Noel's DCC Conversion Bench

[richrua]

This will really help me get me hwad round trying to chip my old locos. Thanks noel

[DiveController]

Thanks, Noel! Tedious but worth it and a great help to the rest of us.

I think that based on the number of people that this will be useful to, now and going forward, it is worthy of a sticky

[Noel]

Thanks, Noel! Tedious but worth it and a great help to the rest of us.

I think that based on the number of people that this will be useful to, now and going forward, it is worthy of a sticky

 

Thanks, hopefully it may save some newbies like myself some time and help a few avoid the same pot holes I did or nearly fell into.

 

Just about to convert two more 0-6-0 tank engines but have decided I will try fitting keep-alive decoders with capacitors into these as I have one diamond crossing on each of the two main line dual tracks that the 0-6-0s sometimes stall or slow briefly at. Also some of my older Hornby tender drive locos will either need extra wheel pickups or keep-alive modules.

 

These older tender drive models effectively only pick up on two wheels each side which is pathetic (i.e. two wheels on port side of tender and two wheels on stbd side of loco chassis). I presume modern Hornby tender locos have pick ups on all wheels including tenders - or do they?

 

I noticed one of my 15yo Bachman 2-6-2 tank locos have additional wired pickups to the bogies as well as main chassis wheel pickups, and runs like a dream at crawl speed of all our points and crossings on DC. The older Hornby tender drives really do need extra pickups, but I'm going to try keep-alive in one before converting any more of them.

Edited October 4, 2014 by Noel

[DiveController]

I know DCC concepts have a decoder with stay alive what were you planning to use I'm sure there are others.....

[Dhu Varren]

Noel, I think I have found a source of suitable gears. Trackside Cars do Scalextric spares on eBay, and have various gears for 2mm diameter motor shafts. I am going to send off for some to see what they are like. I will keep you posted.

 

Finally received my order for Scalextric gears, but not from Trackside Cars. They could not find their stock.

Scalextric Part W8100 is perfect for the job, fits the motor shaft exactly and meshes perfectly with the Lima gears.

[Noel]

End result

 

Bachmann 57xx Pannier tank split chassis after DCC conversion using TCS-T1 decoder.

 

[video=youtube_share;HLJQaGN6xOY]

 

I will replace this with a TCS T1-KA 2 (keep alive) decoder to help it over insulfrog points. In the other 57xx which is also bachmann but not split chassis I will try a DCC Concepts ZEN ZN68 which is much better value (if it works), and very compact but not suitable for very old motors requiring more than 1amp.

 

After these two conversions are complete I hope to be able to standardise on decoders for the rest of my 15-20yo steam collection. The older locos will be retired to static display (e.g. Hornby Dublo, Triang and older Hornby). Hopefully I won't need keep-alive modules in the tender locos that have longer wheel bases and more pickups.

 

Fitting 21pin decoders into MM GMs seems very easy compared to these older models.