I'm not sure what I bought. Was it a bargain?

 

Traders taking cards is bad. Then you can buy junk on a whim. 

£20 for this possibly On30 loco. 

Regular readers will know that an American On30 layout is (hopefully) in my future. I already have some stock, and a few building kits. 

What I don't have a tender loco, and so at first glance, this tired example was worth a punt. 

I was told it didn't work, but looking at the multi-pin connection, I guessed that all those wires not fitted to the tender plug might have something to do with this. 

Getting the top off taxed me for a while, until I decided that there must be a screw under one of the boiler mounted sandboxes. There is, but I had to break both off (superglued on) and was surprised to find they are whitemetal castings. 

Removing the wires from the PCB, I managed to connect the motor directly to the pickups - and to my satisfaction, it runs very sweetly on a 9V battery. 

So, there is potentially, a working loco. Plenty of bodywork will be required. The cab has been badly extended with Plastikard, and it needs a smoke stack. None of this should be too hard, especially if the aim is an American looking loco, rather then a hi-fidelity model. 

Whipping the top off the tender, I get a surprise. 

A sound unit! Not a DCC chip sadly, that would be worth several times the price of the loco, but still, there is potential for noise if I can wire it up properly. That is, unless someone wants to make me an offer for the tender contents...

Anyway, for the moment, it goes in the On30 box, waiting for the time I get to build my dream layout. Well, one of them...