At long last the new, much improved, Mk2 Baguley Drewry has passed my desk. This latest version has an all new metal chassis and runs superbly. The body is exactly the same injected moulded shell as before. The only problem with the new chassis is the motor is angled down from the front and takes up some of the valuable space inside the body shell. This has meant a rethink on which batteries to use. I have chosen 4 x 1500 mah Li-Ion cells in a brick format. These leave plenty of room now for all the bits. First off is to remove the body shell from the chassis. This is held on by the same two inconveniently located screws by the rear drivers shown here on the older version. Then I removed all of the wiper contacts from the underside. Makes life so much easier to access the body screws.
As the owner wanted me to fit a MyLocosound diesel sound I had to cut off the extended motor shaft in order to fit the speaker up against the grille. Here it is normal length.
Here it has been shortened by using a cut off disc in a Dremel tool. Positive was noted so that I could remember where to connect the Orange (+) and Grey (-) motor wires before I sealed the motor off.
Then I made a small styrene case 56 mm x 56 mm and 36 mm high that will fit over the motor and glued it in place with silicone adhesive. I chose that size as it makes the top level with the battery pack. See below.
Before I mounted the battery pack I had to fabricate a control panel. It was easy with the old plastic chassis. I just mounted them under the foot steps at the front end. The charge jack has a negative potential and must be insulated from the metal chassis. The next pick shows where I put the styrene plate under the front part of the chassis. It is just big enough to fit in easily and hold the three items. I glued some 20 mm styrene lifters to either side to hold the plate in position.
The three components were mounted thus:
I fed the wires through up to the chassis top before securing the plate in place with two small self tapping screws salvaged from an earlier Bachmann installation.
Then I mounted the battery in place with very thin double stick tape and a dab of silicone adhesive. As you can see the tops are level and provide an ideal mounting pad for the ESC components and the sound system.
The sound system pcb must be precisely placed at the front so that it fits inside the two body “wings” and allows enough forward and aft movement to get the body on and off.
I used a 50 mm square 8 ohm 1 watt speaker. I painted the mylar cone matt black before gluing the speaker in place with the trusty silicone. Be careful not get any excess glue leaking through. I fitted 5 mm Warm white LED’s for and aft with a 1k ohm 1/2 watt resistors in series with each LED.
At present I have to remove the body to set up the sound to the liking of the owner. Bit of a pain. However, if I could figure out how to remove the plate on the motor hood I could have cut a hole in the body to access the sound controls. Then the body plate would cover the access hole. I know all you have to do is pop out the four pins from the inside, but I could not get them to budge. I am very impressed with this latest version and the extra weight has really improved the haulage capabilities. Good one Accucraft.