Work has started on loco #3
I have acquired a Bachmann 0-4-0 Porter from the USA - it was only $60 (new) with decoder fitted (although shipping and customs/vat pushed the price up somewhat). It looks very good - though VERY American of course:
IMG_8442 by
Pink Nosed Penguin, on Flickr
The only problem was that it ran pretty poorly

. Adjusting and cleaning the pickups helped, but the main issue was with the factory-fitted decoder. The loco started EXTREMELY slowly on speed step 1 (of 28) = just a humming noise with no actual movement - then started to crawl up to speed step 5 - then quite a bit faster at 6 - and then suddenly really fast at 7. There was no info supplied about setting decoder CVs, and from my experimentation it did not adhere to normal NMRA standards. Basically I could adjust the starting voltage (so that it moved on step 1) but NOTHING ELSE speed-wise (so it stayed at the same speed from 1 to 5 then suddenly sped up at 6 to 7 and above. Poor. Once the loco was running, it ran very sweetly indeed and very quiet - so I knew there was nothing wrong mechanically.
So I decided to try another decoder. But then I found the decoder was connected using ALL BLACK wires. What? Why? Crazy!
IMG_8367 by
Pink Nosed Penguin, on Flickr
Luckily, the small PCB in the above photo had markings like M+ and M- (I took these to be motor positive and negative) and L and R (presumably Left and Right track). So, before snipping the wires I painted them the correct colours. Here I had a "
laugh out loud" moment when I was just about to paint one of the wires black

(I used dark grey instead!).
Anyway, with the wires correctly identified (I could not see any purpose to the PCB, so discarded it) I was able to connect a Lenz gold decoder I had. It even fitted nicely in the position of the original:
IMG_8444 by
Pink Nosed Penguin, on Flickr
The difference in performance was
spectacular 
- the loco runs absolutely beautifully! I can adjust the speed curve exactly as I want and connect a stay alive. Very pleased. Its amazing what a difference £££ of electronics makes!!! Superb control and the 'electronic flywheel' that is the stay-alive.
Next is of course to Anglicise the loco, and to this end I have purchased a 3D printed replacement cab from CWRailways and some parts from Smallbrook Studios. With these and some plasticard, lets see what I can do! Watch this space...