Rewiring Zeuke loco for standard 3-rail DC operation

Last Sunday, I acquired a Zeuke E44 locomotive at the Kallistoys auction. With catalogue no. 108/503 it was introduced in 1953, carrying the number E44 038 on the sides. In 1954 it underwent some changes and although the catalogue number stayed the same, the loco now had the number E44 037 on the sides. The model was made until 1960.
As Zeuke used an AC system where all three rails were isolated and forward was effected by powering the centre rail and one of the outer rails and reverse by powering the centre rail and the other outer rail, it cannot be used on standard 3-rail track, I connected all the outer-rail pickups together and linked them to one side of two diodes. I then soldered the terminals on the other side of the diodes to the two connection points of the motor coils. With this simple modification, the locomotive can now change direction on my layout by simply reversing the polarity on the DC power supply. Since I reused the original wiring, the locomotive can also be easily restored to its original state, should one ever wish to do so.