I have an old Rivarossi Y6b that runs and would like to convert it to DCC. As it runs in DC the motor is very loud. Will converting this old loco eliminate the noise? Plus, what ould be the best decoder for such and old engine? I know it has power pickups in the tender and off the drivers.
Thanks,
Jim
I converted a Rivarossi Cab Forward to DCC. It has the larger round motor. This was my first DCC conversion and I used the Tsunami by SoundTraxx. They make one specifically for the SP Cab Forward. I put everything in the tender and it works quite well. I also added pickups to the tender wheels.
stocksj Will converting this old loco eliminate the noise?
Jim:
A decoder won't correct the noise. If a motor is noisy with DC then it will also be with a DCC decoder. I would do what I could to fix the noise before adding a decoder.
Joe
It's me again. I also have an article on installing a decoder in the Y6b. Just in case you didn't get a previous message I sent, send an e-mail at ppfennig@handb.com and I'll send you what I have.
I have been installing a decoder into a Rivarossi Y6B 2-8-8-2. I got the Soundtraxx decoder for articulated locos (i.e. for the "big boy", don't recall the model # offhand) and installed it into the Y6B. Most of the install went okay but I am stuck on the "motor isolation" step in order to complete it. When I started I didn't think I would need to isolated it. But when I put it all together and went to power it up, it kept telling me that a short was detected. So I finally traced it down to the way the motor attaches to the frame. Somehow that is causing the problem, even though the frame doesn't seem to be connected to the rails.... don't really understand why that's an issue, but it is.
I installed the decoder itself into the tender. I drilled a hole where the coal auto-feeder would be and used a big piece of black heat-shrink tubing to hide the wires, so it would just look like the auto-feeder. I also used scissors to half-cut through the tubing along the length of it to allow it to flex better. I cut each one opposite the other. The first from the top halfway down, the next from the bottom halfway up, etc. until it was completely done.
I changed out the headlamp and put in an electrically-isolated incandescent lamp. I also added a lamp in the tender. The Speaker mount I custom-made from bits of styrene strips. I cut 100 or so holes in the coal load on the tender with a drill bit a little smaller than a pin. Don't recall the bit number offhand. But when you do it you want to drill each one from a different direction which will make them hard to spot. The sound is very loud-- too loud in fact. Which is good because now I can turn it down and will have less distortion in the sound.
I *hate* the whistle. And if you hate the whistle, you're pretty much screwed, right? I'm not sure what I'm going to do about that. I may pull the decoder out and put in something else instead.
The last thing (that I'm aware of) that I need to do to finish it up and wrap up the project is to find some small nylon screws that will fit the motor so I can get it mounted back into the frame. I tried isolating the mounting screws but it didn't work for some reason. Not sure why, I didn't troubleshoot it very much.
I am also considering re-motoring the loco and solving the problem that way. You can get new can motors off ebay for about $35 bucks that are purported to work for that loco. I don't know how involved it is to fit them, but I'm thinking about giving it a go. Mine does not (did not) run too loudly on the original motor. But I'm thinking if I'm going to all the trouble to put the decoder in and stuff that probably I should just go all the way and change out the motor. It will also probably be more powerful than the original which is probably pretty tired by now.
If you have any questions I can help you with, feel free to ask!
John
If you have the older Y6b with the motor in the cab the motor needs to be electrically isolated by removing the small silver coloured strap from the back of the motor. It comes from one of the brushes. Just snip it an pull it off.
I converted one of these a few years ago. It was a very smooth runner to start with and even with the original three pole motor in the cab was still a good runner in DCC. I used a digitrax decoder (no sound). I did however add extra wiper power pick-ups to all the wheels. If you need a new motor send me an email. I might just have a brand new one.
jimgellately@hotmail.com
Where do you find can motors for the Rivarossi engines? I have an 0-8-0 that I have superdetailed 30 years ago and now that I have converted to DCC, I need to add a decoder which might as well have sound since I am going to the trouble. I suspected I needed to check the amperage but haven't set up to do this for any of my old DC engines yet.
I personally don't care for the old Rivarossi's one bit as they were noisy as all get out, had small wheel flanges that aided in derailments and that god forsake ugly motor in the cab is nothing short of hideous. I can say this as I used to have close to 50 of those clunkers back a long time a go. Not to mention finding parts for the older one's is a complete crap shoot. That being said a good way to isolate the motors form the frame is using that plastic coating used for dipping tool handles. It will make any tool have an insulated handle. You can find it just about any place.It's what I use to isolate all of my Athearn blue box conversions and I haven't had a single problem using it.
Seems like they were hit or miss, I had a streamlides Hudson that ran whisper quiet. Still had the big ugly motor in the cab, but it definitely was not noisy in operation in any way. It was one made after they cut the flanges down a bit, no problem at all on code 100 track but it still bumped a bit on code 83. I also had a Reno that was super quiet - just had to be careful pickign it up or the drive shaft fromt he tender to the locow ould fall out. With limited power pickup it was great for checkign that there were sufficient feeders. The Genoa I had, now that one was noisy - but I don't think either one was actually a Rivarossi built, although perhaps the Reno was, the motor in the tender was rather large. The Genoa had a smaller motor, and it growled like crazy. The other one I had was the Docksider, that had a wierd almost chugging noise to it as it ran at low speed. Go faster and it was pretty quiet. Never had anythign bigger, back then with a 3x8 with 18" radius curves we just never bothered. An extra extension around the outside with 22" radius curves was added for the Hudson so as it was.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
is this a n-guage install? and if so how did u ad pickups to the tender wheeels i have an older 2-8-8-2 mallet that i installed a tsunami sound decoder in and it worked well for a month or so and started loosing contact i think in the tender tried cleaning but that did not wotk also added weights to the tender but that didn't work either any help would be appreciated.