The NSB Di3 is a very popular and important locomotive in Norway and NMJ makes a very detailed model. This page will show the unpacking and the install of an ESU Loksound v4 decoder. Also some changes were made to the light setup.

After opening the box you see the model in a plastic tray that keeps it very stable in transport. A leaflet with information and a bag of extra parts can be found as well.

The model after unpacking. Very detailed. The color scheme is the red 'ny design'. The prototype 616 got this in October 1986 and had this color scheme until it was retired from service in 1997. The 616 survived as a museum locomotive and was repainted in the brown 'gammel design' as part of the museum restauration. This puts this model in my era from mid-1980's to the late 1990's.

After removing the shell, the inside of the model can be seen. The MTC21 connector is on top of the printed circuit board in the center of the locomotive. A speaker is already installed by NMJ.

NMJ delivers the model with a closed snow plough on one end, I replaced it with the open version so a coupler can be installed. The parts bag has all the parts needed.

The decoder to the right will be installed.

This serie of NMJ Di3 models has two small surface mounted LEDs for the front lights. They are marked as LED2 and LED3. There is an issue with this setup though.

Both LEDs are on when both the front and rear lights are on. I got to this when I made the output direction independent. This is likely done for model for other countries where red rear lights can be seen. In the Norwegian setup this is not needed. The easiest way to address this is to unsolder the LED3 wires from the main PCB (marked as R and RF).

In this photo the wires have been removed from the R and RF spots and to make sure there are no further issues I put some white shrink wrap around the wire ends.

The decoder was programmed with the function setup as described in the ProtoThrottle article. It is now ready for service.