Hi, Jim
There is a recent article in the Feb. issue of MRH magazine* (p. 45) about adding DCC to brass steam. I believe MR has covered the subject in past issues as well.
I have done several and there are only a few sticky points to remember.
Be sure the tender will not short to the cab and be sure you get the insulated side of the wheels back in proper orientation. Sometimes mounting a headlight can be a pain if it has not been drilled out to accept wiring.
Keep on the lookout for other places, like where a truck sideframe might touch the center sill or a pilot wheel might touch the frame. These are potential shorts. Sometimes a small piece of Kapton tape will provide enough to insulate these areas.
[edit] The coal bunker would be about the only place you could put the speaker on the Vanderbilt tender. I have some B&O engines with the same type tender so a speaker will have to go there since I have no intention to drill through the bottom of the tank.
* I hope our hosts don't mind
Good luck, Ed
Looks pretty smooth, unless you had to crank the power all the way to make it move. Some cleaning and a little oiling and it should be a good runner. Alco models made pretty solid products. My one and only brass loco is an Alco Models RS3. Now, you want to talk mess - one of the previous owners converted it to a can motor, but did a real sloppy job rigging up a drive line. I got it to run ok temporarily by replacing the whole messed up drive line with a piece of model airplane fuel tube. The other side isn't too bad, standard Athearn BB parts. When I got it, I tried it on DC and it didn't go anywhere. So I opened it up and it had a decoder in, an old Digitrax DH121. It's painted, but the paint is scratched off in places and the decals are horrible, so I am going to repaint it. After I fix up the driveline properly. And then I will put sound in it. I can't compain too much, I found the Alco Models add in an old MR when they first offered it, and I only paid what it originally sold for in the early 70's.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
here's the video, sorry I dropped the phone at the end.
rrinker Well, you could have picked a harder one to convert. For a brass steamer, that one should be insanely easy - the motor is a can motor so the current level should be find (check in to be sure), and the motor is already isolated. What's the tender look like as far as space goes? Since the moto is isolated, it's mostly just n issue of stringing wires between the tender and loco so you can take it apart. Only needs 5 wires, although adding some sort of pickup wipers to the loco for the insulated side will improve performance (need them on the tender trucks too). It will run with the split pickup just fine. 2 motor wires, 2 headlight wires, and the loco side pickup back to the tender. Don't let the tender trucks get turned around or it will short through the tender, or if both of them get reversed, it will short through the drawbar. --Randy
Well, you could have picked a harder one to convert. For a brass steamer, that one should be insanely easy - the motor is a can motor so the current level should be find (check in to be sure), and the motor is already isolated. What's the tender look like as far as space goes? Since the moto is isolated, it's mostly just n issue of stringing wires between the tender and loco so you can take it apart. Only needs 5 wires, although adding some sort of pickup wipers to the loco for the insulated side will improve performance (need them on the tender trucks too). It will run with the split pickup just fine. 2 motor wires, 2 headlight wires, and the loco side pickup back to the tender. Don't let the tender trucks get turned around or it will short through the tender, or if both of them get reversed, it will short through the drawbar.
well that's good to hear. Just to see how the motor does, I jerry-rigged my connection to the tender. There were a couple of plastic threaded washers/bushings that just disintegrated when I tried to screw them back in, so I temporarily insulated the tender pickup from the frame with kapton tape, seems to work for now, but I will have to figure out a permanent solution. Maybe I should be thinking of some kind of micro connector from the tender to the locomotive to avoid having to route the power through the drawbar? [on edit: I just realized you said that! I'm a bit slow on reading comprehension today. ] anyway, I shot 10 or 15 seconds of video, as soon as that's uploaded you can get a look at the tender. Not as big as most, although certainly plenty of room under a coal load I should think.
Hi again,
well, I was minding my own business and slowly redoing the electrical conversion of my old layout to dcc, when I went home for lunch and also to pick up a new acquisition that arrived in the mail.
Was eager to test drive it on the bench but got nothing in terms of electrical contact--nothing, not even a budge. Tore it all down and, lo and behold, the motor wire from the tender had snapped off entirely and was floating around inside the loco. (Clearly it had chosen to do so while being shipped.)
Anyway, now that I have this thing open, should I just go ahead and do a decoder install? I ask in part because this would be my first steam install, and honestly am looking for advice on what to look out for and/or what to be aware of. Second question is: should I go all out and do a sound install? Even more clueless (relatively speaking) about where to begin, although I have some ideas and have been reading up on the subject these past few weeks.
This is an Erie R1 put out by Alco Models in the 70s. Any advice or words of wisdom? thanks!!
Jim