I recently completed another Blunami/battery‑power conversion, this time on an LGB Forney #25251 locomotive I originally purchased about twenty years ago from Eastside Trains in Kirkland. The engine never performed well and eventually stopped running altogether. My friend—and local G‑scale expert—Dave Goodson, who has since passed away, disassembled it and worked his usual magic. It ran for about a year after his repairs, but eventually failed again. As Dave’s health declined, he wasn’t able to take another look at it.
After dropping the motor block, I confirmed the motor itself was fine, so I decided to convert the locomotive from track power to battery power. Disassembly was slow and careful; this model isn’t straightforward to open without risking damage. I traced every wire and labeled each one to ensure I could reassemble it correctly. Once everything was documented, I removed the original circuit board along with several unnecessary wires.
I installed new wiring and mounted the Blunami decoder inside the boiler. I connected the headlight, rear light, cab light, speaker (mounted in the bunker), motor, and battery—originally intended to sit in the bunker as well. No matter how I arranged things, I couldn’t get the cab/bunker assembly to fit back together with the battery inside. In the end, I relocated the battery to a trailing car, which solved the space issue cleanly.
The charging port and the On/Off/Charging toggle switch are now installed at the rear of the bunker, and the locomotive runs beautifully. With the battery moved out of the bunker, I also plan to replace the small box speaker with a larger one to take advantage of the extra space.
