Digitization of BB 16671 from Vitrains - part 1

 

The BB 16500 was everywhere around Lille at the time.

Prototypical engine

Here are a couple of pictures of the real engine pulling VO2N, RRR, or RIO:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/58977065@N06/33119363361/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jobiwannn/6593256109/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/58977065@N06/32437399683/

Model locomotive

Here the model made by Vitrains with reference 2177 with the "casquette" logo:

Opening the engine seemed straight-forward:

But it was actually very challenging; I tried my usual thing to separate the body from the chassis, but nothing moved:

I eventually found a few pointers online:

• https://www.rmweb.co.uk/forums/topic/67206-vitrains-bb-16500-question/
• https://www.forum-train.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=7364

So I need to force a little starting on one end:

Digitization

There's no room near the PCB and according to the manual, the decoder and speaker must go under the chassis:

I'm using the sound project from ESU website:

I loaded the sound project on a blank ESU decoder ref 58420:

Unfortunately, just like that, the decoder is too long!!

I decided to carve the plastic and it seemed to be okay:

I did some very quick testing and it looked okay, but more work is required ...

Digitization of BB 36001 from Jouef - part 4

 

And voila!

Digitization of BB 36001 from Jouef - part 3

 

I left off where the two micro LEDs for the cabin lighting were not working.

Cabin Lighting

As it turns out, I had two issues:

• One of the micro LED was dead
• The other was not connected correctly - the longer wire is the anode or + or red cable, whereas the shorter wire is the cathode or - or black wire

Once I figured that out, it worked very nicely on each side:

I had to tweak the decoder CVs a lit bit:

• Cabin light is now only controlled by F21 and the driving direction
• For each of AUX3 and AUX4, I changed on delay, off delay, fade in/out, and timeout

I then glued the micro LEDs in the cabins - I used Zap-A-Gap CA glue:

Cabin Painting

Since there's cabin light, we need to make the inside look more realistic. First, some pictures of the real cabin:

http://uxtobirza.free.fr/trains/voir_loco.php?Classe=BB%2036000

https://www.flickr.com/photos/teetee1986/28987578498

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BB36000_-_IMG_0899.jpg

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BB36000_-_IMG_0936.jpg

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BB36000_-_IMG_0938.jpg

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BB36000_-_IMG_0963.jpg

Let's see what we can do ...

VO2N TER Picardie

 

For quite a while, I thought that BB 15000 were pulling VO2N units from Picardie. But as it turns out, the BB 15000 are pulling V2N which are actually not modeled at the HO scale.

Prototypical VO2N TER Picardie

Some pictures of the real thing below. Three types of engine can pull those units:

• BB 25500
• BB 17000
• BB 16500

https://www.flickr.com/photos/depotdelongueau/32527899438/

https://www.cheminots.net/topic/20762-les-25500-ont-tourn%C3%A9-ce-week-end-dans-le-nord/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/144553972@N04/50586430273/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/144553972@N04/30159944458/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/144553972@N04/30159946648/

And a video of a BB 16500 and VO2N TER Picardie leaving Lille Flandres:

And a few interesting links:

https://www.trains-europe.fr/sncf/voitures/vo2n.htm

http://minitrain-vinz.over-blog.com/rame-vo2n-ter-picardie

Model VO2N TER Picardie from Vitrains

These units have been modeled by Vitrains with two references: 1018 and 3033

Vitrains 1018

Vitrains 3033

The link above actually has details about the Vitrains models and how to install lighting - here's a link.

So, here are the engine that would work with this set:

Rivarossi RT400010 - BB 25603

Lima 208250L - BB 25610

Piko 96506 - BB 25636

Piko 96502 - BB 817044

Piko 96503 - BB 817046

Jouef HJ2021 - BB 817086