Hi friends,

The UP F7 is a never-ending theme. Have now achieved a further upgrade my old lok. After installation of a 60903 decoder set some time ago I can now control the head light of the motorless A unit at the opposite end of my A-B-A consist. Moreover, everything is ready to control the lighting of a passenger train via the F1 decoder functions as soon as I have inserted current conducting couplers at the front slots of the A units.

The main obstacle to connect the two dummy units to the motor unit is shown in the image below: there is no cable slot below the backdoors of the 3061/4061 A-units as is the case for the newer F7 versions. My efforts to lead the wires somehow through the rear truck all failed for lack of space, and the wheels would hurt the wire isolation. With that long lasting project I felt sometimes like in that movie where Steven Segal must get to the engine at the head of a hijacked train, passing through all those traps and gunfires



As I did not want to drill holes in the casings, I prepared my own electric wires from some strips of self-glueing copper foil "sandwiched" between two layers of transparent stretch tape. Soldering these wires turned out to be quite easy, as the strech tape bears the soldering temperature very well for 1 or 2 seconds.



Outside the casing, I fixed a connector normally used for jumpers on computer boards. So I can easily join and separate the units without lifting the casings. Perhaps I'll repaint the connector with a yellow finish.



Inside the motor unit the wires are continued to the decoder compartment where they can be pluged to a raster cardboard which carries the decoder, the connectors, a relay, and few additional electric components. The LEDs are dimmed very strongly and are for checking decoder operation.



The relay (blue box on the image) is necessary because my California Zephyr requires almost 0.75 A for lighting. The relay contacts connect the wire either to ground or to center rail potential. So I can choose whether I want to switch supply voltage on or off when F1 is activated.

Well, let's still have a brief look under the hood of the dummy A unit. As I did not provide a connection to the decoder mass output in the motor unit (orange wire), I installed two diodes in order to simulate decoder mass for the head light. So I obtain a non-flickering head light which is illuminated only when the dummy unit is running in forward direction at the front of the train.



Still I am not decided what to do with the F2 function of the decoder. Eventually additional head light functions may be possible.

Hans Martin

You should think of putting together a how-to.
Ira

Some decent sound [:p] !!! Cool conversion - congratulations ...

Very interesting reporting,thanks.

Yes, I agree. They also may bring out a UP F3 or F9. I'll not be picky about that.

Hans Martin

OK,

I am willing to settle then for an E8-ish A+B unit and a string of yellow streamline coaches (or heavyweights).

Jeroen