Bachmann OO Caledonian Class 812

Kit: MS580Next18

Pretty little thing! Bachmann's lovely Caley Class 812, here in lined blue.

2 screws to remove the loco body, reveals a Next18 DCC decoder socket, and on-board SugarCube speaker under the PCB, as well as a 2-LED firebox light. The loco has pickups on all wheels, including tender and is fitted with a smooth coreless motor.

Our MS580Next18 sound decoder simply replaces the blanking plate and all is done!

Just to push the boat out a little further with this model though, we decide to add a DCC Concepts loco lamp on the boiler door. The metal weight in the boiler is held with a single screw, but you must also file down some plastic blocks in order to slide the weight out backwards.

Grind a shallow channel along the top of the weight, so the lamp wires can be fed through.

Test the lamp on a DC power supply.

With the lamp in position, we need to figure out how to connect it to the decoder. Thankfully, Bachmann have provided a Common Positive solder pad and a pad for F0Rev on the back of the vertical part of the model's PCB. Oddly there is no pad for F0Fwd, but we can reconfigure CVs to have F0Rev non-directional. L+ and LR are how these are marked (LV = F0Rev for Light Reverse).

We add in our resistor between the lamp's positive side and the positive pad, and connect the lamp's negative side to the LV pad (we've gone via our own wires as it can be tricky dealing directly with the enamel wire of the DCC Concepts lamps.

Sending the lamp wires over the back and top of the decoder (we'll hold them in position with a strip of Kapton tape (not shown) so they don't snag as the body goes back on).

Final result - a thing of beauty! Despite not adding an extra stay-alive, the model runs flawlessly, helped by the all-round pickups.

Please note that these guides are provided as useful resources for you, as-is. YouChoos cannot be held responsible for errors in the information, or for any damage caused to your models or equipment if you choose to follow any of the steps detailed here.