About 7 or 8 years ago I was at the Spalding Model Railway Exhibition and bought a second hand Lima Class 37 in Railfreight livery for no other reasons than I like Class 37s, I liked the livery and it was £27.50! It ran but as with most Lima models of the era it benefitted from some additional pickups that I fitted. It ran OK but has never been brilliant.
It has not seen much action recently so I thought that I would DCC chip it with a second hand DCC decoder I bought last year and see if it improved running.
I unsoldered the existing wiring to the motor.
It was then time to solder in new wiring and the decoder. I did need to reacquaint myself with the various colour coding of the wiring and its eventual location but all seemed to go well. I did also remember to install heat shrink over the joints to stop any short circuits that would probably blow the DCC chip. I tend to use the shank of the soldering iron to heat the heat shrink which gives it enough heat to shrink rather than potentially burning through it if you use the tip of the iron.
The spare wires on the decoder which can control lights were wrapped with insulation tape to stop them shorting out.
Before finalising the wiring I tested the decoder which thankfully worked!
Wiring was then tidied up.
On the track it was soon hauling a freight train and ran reasonably well - certainly better than before - Result!!! Not had for £27.50 and £20 for the DCC chip!
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