Preparing to take my first bite... First up....AZL Union Pacific GP38-2! I just ordered the following to get the ball rolling: (1) TCS-1550 AZL4 Decoder (retail $42.75) (1) MA-1201 Handrails & Super-details for AZL GP38-2 (4) RCC-603-0202 Sunny White LED (Side Wire) (4) RCC-603-0201 Sunny White LED (Rear Wire) I ordered the extra LED's (a) in case I screw up and (b) if I don't screw up I'll have enough to do exactly half of my fleet. So....what else? I assume I'll need some resistors...or will the decoder drive those natively? I figured an order with a parts house is necessary, and I would LIKE to come up with a bill of materials for the entire lot if possible. I guess I'll need to flesh out a few more details before arriving at a final list.
Oh NOOOO.... Doug... you've been bitten by the dreaded tZEE-tZEE bug (not to be confused with the tse-tse fly)!!!! You need to immediately dis-N-fect yourself... rush to you favorite hobby shop to get a series of N-occulations. I've succumbed to this dreaded model railroading disease... it always starts as an urge to handle these little models. Lo-and-behold... before you know it... you've been bitten! Sometimes its a slow assimilation... a few cars and locos and a loop of track. BUT look-out... suddenly you're looking at the Z scale cab-forwards and you begin to mortgage your future. If you get the impulse to sell off you N scale models... you're a goner!
Hi Doug, Instead of soldering in warm white LED's you can just apply a little Tamiya X-26 (transparent orange) onto the LED. See my video: [video=youtube_share;ubm2ha9JWMQ]http://youtu.be/ubm2ha9JWMQ[/video]
Grandpa Joe, I think you're right!!! Well, at least I am sticking to my plan fairly well...purchasing pretty well done, and starting on decoder installs. I figure if I can make it through all of that and I'm still having fun, then we'll see about selling off all the N. :-o OK, so that won't happen but I am "thinning out" my N once again...that would have happened regardless, but the Z tangent has probably revved the thinning up a notch. Frank, thanks for the tip. I might try that, although I wonder if the paint might cost more than the LED's! Seriously though, I had kinda forgotten that I was planning to replace the board LED's so I don't have any "unwired" ones at the moment so...I'll check with my local sources about getting some of that paint and go from there. I had actually heard about that trick before, and I know that I have some N locos that could also benefit.
So once I get the parts and get into GP38-2 upgrade mode, I intend to start a new thread on that. I do still want to continue the "Bill of Materials" discussion though... I would like to place a "bulk-ish" order for some of the common items I'll be needing like resistors and more LED's, magnet wire, and so forth. Can you guys make some recommendations on that front? Just regarding components, but at some point the discussion of sourcing has to come up and I know they get all twitchy around here about that. So please PM me if you have any suggestions along that front. Thank you in advance.
Anchor Electronics (www.anchor-electronics.com) and Halted Specialties (www.halted.com) are my local Silicon Valley 'penny per' source but not good to order from. Jameco (www.jameco.com) is a commercial place near San Francisco, All Electronics (www.allelectronics.com), MPJA (www.mpja.com) have typical component pricing of any quantities. Ngineering.com has magnet wire (as does Jameco). Ngineering's is design for direct soldering. No scraping needed. There are a lot of GP38 threads here. One of them shows a lot with the handrails. I did not see them in the search tho. Gerd (minzemaennchen) has many custom made ones for reference.
