Zimo decoder and 73 lightboards

This week the hoped for exchange decoder did not arrive as I misunderstood what Orient had said. Yes they would exchange it but were waiting for the return of the suspect decoder in order to test it. Anyway they emailed saying the decoder was faulty and they would exchange it, but unfortunately the same model decoder was out of stock. They offered a number of alternatives, but none had the same small foorptint as the MX645R. I would have to wait about three weeks for the next shipment from Europe to arrive and be dispatched to me.

In the meantime I had another look at the damaged lightboard mentioned in the last post. I was able to connect the two LEDs together via a very small length of decoder wire and the marker lights worked in unison.

So now I am contemplating whether to replace all the red and black wires on the two lightboards with appropriate colour decoder single core wires as the original wires are VERY flimsy and the multicore is prone to breaking. I have to weigh up the slightly thinker single core wires' spatial impact to a very tight area against improved durability in the long term.

I then have to look at reattaching the light board shield and rejigging the one light board which I had to saw out of it's chassis housing with a suitable piece of styrene.

On a sadder note, I was voted out of the Club's VP position at the AGM by another contender. The membership has spoken. I had enjoyed the last two years in the position, so maybe I will see what happens in the next twelve months as to whether I go for another Committee position at the next AGM, or just enjoy the Club and work on the HO layout. Time will tell.