KiHa 40

Model information page: KiHa 40 2000 (キハ40 2000番代)

• Design new bogie central pieces allowing power collection per every wheel
• Find suitable springed power collectors for bogies
• Design new DCC/animation/motor ready floor piece
• Add DCC decoder
• Add lightning
• Add sounds
• Make doors open and close as a DCC function
• Weather the car

• Information research. Found info will appear in notes section.

• Convert from HO to HOj gauge

• KiHa 40 bogies suck. Either weelsets axles should be shorter or bogies holding points should be deeper. Now wheelsets are compressed so much that wheels are turning hard by hand and not turning on track at all. Perhaps I'll replace bogies with something else or fix existing by adding washers.

• Converted boggies to HOj.
• I have added a piece of visit card paper between bogie side and central part and that helped to make wheels spin free. I should make or 3D print the central part of plastic. Anyway the existing DC power collecting scheme is quite poorly designed and I am going to add the power collector for every wheel making power collection stable between separate blocking sectors of layout.