Os.Kar BB 437006

I just received the long awaiting BB 37000 from Os.Kar.

Prototypical machine

Here are a couple of photos from the real engine that runs in the Nord region:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jobiwannn/8059442536/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jobiwannn/13089264984/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jobiwannn/7152894719/

Model engine

And here's the model:

It's equipped with an ESU Sound decoder and I gave it the DCC address #3706:

And a short video: 

How to open a BB 27000 or BB 37000 from Mehano

 

Here's the video:

I finally got around to create this video on opening a BB 27000 or BB 37000 from Mehano. I followed the instructions to take the engine apart:

1. Remove the 4 buffers
2. Remove the 2 couplers
3. Remove the 2 "chasse-pierres"
4. Remove 2 small parts in the center of the engine
5. Spread the sides of the body to separate it from the chassis

One thing to add is about putting the model back together. There are two holes on each side of the body which is where the decoder holder under the chassis should go back:

Switch control

 

So now that trains are running on clean tracks, let's control the switches and move the trains across the various routes! Except ...

Controlling double slip switches with the ESU ECoS

The ECoS has a 4-way double slip switch in its library. 

It is controlled by two switch motors. The ECoS automatically assigns the next digital address to the second switch motor. I knew that and covered this in this post here.

Unfortunately it didn't work as expected. I could not figure out what was wrong and how to correctly configure and control them. I didn't find anything really helpful online, but with some information gathered online (here and here) and a lot of trial and errors, I got them to work correctly.

Here are the things to pay attention to:

• Two switch motors with consecutive digital addresses (see above)
• The motor with the lower/first digital address has to be on the left side
• Swap the power wires on one switch engine; this is the trial-and-error part, and it works eventually!

Success!

Two videos of trains crossing the double slip switches: