The 'White Lady'. In German folklore the White Lady is, of course the figure of death. So one wonders why the prototype of this new class of locos was called the White Lady. Incidentally the BR112 and BR143 successors to this loco are apparently still called 'Ladies' by their railcrews.
This model is the very last model to run on the layout, it's introduction in 1982 marks the very end of the timescale as far as my collection of stock goes.
There isn't a huge amount of detailing to do to this model. It's fully up to Märklin's standards of the time, which means it's nicely modelled and crisply painted. So a set of etched numberplates were sourced from VS Modellbau and Roco pantographs fitted. I now wish I'd got a set of etched builders plates as well; but it's not significant. Operationally a set of Kadee #17s were fitted into the locked coupler boxes. And that was it for the outside. Most of the work was done inside:
Now I'm sure you know what I mean when I say most of the work was internal. From left to right we have; sb modellbau Faulhaber coreless motor conversion, Zimo MX64 DCC decoder with power pack, home made circuit board for the decoder to plug into which incorporates the lighting control diodes for analogue operation.
The sb modellbau conversion was installed exactly as detailed in the instructions. Copies of which are in the Data and Downloads section of the 'site together with my translation. The odd bit of material needs to be removed from the bogie casting, this was done with a burr in my Dremel. The adhesive used was Devcon '2-ton' as recommended by sb modellbau.
The decoder and power pack have been assembled in exactly the same way as the one here in our 'Tips and Tricks' section of the 'site. The only difference is that this power pack uses two 1000uF capacitors; with an efficient, low current, motor the performance is exemplary. Like the power pack, the board it all plugs into also uses the methods described on this site, here. In fact this loco ended up being the test-bed for these ideas; I use it now as a reference.
The result is a loco that runs as well as it looks. The Faulhaber motor is quiet, smooth and powerful. The DCC decoder installation gets the best out of the motor and the power pack helps overcome any pickup difficulties imposed by the use of traction tyres. The only slight bug-bear is the coarse wheel profile; I may fit a set of RP25-turned Roco BR143 wheels in the fullness of time.
In it's role as mobile test bed this loco is now fitted with a Zimo MX63, still with the same connections and power pack. To be honest, although the MX64 is very good the MX63 is a revelation - particularly with coreless motors.