will be shot and eventually put up for your viewing pleasure. Well, it is a Big Train Show and it is a Challenger! Can't wait to see some faces on those large scale train people when they hear this thing!
Nice! *That* is about nine different varieties of all right! (It is also a persuasive argument for DCC.)
Cool This was cool. David: I have some question I hope you can answer. Do you have the partnumber for the speakers you have used? Did you use the Loksound micro V3.5 decoder? If yes, it is delivered with an oval speaker(Says on ESU site). Is that to big to fit into the tender? Did you also put the decoder in the tender or in the boiler?
Well, that takes care of N & HO's last argument -- "You can't have sound in Z". Really, really nice David. ...d
