Bernhards Random Ramblings BACKUP

My orders from last year are starting to trickle in. This is a Maerklin Haendler Initiative (mhi) car set of a construction work train. This set will complement the Lima set I picked up a couple years ago. The light weathering on the cars looks very nice. The Ommi 51 is loaded with ballast, and the stake car is loaded with concrete ties. Here's the train set in place on the Welztalbahn with the Brawa Koef , probably maxing out the pulling capacity of that little engine.

I converted this BRAWA Koef II to digital operation using a regular Lokpilot 3.0, which just barely fit into the cab. Switching cars with this little locomotive is a lot of fun, so I sprung for a Lokpilot 4.0 micro DCC and the ESU Powerpak. Here's a view of the locomotive with the cab roof off. It's easy to see how much smaller the new decoder is... The first step was to connect the Powerpak to the respective soldering pads on the decoder. The pads are just as small as one would expect from such a tiny decoder. Technically, the fine tip of my soldering iron is still too big for this job but I managed to solder the cables in place with the edge of the tip. Using a magnifying glass, reading glasses, steady hands, and going slow helped with this step. The motor and pickup wiring inside the locomotive is hooked to a 4-pin connector. I unsoldered the existing decoder, soldered connections for the new decoder (I should have ordered the version with wires attached... ), and after som...

I did some minor detailing, added couplers and put the Koef to work. A transfer run to Talheim was completed successfully. However, the return with only two cars barely made it up the hill. This model simply doesn't have enough traction to pull more than two cars on a 2% grade. That's ok. It's intended to perform switching duties in Emsingen only. As expected, the Koef II also does not forgive dirty rails, but performs significantly better than I expected. I might spring for a LokPilot Micro 4.0 with Powerpack if switching with this little loco is as much fun as I'm hoping for. To finish off the conversion series of BRAWA's 0458 Koef II, here are some shots of the Koef working in Emsingen. Koef II switching cars in Emsingen I'm pleased to confirm that the Koef II and the work crane fit on the turntable together. [Previous installments of the Koef II conversion: Part 1 , Part 2 , Part 3 ]

[This is part 3 of my Koef II digital conversion. Part 2 is here .] Test-program the decoder I used an ESU Lokpilot 3.0 as the decoder for the Koef. When closing the roof I noticed that the decoder just barely doesn't fit. The LokPilot Micro version would actually fit under the roof as designed. I squeezed the decoder into the cab for now. Wires be damned. To finish off the evening, here's a short video of the Koef in Talheim. [ Read the last installment of the series here ]

[This is part 2 of my Koef II digital conversion. Part 1 is here .] The roof is off! Instead of a screwdriver, I used a wooden clothes pin to push hard against one edge of the Koef roof and it just popped off. No damage to the roof or the body of the locomotive. The cab housed a shrink-wrapped assembly to make the loco work with Maerklin-style AC power, and includes two capacitors wired in series to provide some extra juice for dead spots. View into the cab with the connector leads to motor and pickups. Read on in part 3 .

I have a weakness for the diminutive Koef II locomotives. Wikipedia has some nice background on them. This specific BRAWA model of a modernized Koef II has been in its box for many years. I took it out tonight to measure the inside of the cab for dimensions of a decoder I could put in there. While I failed doing that because I couldn't get the roof off as the instructions say, I used the opportunity and took some photos. The model has no head or tail lights. Warm-white LEDs in a tiny form-factor were not yet a thing back in the 80's when I got this model as a Christmas present. The cab is filled with a comparatively bulky relais required for changing direction on Maerklin tracks. I do remember that it wasn't a great runner due to its stiff axle arrangement and short wheel base. The loco is so short that the Maerklin-typical pick-up shoe barely fits under the locomotive. Koef II arrives in Talheim with a transfer Update March 1st, 2015: I figured out how to get the roof off...