Another acquisition, Bachmann Class 25/3 D7645

According to my research, there were no Class 25's allocated to the Southern region, but they were apparently often seen in those area's, and that's enough of a reason for me to grab a new and never unboxed one on Ebay for £58. After a good 'run-in' session on the rolling road, 4 screws and the body's off for a look inside. It's 8 pin DCC ready, but no lighting, although there are clear lenses front and rear, so I've already begun preparing for a lighting fit using 2mm dual red/white LED's and probably SMD LED's for the cab lighting. I've now run out of 'spare' 8 pin DCC decoders, so ordered another of the "Lais DCC" decoders from Ebay (less than a tenner for 4 functions AND stay alive connections) which I've used several of over a period of time and found them to be excellent with no problems and a fully downloadable manual in proper (as opposed to 'Pijin') English, power handling is certainly enough for most '00' gauge loco's, and they're certainly a whole lot better (and cheaper!) than the Hornby offerings in my opinion. A couple of years ago, it seems they were a "Knockoff" brand, but they are now NMRA listed as approved, so what's not to like? Anyway, pic below of the loco on the rolling road, when the decoder arrives, I'll make a start and do a "How-to" on my 'Workshop bench' feature.
Keith.

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There are snags with DC as opposed to DCC Ian. Firstly, an LED (light emitting diode) is like a one way valve, it will only pass current and therefore light, in one direction, so used in a loco or carriage, it will light in ( for example) the forward direction, but not in reverse, so you couldn't use a red/white LED or a single LED in the same way as with DCC. If you were to use 'grain of wheat' lamps which would work ok in either direction, instead you would run into problems with mounting them so as not to melt plastic casings as they get hot. Reducing the voltage ( and therefore brightness) to help prevent melting plastic, would need resistors physically larger than needed for LED's as lamps use more current, but the resistors themselves would get hot as they reduce the voltage........catch 22!
I started from the outset with DCC so have never experimented with any form of lighting on DC, but I have used fibre optics on several Lima Class 33's with some success, so if you feel like having a go using lamps instead of LED's, for example by having one central white and one central red lamp with optic fibres leading to loco lamp positions, as long as you mounted the lamps themselves in a position where there would be no heat problems, I think you would get away with that. Really, my approach has been " suck- it-and-see", and it still is. Whenever I take a body off a loco, I look and see if there's a simple way of doing what I want to achieve, if there's no simple way, then I look for the next easiest, sometimes I can see a way of doing what I want in the same way as I've done with a previous job, but sometimes I have to work out a new way of doing things, I do like a challenge! I'm not afraid of taking a brand new loco apart or if necessary, chopping bits off if I have to to get what I need done to it, cheaper secondhand stuff I take the view that if I fail with a job, it'll go in the parts box as a worst case scenario. Just get hold of a few cheap LED's ( remember a 1k resistor in series with it EVERY time or it's "POP"!!!) and "grain of wheat" lamps and have a play around, it's the best way to learn, and I'll help if I can.
Keith.