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….............--- Bachmann DDA40X and Tunnel Portal - Pt. 1 ---

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Scenery work paused for a couple hours as I worked on a Bachmann DCC DDA40X that I'd gotten off of eBay. I had one that I gotten for the DDA35 build and another to keep as a DDA40X. Bought were bought pre-COVID at good prices but now it is hard to find one under $200 (the latter DCC ones). I have a DD35 shell (non-cab DD35) and a non motorized chassis for it I can use. I'd kind of like to make it powered like the DDA35 but needed another DDA40X chassis to build it and wasn't going to spend over $200 on one. I've had a search on for some time for one at a lower cost without any luck until recently when one came up for bidding that might go for less.

It was listed as 'For parts or not working'. They said it ran a touch and then spun the wheels. I decided to chance it and got it with a $75 bid at the last second of the auction. Got it in and tried running it on DCC as #3 and as it's road number. No luck. Tried reading the decoder info and again no luck. Not too worried if the decoder is fried as I have the one from the DDA35 build and plan on putting a sound decoder in the loco one way or the other (if it stays a DDA40X or becomes a DD35). Decided to try in on DC and the lights came on and it tried to run. Found out that yes it is spinning the wheels and not moving. Reason being no power to one truck and the other spun its wheels trying to push the the truck where the wheels weren't turning.

Pulled the shell and found out that a motor wire to one of the two motors had come loose from the decoder so that motor wasn't turning. Tried again and still no luck. Separated the frame halves and found one driveshaft not installed properly so the reason one truck still wasn't working.

I had to pull the decoder to separated the frame so decided to not even mess with it anymore to see if it was working as I didn't need it. Put a solder tab on each frame half and wired the motor leads for both motors to the tabs picking up current through the frame halves. Put the loco on the test track and it ran perfectly on DC. The bottom part of the image above shows the DC connections.

The LokSound 5 Nano will go in the loco and I'm going to try the 9X25 mm speaker and see how it sounds compared to the 9X16 mm ones I've been using as there is room in the center top of the frame for it and an enclosure. I'll lengthen a 9X16 enclosure with Fusion 360 and print it for the speaker.

Leaving the DDA40X for another day I returned to the scenery on UP's Canyon Division. I needed a tunnel portal at the end of the upper level shown above and hoped to make it going into a ridge that would be somewhat similar to a large ridge just west of town, Comb Ridge. Comb Ridge doesn't have a train tunnel through it but I'd like to have that look. It is caused by a 90 mile long fault where the strata broke in half and dropped on one side of the fault and rose on the other side.

I was going to try a represent that at first but I also wanted to get the geology for the rock strata for the coal mine close to it (on the layout) kind of right. In southeast Utah the red rock scenery I'm trying to depict is in rock strata that are down under the strata that coal is found in. If I modeled a fault then that wouldn't help depict the relation of the two different strata I'm trying to show.

I decided that if I modeled strata that had been folded I could get closer even though this isn't technically correct for this area. Hopefully the images that follow will explain what I'm trying to do better than if I went on here.

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to be continued......

A link to this whole build ( HERE ).

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