Large Scale Central

Building Bachmann K-27 with RailPro / Battery

Picked up a Bachmann K-27 recently and started planning to set it up with Rail Pro and lithium battery power. Thanks to the crew here at LSC for the help locating a spare dummy wiring card!

What’s the old saying measure twice cut once, well I measured a lot and thought about it. The good news is the tender on the K-27 is spacious so there’s lots of room to get creative. When I bought the engine used it didn’t have a speaker installed, and I wanted to put in a Visaton 3 inch, but the board sits just a little too low… while I’m at it let’s put a speaker baffle in there. Oh, and the bigger 4-hour lithium battery… this is getting be like everything and the kitchen :slight_smile:

Back to the measuring, this could work if the board was 20mm higher and 15mm forward, and luckily there was room to spare in this tender.

First things first clean the deck and trim some of the plastic molding.

To fit that larger battery I also needed to trim the weights a little. Calculating the weight of the bigger battery I also removed a few of the weights for both sides.

More of that measuring and fitting things up.

Simple speaker baffle (5 bucks off ebay) trimmed and tacked into place.

To move the board where I need it to be I had a buddy print me a few spacers to fit onto the existing posts.

Next steps to mount the circuit board, attach the charging port and power switch inside the little box on the back of the tender, and start wiring up the RailPro module… The battery should be on the way in the mail, fingers crossed. Now back to measuring :wink:
More to come…

This should be a no-brainer in the K-27, you can also give Don Sweet a call, he most likely has pics of the install in a K-27. Rail Pro a good choice, I have two engines waiting for Rail Pro Steam installs, but waiting for Rail Pro to offer a good sounding K series sound, which as of today they do not offer, I’m sure it just a matter of time. I feel with C and K series engines so popular in Fn3 and the sounds are avaibile in Durango, they probably should give this some attention soon.

trainman

Although my K is done with AirWire, Phoenix sound, battery and an additional bridge rectifier, you may get some ideas for your upgrade.

https://www.largescalecentral.com/forums/topic/22079/major-k27-overhaul

Looking good Jay. I probably just would have ditched the weights like I did in both of my C-19’s. I don’t notice any tracking issues without them; but your way works too!