Hi All,
I have an Athearn SD40-2 i bought recently and need to know if its DCC compatible the motor is fine as i can isolate it from the chassis, is there a site where wiring of it is shown the model has 4225 on the end of the box and heres is a picture of it
http://tinyurl.com/6qmjrp
I would like to add ditch lights as here with over cab lighting
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7he-WuGJrw
weather and superdetail it, so for front / rear and ditch lights would a three/four fuction decoder be needed i prefer Digitrax decoders for their smooth running so any suggestions as to model numbers for a decoder would be welcome.
Many thanks in advance.
It would help if your links worked. I assume you're talking HO here. I have some Athearn SD40-2's (Blue Box) and they're no more difficult to convert to DCC than any other BB Athearn loco. Assuming use of a Digitrax DH163D decoder. Properly isolate the motor, solder the decoder motor leads to the motor (gray=bottom, orange=top), solder pickup leads to the pickups (red=top of contact arm of front truck, solder jumper wire to front and rear truck contact arms, black=base of headlight bracket), The blue wire is a constant positive (+) for the remaining wires (white=front light, yellow=rear light, green=additional function F1, violet=additional function F2). I don't mess with ditch lights and such things but there are others here who can explain that.
Dr. Frankendiesel aka Scott Running BearSpace Mouse for president!15 year veteran fire fighterCollector of Apple //e'sRunning Bear EnterprisesHistory Channel Club life member.beatus homo qui invenit sapientiam
Got it sorted using a TCS M4 i had spare, the ditch lights need glueing in the body and reference pictures sought to superdetail the loco.
I am building a small layout to use for techniques and display and so need a few locos to provide some switching up and down, the NCE powercab was spare.