This is an Overland Reading I8 imported in 1988. It is the only brass Reading specific steam locomotive made in S Scale. I did not paint it – or the decals would be a bit straighter. I bought it as shown in a small collection of superdetailed models including my PRR K4 3858 from the now late Jack Bounds. At the time I had no interest in the Reading but it came along with the deal. This is 1 of the first photos taken in 2009. It did not have DCC yet.

My work to this loco was over time, first adding DCC (not sound) and a bigger boiler weight because the original boiler weight was pitiful and useless. It was detailed like you might somehow take the boiler front off to look at it but the loco would not pull anything. The original headlight was an incandescent bulb and MV lens that yellowed with age making it very dim. I like bright headlights.

September 2020 Upgrade

In September 2020 it was time for another upgrade to a WOW4 decoder with Keep Alive and LED for the headlight. I also wanted to add a tender backup light and glass windows for the cab. The challenge was fitting 5 things I wanted in a rather small boiler; the WOW4 decoder, Keep Alive, DLG8 (large) speaker and larger boiler weight. Even in S Scale sometimes it is a struggle to fit it all in. My speakers are always right under the stack pointing up if possible. In this case with some minor milling of the weight I used a small DS1240-BOX cell phone speaker that still does a really great job for its size. The headlight is a surface mount LED.

I almost never have wires running between a loco and a tender. I really hate that. It is a big job to add a tender backup light by making the tender have all wheel pick up but I do it all the time. I have a regular decoder in the tender just to run the backup light. I put a resistor across the orange and gray wires to simulate motor load. It is programmed to the loco number – good to go. It is a small tender and luckily I used a TCS M1-KA N Scale decoder because there really was not much room left!

I have no interest in trying to “fake it” with chuff programming timing in spite of many telling me how easy it is. When Soundtraxx eliminated the sound cam wire on the Tsunami2 I eliminated Soundtraxx. This is the pickup wiper I have made for all my brass steam locos that have sound cams. All screws are nylon. The wiper is insulated from the frame. 2 screws are attachment and 1 is fine adjustment. I have many 100s of hours running my steam locos with my sound cam wipers. They have never broken or failed.

Completed 9-18-20

Updated 9-19-20

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