Roundhouse Work

The last couple of days have been dedicated to investigating what is required to convert the Bachmann consolidations and decapods from lamps to LEDs.

I have a consolidation that is being used for parts and that looked like a good place to start.  After a couple of hours of work I settled on a process.  It shouldn't be too bad.  But it will not be trivial.

Next I moved on the decapod.  I have a decapod that is missing a few parts so it was the guinea pig for this process.  The first step was figuring out how to get  the boiler off the running gear.  After about an hour it was determine you needed to remove two screws from the bottom of the engine and then remove the fireman's side running board.  Then the boiler will lift from the rear after a fair amount of force.  The room for installing an LED in the decapod is much tighter than the consolidation.  But I did come up with a solution.  The decapod conversion will be much more difficult than the consolidation many because of the disassembly and reassembly process.

(Decapod disassembled and the LED being wired up before installation.)