DalaGStanator's Customs, Mods and Experiments

To make it look like a 4-4-0 when it's really a 4-2-0, decorative front drivers were glued on to make them as close as possible to the actual wheels; real ones would've had to be too far ahead. They had to be cut down at the bottom so they wouldn't touch the rails, and it runs just as fine as it did without them. The bogie is fitted over a glued shaft and rotates (very) loosely, helping it follow the track slightly better than the usual bogies I build (reduced friction). However, its inability to tilt up/down might make it get stuck on gradients.



While I have a bunch of DuPont socket connectors (two wire and four wire), I don't have any plugs for them. I barely managed to make one by cutting safety pin rods and "shoving" them into a socket, but it would've been too fragile or made an unstable connection. These JST connectors were from an old solar power kit, in which they were used to connect a motor to the solar panel or a 2x AA battery pack. That motor died due to heavy rust and/or corrosion and had to be discarded, hence why the plug connector was cut off. I only have one other socket and no other plug for it.



After building a six wheeled chassis for the high voltage tender, I made a working 6V battery pack out of skewers and aluminium strips. To arrange the contacts, I followed this wiring tutorial by Anthony Cartwright. He wired the batteries themselves to each other, but it's literally the same process for terminals. I also checked how it was done in a device with a 4x AA compartment, and they were set up the same way. Only the negative springs and one double contact were from existing battery packs. Both of my soldering irons had to be repaired due to a small fault, so I had to glue the negative springs to the appropriate sides. While it did provide enough power for the drive and smoke motors together, the heating element apparently draws too much current and doesn't get hot enough (despite its small size); even without the drive motor, it's too weak compared to the lower 5V or even 4.5V. I've since broadened the flanges to reduce derailments due to the engine's speed.

There happen to be small, thin power banks that would easily fit in the tender and provide the same voltage as my USB cable, but without external power. If Quazar specified what type of Li-Ion batteries they used for their heating elements, I would've opted for that to power the element only. In that case, there could be room for a 4.5V pack over the rear axle for the motors (which could also add enough weight for more tractive effort).