I purchsed 2 used units a train show or two ago with intensions of repainting them. I test ran them at the show and they ran ok, and was told "with a good cleaning" they would run better. Well as I have pulled them apart for the cleaning I got to looking and wondered if they where really worth putting decoders in? I have cleaned the wheels and contacts and they still do not run the greatest. Will the removing of the current board and adding a decoder fix the sluggish running? I have applied wires to the motor leads and they run great, no binding. They are also nice and quite. Any positive help would be greatly appreatied.
Thanks
John
If the engines run smoothly on DC, they are candidates for DCC conversion. I have two of the Walthers TrainLine U.S.Army locomotives that they had on sale a couple of years ago, and I converted both to DCC using TCS T-1 decoders. They run just as smoothly as a more expensive brand.
I'd say if you plan on using them and they run well on DC, the answer is Yes. I have had one of the trainline GP9M's for several years, and though it's not very detailed it runs better than some of my old Athearn's. I figure if I ever upgrade to DCC I'll use an NCE D13SR decoder in my GP9m.
Good luck in the world of DCC, I'm staying on familiar ground... For now
Jamie
Cape Vincent Southern Railroad
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What do you mean by sluggish?
I have one, which I installed a NCE DA-SR into. I took the factory board out and soldered in the DA-SR. The lights are 12-15v bulbs, so you can hook those right up. It runs decent, and has some heft to it.
Mike WSOR engineer | HO scale since 1988 | Visit our club www.WCGandyDancers.com
Follow up with the dash 8's. I did pull out the factory borad and hard wired the loco. They both run great. I guess I will be getting decoders to install into them. Follow up question: Does anyone know if there are replacement shells avaible for this unit? Again thanks for any responses.