mavrick00 wrote:With the GP's they have enough room to keep the light board. With the RS3's there's not enough room because of the lower height of the shell. That is why Jeff had to file down the LED. I've done one of these as well and ended up using a surface mounted LED off of one of the Kato light boards for the SD40-2 mid productions.
Yep, a surface mount LED would be a good idea, and save some space.
Of the installs I've done (not a huge number, yet) I think the RS3 was the hardest. The hood is narrow, and low. I removed the light board (kept the ears as power pickups), but direct wired the filed down LED and the (not filed down) resistor, I think I taped them to the decoder, which sits more or less were the light board was. But I'm not taking the shell off to look!. I think it was easier than the LifeLike SW-8, though on that one I did not save the light. A surface mount LED might be the answer there, too. I'm might revisit that someday, with all the other someday projects!
Jeff But it's a dry heat!
Thanks for the help everyone. It looks like I will be sending the frame out to have it machined. Jeff the link on your post was most helpful! However, when you are talking about the led and resistor is that for the rear light? I was under the impression that this type of decoder installation was not possible with out losing the rear light. Any clarification would be very helpful.
Sean
mavrick00 wrote:The reason I suggested milling is aztec mills the center as well for the wires to lay down into a trough. It's not just milled down for the decoder to fit. Now the way I wired these engines up is I take everything off the rear light board except for the LED run the blue wire to the front resistor then from the output side of the resistor bring a wire back to the rear LED. This gets rid of the rear resistor that pushes againist the decoder and causes it to push up and make the shell not fit on right.
That's a good point, I took a bit here and there, and got the wires to run. The shell is on snugly! I took the whole rear light board out, filed down the LED, and hardwired it and the resistor tot he decoder. In the RS3 the hood is a bit lower than the GP-7, so there is no room for the lightboard at all with the decoder in there.
I did an Atlas classic RS-3 a few months ago. There is no room in there. I used this page: http://www.raybob.boche.net/ as a guide. (Go to DCC pages, then look for the RS-1).
It looks a lot like the GP7 on the inside. You do have to modify the frame, but it is an easy one to do, milling is far too strong a word for it, in this case. I used a DZ-123, it just fits. The tricky part is getting the LED to fit. You have to file it down, and solder the resistor back to it. The other part that was tricky was just getting the wires to fit. The GP should be a bit easier there, since the hoods are taller. It isn't an install for the faint-hearted, but it isn't impossible, either.
SEan, I won't be any help but rather would like to see the answer here. I have an Atlas GP30 that I purchased in 1994 that I would like to convert to DCC. I also have an RS4/5 that is packaged classic and would like to have it on the layout also.
I looked at the Digitrax site but it looks like I would have to get the Z scale decoder and grind the frames. This would have to be hard wired not plug and run.
John
I think the Atlas is classic, as it has no place for a drop in board. It was probably Classic before they called it Classic. Have you found instructions for doing the install on it?
The Pacific is a snap. I used a Digitrax DZ123, you could use any of the similar small wired decoders. All of the wires you need are already in the tender, just separate the red from orange, and the grey from black, and hook up the decoder to the matching colors. The only flaw, if you want to call it that, is that the headlight picks up diectly from the loco wheels, and is thus on all the time, and uncontrollable. The alternative is to take apart the loco, unhook the headlight, and run wires from the decoder. Mine will just stay on!
Before I post my questions let me introduce myself. My name is Sean and I have been model railroading on and off since I was 13 years old, mostly off as of late. I model the CNW in the transition era although I use a lot of modelers liscense, but I have fun. I am currently working on my 4th n scale layout but my 2nd with dcc, I use a digitrax zepher system. Which now leads me to my questions. I have some locomotives I want to convert to dcc, the 2 in the pictures are a model power 4-6-2 pacific and an atlas gp7 with "torpedo tubes." I was looking at avalible decoders specifically the NCE N12A2 for the gp7. However the nce web site states it is for altas "Classic" locomotives. I looked on the locos box but it does not say "Classic" on it, is this a 'Classic" loco or not? Does anyone have any experience with this decoder or locomotive? Second, would there be a prefered or best decoder for the model power pacific?
Thanks in advance for any help