I have two of the MDC/Roundhouse Critters. They run very well (on DC) but occasionally stall on the frog of Atlas turnouts. I decided to double head them and semi-permanently couple and wire them together. Here's what I did.
First, I slightly enlarged the hole for the mounting tabs for the hood. A little patience and a pin vise in the drill press was all it took.
Then I routed wires from one engine to the other.
Next step was to remove the lead from one LED on each engine so that only one headlight would light depending on the direction of travel.
Then I fabricated a drawbar out of some scrap styrene to connect the two engines together.
Put everything back together and they are in service with no stalling on the frogs.
A couple of things I might change. First, I want to make the drawbar a little shorter. I think the gap between the two engines is too large. The other thing I might change is to use solid rather than stranded wire. I think it will be easier to route the wires inside the body.
All in all, an easy project which I can easily roll back if I every decide to build my own turnouts.
Tom
First, I slightly enlarged the hole for the mounting tabs for the hood. A little patience and a pin vise in the drill press was all it took.
Then I routed wires from one engine to the other.
Next step was to remove the lead from one LED on each engine so that only one headlight would light depending on the direction of travel.
Then I fabricated a drawbar out of some scrap styrene to connect the two engines together.
Put everything back together and they are in service with no stalling on the frogs.
A couple of things I might change. First, I want to make the drawbar a little shorter. I think the gap between the two engines is too large. The other thing I might change is to use solid rather than stranded wire. I think it will be easier to route the wires inside the body.
All in all, an easy project which I can easily roll back if I every decide to build my own turnouts.
Tom