Thanks everyone for the great information, I think I can move forward now with some confidence that I won't burn any thing up.
I am working on one right now. I am using a Soundtraxx Tsunami decoder designed for Atlas because it fits easily between the top of the weight and the shell. I am using a Tony's small oval speaker with matching enclosure. I had to remove some of the casting over the rear truck to make room for the speaker. That required adding a couple of pins through the top of the truck mount to keep it in place. Also, I had to shorten the speaker enclosure a bit (lengthwise) to make clearance for the LED headlight connections.
I am still working on wiring. I have installed separate LEDs for each headlight/tail light, number board lights and marker lights.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
RMC had an article about doing this in , it was the June 2009 issue. Here is the article description.
DCC installation for a Bachmann FM H-16-44 by Karl Bond Installing DCC in Bachmann’s HO scale model of a Fairbanks- Morse roadswitcher isn’t hard and these same techniques can be used on many of their other models, as well.
Yes, I just did a conversion on one of the Virginian engines (my grandson loved the video series online). It's not difficult, just separate the halves and use black tape to isolate the motor from the chassis. There's a fair amount of room between the top of the weight and the roof, so I used a Digitrax sound decoder and small speaker.
Just be careful to keep the small parts and screws in one place, and it can be a bit of a balancing act to get the halves back together with the trucks and everything in the right place.
Use the NCE BACH-DSL decoder. NCE designed this decoder for Bachmann diesels. It comes with LED's.
The NCE site has the install manual with good pictures. As David said, isolate the motor and remove the pc board with the lights on it. Piece of cake.
Rich
If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.
They are running the Bachman F-M H16-44 on the Virginian Layout, but I've not seen any stories on how they converted these DC units to DCC. With the entire inside being a large cast weight, I am not sure how to wire this conversion, anyone have any ideas.