Original page created on 22/09/2017; updated on 18/05/2021.
Equipment and reassembly of the coach
Passage of lighting wires
Symmetrical ø 1.6 mm holes are made at each end using an epoxy template (not essential, but allows to act a little faster while keeping a clean appearance).
A wire guide consisting of a “bridge” made of 0.5 m thick Evergreen placed on two 1 × 2 mm “pillars” is glued close to the opening of the elongated drawbar. It can be painted in dark grey for more discretion.
Here is a bogie set up with its wires passing under the wire guide, then through the holes just been drilled.
The wire farthest from the toilet passes between chassis and interior fittings, held by a little Patafix.
In the picture, plates made of 0.5 mm thick Altuglas can be seen, glued on the drawbar brackets, since the latter tends to escape. These plates don’t hamper the setting of the fittings.
Reassembling the fittings and glazing
Reassembling the fittings is no problem. It is enough to snap it (attention to the keying), passing carefully the wires in the notches provided.
For the glazing, a little thickened by the decor, it is a little more delicate: I use a “XXL credit card” custom cut, 0.5 mm thick polystyrene, first between body and glazing, then, when the obstacle is passed, between glazing and fittings. This prevents decorative paper from being damaged at this time. It is necessary to act very gradually and alternately on one side and the other.
Now is the time to put up the access and intercirculation doors. The glazing of the latter holds the fitting ends.
Installing the lighting strip
No particular problem here either. After soldering the wires and testing of operation, the strip is glued in place on its supports with Kristal Klear, so that it can be disassembled if necessary.
Note: invisible here, I stuck on the underside of the strip a piece of unused self-adhesive photo paper to hide the PCB. I had thought of using Evergreen tubes cut in half to imitate the actual coach lights, but, on the one hand, I did not manage to cleanly cut these tubes, and, on the other hand, the effect obtained was not satisfactory: it would have required a continuous illumination, and not punctual as with the LEDs.
Note: I have since replaced the home-made strips with more professional ones, although not yet perfect. They have a central reed switch control – no more need to worry about which end it is located to – and a 60 V converter that allows a much longer hold time in the event of a power break, as I described in the article A voltage multiplier for coach lighting. Here are some:
Reassembling the roof
Very easy. You just have to be careful about the direction: a tiny pawn at one end of the body must engage in a small notch of the roof. If the latter is mounted back to front, it will lightly gape.
A gape may also be caused by the fact that the wire soldering of the ruler are too thick. Just file what exceeds to solve this problem.
Normally, the roof is kept clamped on the body by two small lugs which are embedded in the mortises of the gangway bellows.
Mounting the handles
For the handles, I used ø 0.4 mm (used!) guitar string bended with a template. ø 0.5 mm holes are drilled with a template retrieved from the Coral VTU LS Models coaches. This template must be machined to let the handle stump moulded with the body pass through. Indeed, I leave these in place: removing them could damage the body and would require painting resumptions.
I make the drilling with a mini drill. I break much less drill bits this way rather than freehand. I use a laboratory power supply, the voltage set for an average speed (about 6 V) and the current limitation so that I can lock the chuck with the index finger without difficulty (about 0.5 A).
I engage the drill bit into the template with the drill blocked, then I gradually release the chuck. My hand is placed on the body (protected by a paper towel), which allows to maintain it and to avoid any quiver.
Note that this operation has to be done after the coach has been reassembled, since the template rests on the door and on the roof edge.
And finally, we can install salvage heating cables.
Result
