Has anyone installed an Aristocraft Revolution in a Bachmann consolidation or know where I could find some info. Thanks
If you do not get your answer here then you could also make a post, or read the Aristo-Craft Forum, battery/rc Forum section. You may find someone that has done what you are asking about.
I don't recall a Bachmann 2-8-0 being raised as a question but there are lots of people over there that have done Revolution installations.
Alan, Oliver & North Fork Railroad
https://www.buckfast.org.uk/
If you don't know where you are going, any road will take you there. Lewis Carroll English author & recreational mathematician (1832 - 1898)
Yes. Fairly simple to do. You've got 6 wires running between the loco and tender. 2 are for the chuff contact on the rear axle, four (as stock) are for track power forward to the loco and then power for the rear light on the tender going back.
There's ample room for the Revolution, batteries, speaker, and sound system in the tender, so that's where I'd start. You'll want to do a bit of re-wiring on the 4-pin connector. You'll want two wires going forward for power to the motor, then the other two wires going forward carrying full battery power up to the PC board on the locomotive itself. Gut the track pick-ups on the tender (assuming you're using battery power). Otherwise, leave them and leave the two wires carrying track power to the locomotive in place.
On the locomotive, take the boiler off to get to the motor. On the motor you'll find a little "filter" PC board. Get rid of this. It's not needed. Wire the motor directly to the 4-pin connector going back to the tender. That'll isolate it from the track pick-ups so it will get its power only from the Revolution in the tender. If you're running battery power, nuke all the track power pick-ups. Then take the battery voltage feed from the tender and wire it to the track-power input on the main PC board. That will power all the lights and smoke unit (if you have the switch thrown in the smokebox) off the batteries. Note: under this wiring, the headlight will be on all the time as opposed to being directional. If you want it to be directional, you must run an additional 2 wires forward to the locomotive specifically for the headlight. Personally, I use the headlight and firebox light as "power indicators" so I know the locomotive has power. (And on a steam loco, if there's no fire in the firebox, it ain't goin' no place anyway.)
Later,
K
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