2020_07_26 With Comrade Andrews revelling in his new powers....

2020_07_23 They say a change is as good as a holiday?

And I definitely must post more often. Maybe an update every Sunday? Maybe I can make MS a little useful and set it to remind me? ok

The change is walking away from the layout as such. First I was thinking about scenery, but my confidence is waning and I feel I am not ready or prepared for that task yet. Trees?  Yeah someday.

So I decided to start unboxing all the (still) DC locos and think about upgrading them to DCC and sound. Fortunately I always purchased a sound chip with each new loco, so not being able to get to a hobby shop was not the problem.

The older engines like the original 930's and 44 Class required a lot of work, mainly because they were fitted with globes instead of led's and in some cases mounting sound decoders and speakers became a real pain. In fact I have arranged to send the more difficult engines away to be converted by professionals.

And so after 5 weeks of wiring and more wiring I have now completed 21 DCC conversions and started another 12 or so, with at least 20 more in the to do bins.  :(

 As each loco tested OK, I added them to the track, here.

 Moved the computer to side, to gain better access! The 44 Class as an early one and getting new lights and a new DCC sound decoder.

 The Flat Top T Class are rather difficult to fit sounds to. However unless you have really good ears and can hang un-baffled speakers to the side, you can get great results if you cut out the speaker mount and add a sugar cube speaker

This is the modified speaker which was sold to me by Mike Walters who also suggested the speaker mount.  And it works perfectly (Only 5 more to convert)

https://www.dccsound.com/
Tell Mike Rod sent you :)

So with a few projects lined up on the desk, here are some more in the Q.
The hardest part is finding all the engines and matching up the bits that fit them. Fortunately, Mike from DCC sounds marked all the ESU sound boxes with the loaded sounds.
The sounds are all authentic and each decoder has the correct speaker already attached.  Then it is only a matter of finding suitable wire and LED's to finish the project.

I am trying to finish one project a day, and that includes adjusting the decoders on my computer using a programmer and the ESU software and finishing off with  DecoerPro
Decoder Pro is really great when used on Tsunami and TCS chips.

Cheers
Rod