9 th March 2003

I purchased the batteries yesterday (Friday) and spent the rest of the day finishing the wiring. This morning (Saturday) I set up the loco on blocks so that I could test that everything was wired up correctly. All was ok except that I had forward and reverse the wrong way round! This was easily rectified by changing over the red and black motor wires on the 4QD controller.
When I was satisfied all was well, I lifted (with help!) the loco onto the track and took a careful run round the track. WOW! The Trojan is a very powerful design. The gradients on my line are hardly noticeable with no running away on the down grade! Operation is incredibly smooth and she pulled three adults (the limit of my rolling stock) with no trouble, just a little wheel slip when pulling away on an incline.

After a few trips around the line, I fitted the cranks and coupling rods. Another slow trip round went smoothly with no problems.

All that is needed now is a name plate and number plates.