Dealing with Spaghetti!

Much as I enjoy spaghetti, especially when the meal is spaghetti bolognaise (which Mrs. Woody does so well!), I do sometimes get that nervous twitch when looking at it as to me most wiring is like spaghetti especially in most model trains these days. I recall my old Traing locomotives which had a live chassis directly feeding one part of the motor and just one wire leading from the isolated wheels to the other side of the motor. Easy to work out and easy to work on - just like me! Well that is what I tell Mrs. Woody!

Modern day locos are slightly more complex in the wiring department and opening up the latest models will reveal wires, circuit boards and possibly DCC chips which looks more like the internals of a computer. However if you want DCC that is what you need, Luckily you buy the loco ready wired and in many cases chipped. In the case of my Hornby Swallow Livery HST whilst not being an old model it is however not a modern model so does not have a circuit board to plug a DCC chip in. Wanting to convert it to DCC meant that I had to get involved in some wiring work. Basically I needed to install a harness for the DCC chip and wire that to the models pickups on the wheels and then to the motor. I also needed to wire in the headlights on the model in such a way that they only came on whilst the model travelled forward. 

First stage was to assemble what I needed and luckily, as ever, WMD stores had the necessary parts in stock - almost like I planned it!

There are two power cars for the train and whilst only one has a motor the other one does have headlights and therefore I need to install a chip in both cars. How will it go? Will I get spaghetti bolognaise for dinner? Will it all blow up? I will let you know in a day or so!

In the meantime I have been enjoying the slightly cooler weather to finish my block work as started yesterday. 

I just need to let it dry then put some gravel between the blocks and the main wall and level up the grass with some soil and grass seed. It is not over however as round the corner I need to reset these slabs which were lifted by the builders! It never ends - just like a piece of spaghetti seems to be when I try to wind it round my eating utensil!