Garratt Repair and Conversion

Since my last post there's been a lot of head scratching. As well as repairing the front pivot I needed to find space for a battery pack, R/C receiver, motor controller, sound card and speaker.

Front Pivot
This has been made from a 1.2mm thick piece of brass plate and will eventually be glued and screwed in place.

Motor Controller and R/C Receiver
Finding space for the electronic components has been a real headache. I've bought the controller (URC11) and receiver (URX1) from Timpdon Electronics. The URC11 incorporates automatic control of directional forward and reverse lights. I've managed to shoehorn both these components in the front tank.
I was hoping to create more space by removing the lead weight from the bottom of the tank, but this made the front end far too light.

Not only has all this lot got to fit in the tank, also 7 cables need to be run to the main part of the loco - battery +ve and -ve, motor +ve and -ve, aux 1, aux 2 and cable to rear light. The thick white cable is 8-core. I obtained this from Maplin Electronics -it's burglar alarm cable.

It was a very close shave but all components and wiring are now in the front tank. I will paint the thick white cable matt black and hopefully it won't be very noticeable.

I've ordered a custom made 14.4V battery pack and sound card from Peter Spoerer. Finding room for these bits has been equally challenging. I'll post another update in a week or two.