So I got some Rivarossi E units off an auction site, they were cheap and I planned on gutting the drives to make em dummies.
But I opened one up and it looked like it had never been run, now I'm wondering if they may be suitable for my plans with a decoder added. I know they're old tech and probably have poor slow speed performance and low pulling power but that's not really in the plans.
I'm looking to ad a couple passenger trains (3 cars) to the layout as an operational challenge, they won't make station stops, just through runs from staging yard to staging yard, so once they're moving they'll stay moving (blocked tracks not withstanding but the protype deals with that too)
For the record, I haven't test run these yet, nor checked to see if the motor is isolated.
Am I crazy?
Modeling the Cleveland and Pittsburgh during the PennCentral era starting on the Cleveland lakefront and ending in Mingo junction
Crazy--don't think so.
Dreamer--maybe? You even said it, you need to test them out first. Decoders aren't really that expensive anymore and nobody knows better than you how to use your time.
Richard
Despite the strange vertical mount motor and having only one truck powered they were fairly good runners and pullers. While I have never converted one to DCC, I did have a unit that had the a CTC-16 decoder installed in it. It is the same concept. As I recall from 1984(?) it was a very easy install because there is so much room in the unit and the motor was/is Isolated. The two brush wires come out the top of the motor.
That's kind of the info I was looking for. Like I said, they're not going to be for freights and switching, just through runs of passenger trains.
So 3 cars on a fairly flat mainline is within their capability? And dcc is doable? Good to know, thanks.
I'd be sure to use a decoder that has Back EMF. Engines from 'the olden days' often were kinda light and slowed down a lot going uphill and raced downhill. BEMF can make a big difference smoothing that out.