Tender Drive Flying Scotsman Decoder Installation

Step 1. The motor in this model is located in the tender. Separate it from the main loco, and remove the body. There are 2 small fixing screws on the underside of the tender towards the front. Once these screws have carefully been removed the body should easily come away from the chassis.

Step 2. Locate the wires going from the pickups to the motor/capacitor. They are likely to be twisted into a neat bundle. Carefully open out the bundle, taking extra care not to break the thin and short wires.

Step 3. Remove the decoder from the protective packaging, taking care not to handle the PCB directly as this will cause irreparable damage due to static electricity. It is important to protect the decoder by wrapping the PCB with insulating tape. To prepare the decoder, remove the plug and separate the red, black, orange and grey wires. The rest can but cut short and insulated. Strip the red, black, orange and grey wires and lightly "tin" them with solder. Tinning the wires will make the installation easier. Care must be taken when soldering not to breathe in the fumes. Caution must also be taken as the soldering iron does get extremely hot and will burn if touched.

Step 4. Join wires 1 & 2 to the decoders black wire. Join wires 3 & 4 to the decoders red wire. Insulate these joins using insulation tape to avoid short circuits. The orange and grey wires can then be joined to the capacitor legs.

View of the tender with chip installed

Step 5. Once the decoder is connected, connect the tender to the main locomotive and place the locomotive on the programming track and test to make sure that the installation has been successful. Remember that the decoder has a default number of “3” and it is recommended that you code the locomotive to the number you require and test again.

Step 6. Once you are satisfied that the decoder is functioning correctly locate it in a suitable aperture ensuring that it is away from moving parts. Once installed, carefully position all wires so that they do not touch any moving parts. Use insulating tape if required.

Step 7. Replace the tender body, and secure it using the fixing screws. Test once more to ensure that the installation was totally successful.