Upgrading a Mantua 0-4-0

The wired decoder test fitting. The two wires, brown and violet, needed to be modified. They are sticking up to
high for the top of the tender shell to fit properly, even after bending them.


Here's the solution. Bend the pins at 90 and solder to board.


Now the tender shell seats correctly on the chassis.


I finally have all the wiring done in the tender and tucked away. Six wires come from the tender to the engine,
two power wires from the track, two motor wires to the motor and two wires to the headlight. Trying to make
that look neat wasn't going to be easy, but I think I go it pretty good. Wires come from a central hole in the tender.
To keep them nice and neat I fabricated two brackets to contain the wires. I also added a screw (red circle) to where
the tab was to hold the tender on. It makes it easier to remove the whole shell to work on the decoder wiring.


Both brackets have been epoxied to the frame and the wires run through.


I had to drill two holes to run the wires through. I was going to use the two slots that were already in the chassis,
but it wouldn't look to good to see pipes (wires) running into the bottom of the firebox.


The two wires from the pickups and the two motor wires have had their plugs soldered on. The other two
wires are for the headlight and will get installed after the Smoke Test.



And here's the video of how a steamer smokes. I'm using a NCE Pro Cab throttle set at the 28 step setting. Power comes from
the NCE Power Pro. The throttle setting is at one. So how slow will this engine go. Here's the video to show it. Slow enough?
The next slowest setting on the throttle is Stop.

The draw bar needed to be shortened, but it still needed to go around an 18" radius curve. So I used a piece
of printed circuit board to fabricate a new shorter one. I filed off the copper on both sides. You don't want an
electrical path from the tender to the engine frame.


Here's what it looks like on an 18" radius curve. From a high angle view.


From a worm's eye view.


Oh and of course a test of the headlight. This is the last picture the photographer took before being run over.