Tramps Modifications

Tramp

I'll list here all my modified engines,

New type c12 with hyper dash motor fitted

My modified Gordon, defaced, converted to 3v (twin AA) and fitted with a hyperdash motor and an LED

Biwaka, modified with an led (battery cell in the tender)

Salty, defaced and with led main lamp and flashing amber beacons (powered with a step up booster)

Dd51, with head lights using a step up booster pack

And a video of the DD51
[video=youtube]http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=n22l_qKCul4[/video]

Neville, defaced and modified with a hyper dash motor

Then I have a selection of rolling stock, with added led lighting,
X1 Brown & X2 blue shua 48 coaches

Workmans van

X3 brakevans

Apparently you can only embed one video per post, so here is my rolling stock at night video

[video=youtube]http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RH97jJp3miE[/video]

And a video of the defaced salty, with his flashing amber warning beacons

[video=youtube]http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qx67vJMaiDg[/video]

And today I made a start modifying a trackmaster brakevan, u like this sort of van as they were used on UK railways and match the thomas trains, I wanted to illuminate it with a rearward facing single LED, this is today's effort which still requires glue, it's powered by a 3v lithium cell inside the body, the switch is in the rear coupling aperture and the led is a red SMT

Super

Excellent place for the switch on the brakevan, perfect

Great thread for some great mods...

sunhuntin

wow! really like the lit up coaches, they look awesome! well done. looking forward to seeing whats next.

Tramp

Thank you, I intend to do a few more, I've got some of Spencer's Pullman coaches, I've also got a set of ordinary coaches which need converting, they are in my to-do list!

I've just put together a little video of my modified Neville

[video=youtube]http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qhQ_N6AVcQU[/video]

Super

Excellent video Tramp

Like the cheerie music. Nice string of black gondolas and the red light on the rear of the brake van looks great. Don't you just love those Auto Switch Points?

This train is the perfect candidate for some black plastic couplers don't ya think? Hope everyone is voting in the poll. The more interest that is shown the more likely the man who makes the couplers will run off a batch. POLL

Tramp

I know it would be a great candidate for black couplings, white ones just stand out so much! My next project is a rake of 4 standard carriages, I'm going to fit LEDs to the roofs, they're intended for the first generation james I have, which has a hyperdash2 motor and has been defaced and needs a little detailing!

Although it's loud I love these engines, I just wish they had quieter drive units!

Tramp

I made another video today, it's a little longer than my others, I hope you enjoy it

[video=youtube]http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_O9OAvEpJNY[/video]

Super

Fantastic Tranp

I just love how the trains picked up their speed to the faster tempo of the music in the middle. Perfect timing, like a professional, choreographed number. Defaced James looks to be a good runner and your 2 headlamped DD51 was a perfect engine for the smelting plant cars.

[size=large]Bravo!!![/size]

Tramp

Thanks super, it's a great feeling being able to share with you all, yeah, when I put the video clips together I dumped them all in the application, I then had to choose a backing track ( which I was a little limited with) and when I played the video it didn't fit! I had to take some additional clips and put the fast trains together at the end, I also had to crop the clips to get the things happening at the same time as the music!
Yeah James does run well, especially now he has a hyperdash motor in, much livelier! I couldn't bare to leave him standard, it just feels right for the tender engines to go faster than the shunters! The dd51 is great, it's so quiet and the crucible cars do go well with it!

ActionChugger

Awesome mods!!
Time to look for my soldering iron! I wonder which locomotive will be my first victim? LOL

Super

ActionChugger wrote
Awesome mods!!
Time to look for my soldering iron! I wonder which locomotive will be my first victim? LOL

Excellent...another Lighting Bug has bit. Looking forward to seeing what you choose.

Tramp

Ha yeah thanks, I'd definatly recommend modding at least one train to make it faster, it's pretty simple to do and the speed increase is awesome, as for lighting it's not hard either, just fiddly and time consuming, I have a rake of x4 coaches in the pipeline, but I just can't get motivated to do them!

Tramp

Well, after ucwepn had a go at the lighting mod, he inspired me to get motivated and continue with my to-do list. So today I gave James a head light, I didn't take any pictures during the modification as we already have lots of those on the electrical engineering thread and it was straight forward like the other modifications we do,

So the pics

I haven't glued the light yet so it may look a little wonky, you may also notice I painted out the cab windows and did some detailing on the boiler straps and the grab rails

Super

Looking good Tramp. Like the added details. What kind of LED is that headlamp? It looks square. Hmmm...looking at your pictures I didn't realize that James and his tender has black wheels. I must find me a few junkers to steal those wheels.

Tramp

It's an SMD type led, I was going to use a convential round 'dome' type but because of where the body support is and the different sections it wouldn't have worked well and my have protruded to far. I've used used this sort for all my coach internal lighting work,

Yeah this James is the early type with the battery in the tender, it's not very detailed, I don't know if the new type (with the flat drive) has black wheels or not?

Super

I thought it might be something like that. I forgot, what voltage is James running at?

Tramp

Just standard 1.5v with a hyperdash motor, I'm a bit anal and didn't want him outpacing Gordon! Although with it being a tender batteried (is that a word?) engine the conversion would be simple enough and may happen in the future. While we are speaking about different voltages I've got to admit that I've been having bad thoughts about modifying a spencer into a 4.5v rocket, I was just worrying about defacing him because of his funny shaped smokebox,

Super

So the SMD type LED's can be found using 1.5 volt? thats good to know. Oh wow...I had bought a bunch of these to light up a rake of coaches and I didn't write down the voltage. Good Grief.

I have to admit that a lot of times when someone mentions the name of a Thomas friend I have to go look it up because I am not hip to it. I had a couple of Spencers in a box of Thomas trains that I have accumulated from big purchases on Ebay that I have to sell. Yeah, He does look to be a challenge to deface. What came to my mind would be to file down smooth following the contour the face that is there. May have to use a little model bondo, drill one hole in the middle for a piece of plastic tubing for a headlight cowl but did you see whats inside of the front of Spencer...heavy duty for sure. Don't know if it will all work.

Tramp wrote
Although with it being a tender batteried (is that a word?)

Isn't that what they use to make cakes?

Tramp

Super wrote
So the SMD type LED's can be found using 1.5 volt? thats good to know. Oh wow...I had bought a bunch of these to light up a rake of coaches and I didn't write down the voltage. Good Grief.

Sorry to disappoint you, but they are 3.3v I squeezed a booster pack in the boiler, I had to remove a section of plastic, but other than that it fitted quite well!

Super wrote
I have to admit that a lot of times when someone mentions the name of a Thomas friend I have to go look it up because I am not hip to it. I had a couple of Spencers in a box of Thomas trains that I have accumulated from big purchases on Ebay that I have to sell. Yeah, He does look to be a challenge to deface. What came to my mind would be to file down smooth following the contour the face that is there. May have to use a little model bondo, drill one hole in the middle for a piece of plastic tubing for a headlight cowl but did you see whats inside of the front of Spencer...heavy duty for sure. Don't know if it will all work.

Yeah I've put a bid in on eBay if I get it, we will see! It will certainly be a different sort of challenge, I've always liked the a4 pacific, I went to the train museum at york with my grandad when I was little, it's probably the biggest train museum
In the uk and I can remember seeing the 'mallard' when visiting. Another nice thing about the A4's is that they were built at doncaster which is a town not far from where I live,

Super wrote
Tramp wrote
Although with it being a tender batteried (is that a word?)

Isn't that what they use to make cakes?

I have no idea, I'd like to think myself competent in the English language but I surprise myself some times!

Super

You can have the Spencer I have for just the cost of shipping if you think that is worth it from the USA. I think its cheaper for me to ship to you that for you to ship to me as Royal mail seems to be a bit pricey.