09-11-2010, 06:47 PM
I have added DCC to a few brass locomotives and depending on the locomotive it is not all that hard to do. The motor has to be isolated from the frame first. After that it is not much different than a plastic locomotive when it comes to the connections. You do have to make sure you have all your connections covered with heat shrink ( or tape ) as with brass the locomotive picks up power from one rail and the tender from the other.
A few things I have learned are:
1-Most of the open frame motors draw to many amps for DCC decoders.
2-The open frame motors do not run very smooth. I remotored all my locomotives with can motors that have skewed armatures.They run way better.
3-If the factory gearbox is worn or was a noisy one from the beginning it will need to be replaced with a NWSL gearbox for a smooth quiet running locomotive.
4-The mechanism must roll smoothly and freely with the gear box removed as adding DCC will not correct mechanical problems.
5-Some locomoties will require extra electrical pickups.Most of all if you have dead switch frogs.
6-Most locomotives have room in the boiler for a DCC decoder.Smaller ones will require the decoder to go in the tender meaning 3 wires between the loco and tender ( 2 motor wires & 1 electrical pickup wire from the locomotive ) and if a working headlight is require two more wires for the headlight.
7-If you are adding a DCC sound decoder it will most likely mean the decoder will be going in the tender with the speaker.
*Note: I added a Tsunami sound decoder to my CNR J-4-e pacific and had to choose the micro Tsunami sound decoder ( TSU-750 ) as there was no room in the tender for both the decoder and speaker.The decoder ended up in the boiler sitting on a flat spot milled into the lead boiler weight. Seeing as the micro Tsunami runs hot this is a good thing as the weight acts as a heat sink. My CNR S-2 mikado will have the decoder and speaker in the tender just like my CNR 2-8-0.
My CNR 4-8-2 is another one where I was able to fit the sound decoder in the boiler.In this case a 1amp Tsuami ( TSU-1000 ). It was a good thing the deoder would fit in the boiler as it saved me having to run 7 wires between the loco and the tender.I now have one power wire and two speaker wires.
I have had no real big problems converting my brass locomotives to DCC and with a little carefull work they are all really nice running locomotives.They all run just as good as my plastic Proto 2000 heritage 0-8-0 and 0-6-0 switchers and the Proto locomotives are real good runners.
Wayne Reid
A few things I have learned are:
1-Most of the open frame motors draw to many amps for DCC decoders.
2-The open frame motors do not run very smooth. I remotored all my locomotives with can motors that have skewed armatures.They run way better.
3-If the factory gearbox is worn or was a noisy one from the beginning it will need to be replaced with a NWSL gearbox for a smooth quiet running locomotive.
4-The mechanism must roll smoothly and freely with the gear box removed as adding DCC will not correct mechanical problems.
5-Some locomoties will require extra electrical pickups.Most of all if you have dead switch frogs.
6-Most locomotives have room in the boiler for a DCC decoder.Smaller ones will require the decoder to go in the tender meaning 3 wires between the loco and tender ( 2 motor wires & 1 electrical pickup wire from the locomotive ) and if a working headlight is require two more wires for the headlight.
7-If you are adding a DCC sound decoder it will most likely mean the decoder will be going in the tender with the speaker.
*Note: I added a Tsunami sound decoder to my CNR J-4-e pacific and had to choose the micro Tsunami sound decoder ( TSU-750 ) as there was no room in the tender for both the decoder and speaker.The decoder ended up in the boiler sitting on a flat spot milled into the lead boiler weight. Seeing as the micro Tsunami runs hot this is a good thing as the weight acts as a heat sink. My CNR S-2 mikado will have the decoder and speaker in the tender just like my CNR 2-8-0.
My CNR 4-8-2 is another one where I was able to fit the sound decoder in the boiler.In this case a 1amp Tsuami ( TSU-1000 ). It was a good thing the deoder would fit in the boiler as it saved me having to run 7 wires between the loco and the tender.I now have one power wire and two speaker wires.
I have had no real big problems converting my brass locomotives to DCC and with a little carefull work they are all really nice running locomotives.They all run just as good as my plastic Proto 2000 heritage 0-8-0 and 0-6-0 switchers and the Proto locomotives are real good runners.
Wayne Reid