Once I was done cleaning the track, I started looking at the new Walthers SD70ACe UP engines I got for the automation. They need a bit of break in before I put them on automation.

Out of the box, I was disappointed to see both engines were lacking the nose headlight & number plates. These were in the box. One of the snowplows was also off. I’ll need to glue them both back correctly -- the last thing I want is for a loose part to come off when running in automation.

UP 8312 and UP 8330 came with a snowplow and the number plates fallen in the box.

I started running 8330 on the Napa balloon track.

When running the engine on the balloon track, I heard a very strong gear noise from the rear truck.

I’ll need to open 8330 to see what the problem is inside. Maybe some lubrication can help.

Then I noticed this:

8330’s ditch lights are very uneven. Notice the lack of snowplow and number plates.

That’s actually quite surprising. If it’s a glued LED, I can’t really do much. What I notice on this picture is the dim ditch light shows some light under the walkway:

So hopefully it’s just the LED has sled down a bit and can be re-adjusted. I’ll need to have a closer look.

Next thing I need to do is change the engine CV programming. These have “some” kind of ESU LokSound. Wished manufacturers would be clear which of the dozen of entries to select in JMRI. I went for the generic LokSound 5 and then let JMRI read all the parameters. Which is a mistake since it takes 45+ minutes to read all the CVs using this antiquated DCC technology.

Before I can use these for automation I need to change a few things:

• The horn needs to change, as I don’t like the default one.
• These engines do not have a capacitor. As soon as they hit a dead spot, the sound and the light functions turn off, which is a big issue with the automation -- since the computer just toggles the function, it doesn’t know whether it’s on or off). IIRC the LokSound should have an option to remember functions and keep them on.
• The sound startup sequence is very good, but it comes with “realistic” drive interlock (can’t move till the sequence is complete), and that interlock needs to go, because again it means any dirty track would stop the engine and it would not move till the sound is back on with the startup sequence finished. Or something like that, which doesn’t work for an automation that lacks feedback from the engine.
• LokSound has an “Auto Tune” procedure to recompute the BEMF so I’ll do that. It helps a lot to get better crawling speeds.

Note for self: to remove the shell on these, first remove the couplers, then there are 2 screws under the truck next to the fuel tank (and the trucks are in the way, so work around them). From memory, there’s no specific need to remove the fuel tank itself. Then the body should go straight up, except it will inevitably stick to some internal part so just loosen it gently.