VR T class by Austrains

Required parts:

ESU 58420 LokSound 5 DCC decoder

DCCSound Sugarcube speaker for Austrains T class

Austrains T/H class LED headlight kit (this installation uses the high hood version)

Disassembly

To access the chassis, grab irons are disconnected from the body. The long hood is then gently squeezed in and lifted up from the chassis/walkway. The long hood, body and short hood will then lift off from the chassis/walkway in one piece. The body and loose handrails are set aside in a safe place.

The model is then stripped of its lighting circuit, 8 pin motherboard and motor capacitor.

Remove the four screws holding the chassis top to the chassis bottom. This enables access to the motor connections.

Installation

1) Using double sided tape, fix the decoder to the chassis.

2) The decoder's orange wire is connected to the top motor tab.

3) The decoder's grey wire is coinnected to the bottom motor tab/lead.

4) Heatshrink is applied to both connections to prevent a short with the chassis.

5) A small amount of double sided tape is applied between the motor can and top chassis section. This prevents the slight rotation of the motor housing when starting from rest.

6) Connect the decoder's red wire to the RHS red pickup wires.

7) Connect the decoder's black wire to the LHS black pickup wires.

8) Pass the two decoder wires down through the aperture in the walkway as shown, and connect to the speaker tabs.

9) Remove the cover from the top of the fuel tank (not shown) and bend the post under it until it snaps off. Then place the speaker inside the fuel tank, as shown.

10) Fit the LEDs, using 1000 ohm resistors from the kit. The decoder's white wire is the function wire for the short hood end headlight, the yellow one for the long end headlight. Both black wires from each LED connect to the blue, positive common decoder wire.

11) Fit the LED mounts from the kit to the SMLEDs and fix the former to the model.

The penultimate step is with the body. Snip off the body alignment clip, as it will otherwise interfere with the two speaker wires which now occupy the space. Use a # 11 Exacto knife or similar to scallop out some space (about 0.5 mm) on the backside of the body for the two wires so they don't get damaged when the body is refitted.

Finally, fit the body back down on the chassis and reconnect the the handrails.