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DCC and old legacy locos


traingeekboy
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Well, my layout has hit that point where I'll be running two trains and possibly be parking a shunter on a siding. This raises the question of, whether or not, or when, to go Digital.

I have a original release Zephyr DCC controller, so no problems there.

All my locos are old stuff and I only have seven HO gauge locos. I suppose I'll have to wire them for basic/cheap decoders. Hmmmm... maybe one steam sound decoder would be nice though.

Who's done their own conversions?

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Griff said:

Who's done their own conversions?

Me,me,me

The first one was nerve wracking - I was terrified I would cream a £20 decoder, but with a little patience, a good multimeter and plenty of checking it went well.

Having said that, I have a couple of really old tank loco's that I think will be a porker to convert (one is an old Mainline J72 split chassis) so I think I would be better advised to leave them DC and run them singly on address 00

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  • 4 weeks later...

I've done one or 2... With help from Griff ;)

Its not too difficult to do the conversion if you take your time and think through what you want to do.

The hardest part I find is routing the wires.

Think yourself lucky you are not considering DCC'ing N gauge locos.

Post up a couple of pics of the locos "topless" and I'll see what I can advise

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  • 1 month later...

Its pretty straight forward. The only wires you need worry about for a basic install are Red, Black, Orange and Grey. Trim or tie the others back.

But you need to make sure that none of your loco's are the old split chasis, as thats not so straight forward.

First one I did I took my time with. But now its just 2nd nature. Im planning to do a smoke, lights, fireglow and sound conversion next

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I took apart the old Tyco to a greater extent. i had safely placed my screw driver set somewhere where I could find it. Then I forgot where I put it for days. I really do need a work shed I can stand in to keep tools and junk in.

I am not sure I can DCC the Tyco. It would be hilarious to put sound and light effects into such an old toy engine though. But it has a power truck with a ground to the frame. No wires to that side of the motor.

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traingeekboy said:

I took apart the old Tyco to a greater extent. i had safely placed my screw driver set somewhere where I could find it. Then I forgot where I put it for days. I really do need a work shed I can stand in to keep tools and junk in.

I am not sure I can DCC the Tyco. It would be hilarious to put sound and light effects into such an old toy engine though. But it has a power truck with a ground to the frame. No wires to that side of the motor.

Its still doable with care.... you just need to find a way to insulate the motor from the chassis frame.

If you post a few pics I'll see if I can figure out a plan.

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