“It’s Alive” The Bachmann G Scale Heisler
I’ve finally gotten around to work on a loco that I’ve probably not run in 10 years. I tried converting this over to DCC years ago but had an issue with the DC/DCC switch in the smoke box. The contacts broke away from the switch killing the motor connections back to the PC board in the tender. Hence it sat until this weekend.
So I ordered another Blunami and it arrived on the 6th of April. That was enough motivation for me to get started on this project.
I basically gutted all the wiring except for the rail and motor wires that were still attached to the original Bachmann PC board. Got rid of the extra wires that ran from the motors to the smoke box switch as I did need them. I hooked up the rail and motor wires from each truck to the Blunami. Added a new LED for a headlight and ran that through the boiler shell down under the cab and pull it up through the slot that is just ahead of the rear truck mount. I used the existing cab light and back up light and just ran the existing wires for them (which ran down the rear window in the cab in the corner). Hooked them into the board. The back up light was hooked directly into the Rear Light connection and I ran the wires for the cab light into the FX3 connection so I can turn that on and off as needed.
I also added an Evan’s Design firebox flicker and just wired that up to the rail power on the board so that stays flickering while the track power is on.
I think it turned out well. I think I had 8 hours into this and most of that was due to the disassembly and reassembly of the unit. It was a little hairy at first but it went together with no parts left over. Miracle.
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