Trains

Today I have received my parcel from Arnold's Modell Web which is my CT supplier in Vienna, Austria. Mr Hübsch sells mainly ZIMO and CT Elektronik decoders and acccesories. He also makes some nice accesories and kits for these items.
I bought the sound programmer, the sound power, 2 GE70-2 (sound decoders), 2 DCX74D (flat decoders) and SMD leds.

I must be crazy.
I have bought from Basar Valira (my local train store in Andorra) 520€ worth of old Roco, Arnold and Kato stuff.
Everything (except a Kato maintenance tram) is ÖBB Ep.IV and V.
I have also bought 2 DCX74D decoders, they are extremely flat (only 1.5 mm) and I will use them for tight installs.

I am on holiday today so I will do some hobby work.

I recently bought a CT-Elektronik DCX74D decoder which is very small and I wanted to try it on a non-dcc ready loco.

I have an Arnold ÖBB Class 1042 (ref. 2362) which I haven't yet used.

ÖBB Loco 1042

I dismantled it and found the following:

After dismantling

Looking in detail to the PCB we find that the installation should be straightforward: it is a matter of desoldering the coils and the diodes for the bulbs. The frame is connected to one rail pick-up and I think is better to leave that way because changing the way the trucks are connected to the frame seems a bit difficult.

PCB Before install (top view)

I want to put the decoder under the PCB so some space on the frame must be made. It is only a matter of removing some material from the left corner to make it square so the decoder will fit. It has to be a thin decoder, otherwise it could touch the cardan.

Frame (top view)

After installing the decoder underside with double tape the PCB looks like this:

PCB After install (bottom view)


PCB After install (top view)