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 ...