It’s been a while since I’ve posted. I should be better about this, so here goes!

Here is a little media dump of some of the models I’ve been repairing and upgrading.

Most of these are SoundTraxx Blunami conversions. Bluetooth is a big part of the future of model railroading, and SoundTraxx is one of the companies at the forefront of this hobby’s innovation.

DCC upgrades often include capacitor attachment. Some decoders aren’t premade for this, so special soldering is required.
MTH models don’t follow NMRA standards and require complete rewriting; even lights must be replaced.
This model originally used ten lighting outputs. The Blunami decoder offers eight outputs, so I doubled up a couple outputs.
I replaced the original loose wires with a Blunami-friendly connector plug. That required special soldering upon the capacitor’s PCB (printed circuit board). Such fine soldering can be tedious.
These solder pads are great for connecting multiple wires together without a tangled mess.
Occasionally, original and new parts are used in conjunction, and they need fastening together. I use UV hardening gel and a large UV light panel for this.
This little clip demonstrates how one can quickly switch between the primary and auxiliary whistle/horn. The GS-4 locomotives operated in dense fog along the west coast, and fog horns carried through fog better than whistles.
I couldn’t resist a Southern Railway Crescent Limited passenger set on eBay. The whole set was manufactured by International Hobby Corporation. It’s my favorite manufacturer because its models are usually very simple, durable, and convert to digital operation easily. The eight passenger cars’ plastic wheels need replaced with metal ones, but that’s easy now trust the locomotive is upgraded with Blunami.
This is an N scale IHC model of the White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad 2-8-2 Mikado #73. The real thing yet operates excursions today.

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