I tend to take on highly interesting installation projects. Some are genuinely challenging due to age of models or over engineering of sophistication. The following are some of the more intriguing models I recently upgraded.

Walthers Proto 1000 BUDD RDC

This PCB is coated in a very durable PVC laminate material. Scratching the traces took some carefully applied elbow grease.
The singular negative thing about this model is its directional lights. Even LEDs shone very poorly through the light routing tube and out the minuscule lens holes, so I didn’t bother replacing them.
The interior LED strip illuminates far better!

Con-Cor Electroliner

I felt sorry for this tiny decoder. Whatever malfunctioned did so spectacularly.
This model uses power poles to route power from sprung truck wipers up to the PCB. This isn’t reliable, so I replaced the springs with wires. That was a major improvement.
The whole four-car set was too long for decent run testing, so I used the outer two cars.

Con-Cor Pioneer Zephyr

The Pioneer Zephyr received a specially-engineered ten-pin sound decoder that was discontinued around 2016.
As you can see, I tend to solder directly into pin sockets rather than buy separate plug connectors. Why spend money on a component when I have the skill to spare a couple dollars?

Walthers Proto 2000 ALCO PA/PB, Wabash and Santa Fe

While two models came in the same blue box and two others came separate in grey boxes, they each were made the same way, sharing the same circuitry.
The PA/B models use TCS products because their motor protocols are more similar than SoundTraxx’s sound and mobile decoders’ protocols.
It was fortunate that the bulbs and my replacement LEDs were the same diameter. That made physical fitting easy.

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