GWR 3700 City Class "City of Truro" 3440, Bachmann DCC Sound, Detailing

The (in)famous City of Truro was one of the earliest locomotives I remember being interested as a child, and the first model I purchased as an adult getting back into the model railroading hobby.

Bachmann captured the essence of the iconic locomotive brilliantly, and the livery is one of my very favorites. The wonderful mechanical theatrics of the outside frame coupling rods and cams is mesmerizing, I could watch this locomotive run for hours.

The DCC sound project came from YouChoos, and John made me a custom soundscape using whistles from "City of Truro" herself running years ago in preservation.

The decoder was put together to accept lights and firebox glow, but the internals of this model are fragile and clearances are tight enough that I would need to modify the chassis or boiler with serious tooling to fit things nicely, and I worry about damaging the superstructure or mechanism in the extensive process, so I am leaving these light functions untapped for the time being. The Modelu printed lamps give a beautiful impression, and I am satisfied with them for now.


The only additional detailing I did on the locomotive were to replace one lamp iron which was broken/missing from shipping, drop on the Modelu lamps, add the detailing included with the model, and modify the front bogey frames by removing the protruding NEM coupler pocket. I'll never be running this one pulling backwards, and the pocket interfered with the screw link coupler.