Another T-Trak Update

One of my main N interests is Chicago Metra. I recently got one of the new Kato F40s in the newest Metra paint:

Installing a decoder was a comedy of errors. For starters, the Kato writeup recommends the TCS K0D8-C decoder, but this is actually meant for Kato F40s without the red tail light feature for running in reverse with Metra push-pull. The correct decoder per the TCS website is the K5D7. To make things worse, I had already installed a K5D7 in another Kato Metra F40, but I simply checked the Kato writeup and ordered the wrong decoder.

I decided what the heck, as long as I'd ordered the K0D8-C, I'd install it. But then I bungled the Kapton tape wrap on the brass pickup bars and got the tape bunched up a little too much on one of them. This kept the decoder from making proper contact, and the loco wouldn't run. I wasn't relishing the job of unsoldering the motor tabs and debugging what I'd done wrong, and I held off on fixing it, figuring that what the heck, when my budget next allowed, I'd order a Kato Amtrak F40, which I'd been intending to get anyway, with a TCS K5D7 and swap them out into the correct locos.

I finally did this today, and all's well that ends well. And at least in downtown Chicago, you pretty much never see a Metra F40 by itself, so here are my two together:

The photo backdrop is the staging cassette I've been using with my T-Trak layout, moved to a bookshelf where I can easily take photos with my camera on a tripod:

This has led me to some new ideas that I'll begin to cover later in the week.