I did some more to my Porter project today, but Oh Dear, suffered a couple of setbacks.
SETBACK #1: First of all, whilst touching up the inside of the cab, I managed to drop the damn thing
and it broke into three pieces
!!! A couple of choice words were uttered and then I set about repairing with superglue. Its not too bad - the breaks are above the doorways just below the roof so will hopefully be largely hidden by the shadow under the small overhang of the roof. I knew the 3D-printed pieces were weak at those points, but not THAT weak!
Anyway, I continued with the build: painting the window inserts brass and also the top of the chimney the same colour. The window recesses needed a tiny bit of filing to accept the windows, but then they slotted into place nicely. So nice to be able to get a really clean line between brass and red - because they were separate pieces!
IMG_8481 by
Pink Nosed Penguin, on Flickr
A little while ago, despite being so pleased with myself that a Lenz Gold decoder fitted in the same space as the terrible factory-fitted one I was replacing, I then realised that my replacement cab meant that the decoder protruded right across the doorway
. The new cab is a completely different shape, so of course the old location was not suitable! That decoder was too large to hide elsewhere in the cab, so I purchased a TCS M1 (the same one I used in the tiny Simplex) but with a different-shaped stay alive that I measured could also be hidden in the cab. So I soldered the 4 connections to the M1 and . . .
SETBACK #2: The loco did not run
. Absolutely nothing! More choice words. I double-checked the wiring = correct. I ran another loco on my test track = fine. Hmmm. So I quickly unsoldered the TCS decoder and re-soldered the Lenz one = still nothing. More choice words! I thought "I can't even try the loco on DC as it came DCC-fitted and I don't even still have the original decoder!" Then I was thinking that there was no way I could send the loco back - it was shipped from the USA and has been butchered so much by me since, so that's not an option.
Then I realised that I could try DC connected direct to the motor
. So I unsoldered the decoder, dug out my old DC controller, and connected it to the orange and grey wires to the motor = still absolutely nothing. Thinking the very worst now, as a last resort, I spotted contacts on a little circuit board where those two wires were connected just above the motor. Placing my controller leads on those two contacts = YIPPEE! The motor ran very sweetly!!! A bit more experimentation revealed the grey motor wire on the loco was somehow not connected anymore. Quickly a new wire was connected to the circuit board contact, the TCS decoder reconnected, loco placed on the test track, and = nothing yet again. WHAT? After some frantic checking with the DC controller again, swapping decoders (in case I'd burnt out the TCS somehow), I noticed that the power to my test track had become loose!!! OMG!
So, FINALLY, I have the TCS decoder connected with the stay alive, and the Porter is running up and down my test track nicely! Phew! I decided not to proceed with shortening the decoder and stay alive wires and working out how best to fit in the cab - that can wait until another day. They say accidents come in threes - so I'm definitely counting the track power connection mishap as the third!!!