Large Scale Central

B&M GP38-2 for sale

For Sale/Trade/Wanted
#1

sold Used USA Trains GP38-2 in B&M #204.
Please read description engine has been modified:
This locomotive is set up for battery power from a trail car. The motors and lighting are separated…This way the battery car can provide constant lighting. Factory circuitry is intact to drive the lighting circuits. Track power can be restored, but it may require some work (by new owner). There are no sliders on the trucks.

The shell is in wonderful condition, I even have a few more details still in their bags. The motor blocks are also practically new. I swapped out the motor blocks with ball bearing wheels and used this as a dummy. I will reinstall the motor blocks upon selling.

Looking to get around $300.

Please PM me with your email address for more picutures and details.

Shipping is free in USA.

BTW…
I also have B&M 205 available if anyone wants to make it a set. However, 205 has Airwire and battery onboard and would be a little more pricey.

#2

Hi Jeff - Great looking GP-38. I copied your Facebook photos to my server to post them here for you. Hope that was OK.

I don’t do 1:29 any longer, but I’m interested in how you did your trail car with constant lighting. I can only see a single 2 conductor connector in your pictures.

I’ve done loco trail cars for years, but always just sent the loco power as if it was getting it from the rails, thus no lights when not moving. Never though of doing it your way. How many wires do you extend back to the trail car for lights? Might be nice to see a sketch of how you did it. I can think of a number of ways depending on how many wires you use.

EDIT to add: I missed that 4 conductor socket in the pilot. So you are extending 6 wires. Makes sense now.

#3

Hi Jon,

Thanks so much for posting my pictures! The wiring concept is quite simple. I have an extended JST RYC connector (with extendable wire lead) for power connection for the motors to battery car.

The 4 connector socket is actually just 2 JST RYC connectors glued together. They connect to the factory board in opposite polarities.

My battery car was actually B&M 205 with airwire…I ran them as a set and actually pulled the motor blocks from 204 to save battery run time

In mainline freight, a second locomotive wouldn’t have any headlamps or markers lit unless it was a helper at the end of the train. The power for the lights was actually driven by the smoke unit function and was therefore non-directional. I usually set it up with the polarity to run just the front headlamps. In switching I felt this was rather prototypical since even when moving backwards I could keep the headlights on.