Tramps Modifications

(04-27-2014, 10:47 AM)ActionChugger Wrote: Awesome mods!!
Time to look for my soldering iron! I wonder which locomotive will be my first victim? LOL

Excellent...another Lighting Bug has bit. Looking forward to seeing what you choose.

Ha yeah thanks, I'd definatly recommend modding at least one train to make it faster, it's pretty simple to do and the speed increase is awesome, as for lighting it's not hard either, just fiddly and time consuming, I have a rake of x4 coaches in the pipeline, but I just can't get motivated to do them!

Well, after ucwepn had a go at the lighting mod, he inspired me to get motivated and continue with my to-do list. So today I gave James a head light, I didn't take any pictures during the modification as we already have lots of those on the *electrical engineering* thread and it was straight forward like the other modifications we do,

So the pics




I haven't glued the light yet so it may look a little wonky, you may also notice I painted out the cab windows and did some detailing on the boiler straps and the grab rails

Looking good Tramp. Like the added details. What kind of LED is that headlamp? It looks square. Hmmm...looking at your pictures I didn't realize that James and his tender has black wheels. I must find me a few junkers to steal those wheels.

It's an SMD type led, I was going to use a convential round 'dome' type but because of where the body support is and the different sections it wouldn't have worked well and my have protruded to far. I've used used this sort for all my coach internal lighting work,

Yeah this James is the early type with the battery in the tender, it's not very detailed, I don't know if the new type (with the flat drive) has black wheels or not?

I thought it might be something like that. I forgot, what voltage is James running at?

Just standard 1.5v with a hyperdash motor, I'm a bit anal and didn't want him outpacing Gordon! Although with it being a tender batteried (is that a word?) engine the conversion would be simple enough and may happen in the future. While we are speaking about different voltages I've got to admit that I've been having bad thoughts about modifying a spencer into a 4.5v rocket, I was just worrying about defacing him because of his funny shaped smokebox,

So the SMD type LED's can be found using 1.5 volt? thats good to know. Oh wow...I had bought a bunch of these to light up a rake of coaches and I didn't write down the voltage. Good Grief.

I have to admit that a lot of times when someone mentions the name of a Thomas friend I have to go look it up because I am not hip to it. I had a couple of Spencers in a box of Thomas trains that I have accumulated from big purchases on Ebay that I have to sell. Yeah, He does look to be a challenge to deface. What came to my mind would be to file down smooth following the contour the face that is there. May have to use a little model bondo, drill one hole in the middle for a piece of plastic tubing for a headlight cowl but did you see whats inside of the front of Spencer...heavy duty for sure. Don't know if it will all work.

(05-04-2014, 07:57 PM)Tramp Wrote: Although with it being a tender batteried (is that a word?)

Isn't that what they use to make cakes?

(05-04-2014, 09:09 PM)Super Wrote: So the SMD type LED's can be found using 1.5 volt? thats good to know. Oh wow...I had bought a bunch of these to light up a rake of coaches and I didn't write down the voltage. Good Grief.

Sorry to disappoint you, but they are 3.3v I squeezed a booster pack in the boiler, I had to remove a section of plastic, but other than that it fitted quite well!

(05-04-2014, 09:09 PM)Super Wrote: I have to admit that a lot of times when someone mentions the name of a Thomas friend I have to go look it up because I am not hip to it. I had a couple of Spencers in a box of Thomas trains that I have accumulated from big purchases on Ebay that I have to sell. Yeah, He does look to be a challenge to deface. What came to my mind would be to file down smooth following the contour the face that is there. May have to use a little model bondo, drill one hole in the middle for a piece of plastic tubing for a headlight cowl but did you see whats inside of the front of Spencer...heavy duty for sure. Don't know if it will all work.

Yeah I've put a bid in on eBay if I get it, we will see! It will certainly be a different sort of challenge, I've always liked the a4 pacific, I went to the train museum at york with my grandad when I was little, it's probably the biggest train museum
In the uk and I can remember seeing the 'mallard' when visiting. Another nice thing about the A4's is that they were built at doncaster which is a town not far from where I live,

(05-04-2014, 09:09 PM)Super Wrote:

(05-04-2014, 07:57 PM)Tramp Wrote: Although with it being a tender batteried (is that a word?)

Isn't that what they use to make cakes?

I have no idea, I'd like to think myself competent in the English language but I surprise myself some times!

You can have the Spencer I have for just the cost of shipping if you think that is worth it from the USA. I think its cheaper for me to ship to you that for you to ship to me as Royal mail seems to be a bit pricey.