Heljan Western DCC Conversion and Kadee Fitting

1. Disassembly


There are no retaining screws for the main body moulding. But it is hard to grip anywhere - DO NOT grip the chassis by the fuel tanks as these are only held on by four skinny plastic clips and it is very easy to break them ( I speak from experience). The best disassmbly mechanism is to insert two thin sheets of soft bendable plastic one on each side below the drivers door and lift one end of the body up using these pieces of plastic as levers.










DCC fitting - the pin 1 diagram is not that obvious on the instruction sheets - here is a picture that should hope make it clearer. I used a LENZ silver, the silver direct would NOT fit under the body.










Kadees - I used number 19s directly on the NEM sockets. They seemed to work fine.

Bachmann Mark 1 Disassembly

As part of a longer term plan to add lighting to the coaching stock, I needed to dismantle a Bachmann Mk 1 coach.

As always this was more fiddly, and stressful than one would like. As models have got more detailed, they have also got more delicate. So here for my failing memory, as well as anyone else out there - here is my guide to dismantling Bachmann Mk 1s.

1. Remove Water Pipes

Remove the water pipes on each end they can just be pulled out with pliers or tweezers, if you just remove the lower fixing they can be gently bent clipped around the side of the coach.










2. Remove Bogies

Turn coach upside down and remove each bogies by unscrewing the centre screw.


3. Remove Coupling Assemblies

There are clever, but delicate little coupling assemblies below each bogie, these can be carefully unclipped.









4. Unscrew the base

Three screws can now be seen and removed. and the seating slid from the chassis.




When you come to reassmble, please note that the middle screw is not in the centre, so the base and the floor need to be lined up - if you put one in the wrong way round, the middle screw can not be done up.




Also note the bogies fit on with the 'gap' pointing towards the coupling socket.