Vital Signs

As of today, the major electrical work on the Davenport is finished.

This tiny locomotive now sports 12 NiCd batteries, an ELITE throttle by RCS, and a Phoenix P5 sound system, as well as a P5T interface board, and all of the requisite wiring to make them all work, under the tiny hood.

The power switch is under the rear frame of the locomotive, as is the radio receiver. The small speaker will fit in front, between the frames. The charging jack will go in the rear cab wall, and be disguised by a sand box / cab seat on the inside, and either a sand fill or a handbrake on the outside. I'll go more into the cosmetic details next time, when I have photos to show how they're progressing... the big news TODAY is that other than connecting the headlights, the electrical work on this locomotive is FINISHED!

The first trial fitting of the various components was not especially encouraging (and, I'm told led to indigestion in some quarters!) There seemed to be no way to fit everything in ... and more wire than a local telephone exchange!



I found the best way to overcome the "octopus" the project seemed to be swallowed by was to remove all of the extra wires from the Phoenix and P5T ... there are several extra wires pinned into the plugs that aren't needed for what I'm doing here. I also shortened up harnesses where possible, and then connected what was left in neat, organized bundles. With the battery pack modified from its standard 4-4-4 arrangement to a top row of 4, a middle row of 5, and a bottom row of 3 cells, I found I had room for all of the electronics on top (including the Phoenix P5 at the extreme rear of the hood, vertically,) and sufficient clearance for the worm and gears underneath. With the battery secured to the right hand side of the hood, there was a space along the left that accomodated the P5T, and all of the bundled wires, as well as the volume switch. With the "Octopus" gone, everything finally fit in a functional, if crowded, way.



Much better! The programming port can be removed by unplugging it from the board once the board has been programmed ... which I did (though not before taking the photo above, apparently.) All that was left was a full scale test ... and I'm happy to report everything started up and ran like a charm... both sound and motor. The speaker in the above photo is a full size Phoenix speaker, and I used it just for testing -- the actual speaker is much smaller and will fit between the front frames, and ahead of the power block.

Now to finish up, there's still lots of cosmetic work to do, as well as final re-assembly, and cleaning up all the debris and marks that a major surgery like this always leaves ...

But today, it's alive! ALLLIIIIVE!

Getting There (Much like the Tortoise...)

No photos yet... but for folks looking for progress, there is progress!

The electronics are almost finished. The locomotive now has an RCS ELITE throttle, Phoenix P5 sound card, a P5T interface, radio receiver, charging jack and power switch all installed. I'm waiting for a speaker for the Phoenix to be delivered. The hood and the lid are both on the frame, and taped in place while the RTV that holds the battery pack in place sets up; this is somewhat delicate, as everything fits, but only just. The new headlight and horns are ready to go, the rear headlight has been fabricated, and once I have some styrene and brass in hand (and some JB Weld!) I'll be able to finish things up. Oh, and I'll need to charge the battery ...

Stay tuned. I expect more, and photos soon.

Fully Apart

In an effort to keep this series in order, today's update shows the fully stripped down frame of the Davenport.

You can see the cavity in which the motor mounts; there are two "D" shaped brackets on the motor that allow it to be screwed into the bottom of the large metal "hump" that takes up the center of the cab area. Removing the one at the non shaft end allows the motor to come completely out. And, any earlier questions about the frame are answered; the black and gray areas are all one piece and the "hump" is an integral part. The whole frame is metal, by the way, which makes gluing and drilling a little different from what you might be used to on a plastic locomotive! Here also you can see the bottom end of the power truck, consisting of the gearbox and axles. It's held to the bottom of the deck by four standoffs that are cast into the floor, and when removed has a strange strong resemblance to an HO power truck (only much larger.) Now, the trick will be to get all of the various components arranged and mounted, and the wires between them run, and organized. It looks like the power switch and radio receiver will go under the cab between the frame rails, and the speaker will go up front under the frame just below the factory supplied speaker grille (which has beene removed.) Everything else has fit under the hood, and the standard rear charging / aux power jack will be concealed on the fireman's side of the cab, and will resemble a sand fill and sand box with a seat on top. I plan to redo the engineer's side of the cab somewhat, as I'm not thrilled with the size or position of the factory control surfaces. We even have an engineer enroute from Hawaii to take charge of things once the unit is operational (thanks Richard!) although I suspect he may have to be temporarily assigned to K-27 duty ... and it may be hard to get him to step down to the little 10 tonner after that!

Stay tuned ... there's more coming!