Cotton Brute Restoration 6

 It is done.

I was up early this morning because I worked Thursday night, so Friday I slept when I got home. I did take a bit of a nap last night, but about 1 AM I was wide awake. Perfect time, I thought, to finish the restoration of the Cotton Brute. 

As I mentioned in my last post, the decoder wiring had arrived and the truck wiring was changed but in the process I had lost a tower gear. Fortunately one of the other club members had a donor locomotive, so Thursday on my way to work I dropped by his place to get it. The donor was a U28C, not a U30CG, but the frames are similar and the trucks are identical so it had the gear I needed. The first thing I did when I started was rob a gear from the donor, drop it in place, and install the truck.

And with that done, it was time to proceed.

The channels that I had cut in the weights for the lighting were first deepened so that the decoder wiring would have plenty of room to fit under the shell. The decoder was put in place and the power and motor wiring was run. I cut another channel in the back of the motor weight so that the positive motor wire could be routed where it needed to go without any danger of fouling the driveshafts. I was able to permanently install all the weights after that because the rest of the wiring would run on top of them.

Next the lights, which had been carefully removed and stored away until it was time for them to be reinstalled, were fitted and wired. The purple and green function wires were rolled up and stuffed into a piece of heat shrink so that some other intrepid soul, someone not me, can put ditch lights in later on if desired. I did make a mistake at this step, though. Can anyone spot what is wrong with this picture?

The speaker wires were tucked out of the way so the shell could be test fitted. It went on with no problems and fit down over the weights as it should, so that meant I had the wiring channels cut deep enough to clear. I then took the shell back off and set it aside so that I could install the speakers one at a time to see which one would work best.

Off to the track it went where I programmed the long address with the side number and selected the proper 5 chime Nathan horn. I tested the sound on both speakers and decided on the 50326 because it fit in the space better. During all this testing I checked the lights and discovered that I had wired them backwards. The rear light was on all the time, but the front light only came on when the loco was put in reverse. It ran the proper direction, so everything else was fine. Back to the workbench it went to get the speaker wired in permanently and correct the headlight wiring.

The wires were then taped down with Kapton tape so that they wouldn't shift as the shell was installed. You may notice the speaker wires are not covered with shrink wrap. I had put a piece of tape over the rear light wires to keep them in place but left the speaker wires free when I was swapping out the speakers for testing, so I opted to just put another piece of Kapton over the joints to insulate them rather than grind more away from the weight to allow for the size of the heat shrink. The joints are offset and well insulated, so there shouldn't be any problems with them.

Back to the track it went to verify the lighting, and then I ran it back and forth a few more times to check the motor operation and the prime mover sound. I don't have anything like the proper radius curves to run this loco, but the back and forth testing went well. I haven't programmed in a speed table, obviously, but I'm not overly worried about that. It's a show loco, so if it runs a bit fast that's OK.

The shell has been reinstalled for the last time, the loco was tested with the shell installed to verify everything is working like it should (the speaker is still nice and loud with the shell on), and then it was put on the scales. Even with the weight removed to fit the decoder and speaker it is heavy, weighing in at 22.4 ounces. That's 1 pound 6.4 ounces, only 1.6 ounces less than it weighed when it first came into my tender care. I'm pretty sure it could still pull more than 500 hopper cars, but I doubt it will be put to that test any time soon.

 And now it has been packaged back up and is ready for delivery to President Wallis so that it can make its debut in Danville next weekend. I have taken the weekend off for Danville so that I can watch it go, I'm looking forward to seeing it run for distance and not just up and down a 3 foot stretch of track. 

I will take some pictures and make my final report on the restoration after that.