Fitting DCC Decoders to Dublo Steam Locomotives

[PeterCook]

Hi,

I have purchased an old layout and with it 4 Dublo steam locos. I was wondering if anybody could advise is it possible to fit DCC decoders to these locos. One is a 0-6-0 GWR Tank engine, one is a LNER 4-6-0 with running number 8509, Third is a 4-2-2

 

Great Western and the last is an 4-6-0 ???? - Castle locomotive. This last loco is very heavy and tender is joined by a bar that is screwed into loco and tender. Any advise or help would be much appreciated

[PeterCook]

To add to my previous information - All the motors use a single wire spring to keep the brushes on the motors and the body is used as one side of the power supply. Hope this is helpful.

[Fishmanoz]

Son of Triangman or SoT is the undoubted expert on this and I'm sure will be along shortly to help you out. In the meantime you might do a Forum search to see if you can turn up previous posts on this because there have certainly been some.

[PeterCook]

Fishmanoz said:

Son of Triangman or SoT is the undoubted expert on this and I'm sure will be along shortly to help you out. In the meantime you might do a Forum search to see if you can turn up previous posts on this because there have certainly

been some.

[PeterCook]

Thanks Fishmanoz,

I did have a look at the current info on the forum. I found so info. I guess I will need to insulate the spring and possible solder a connection direct to the brush and a connection to the frame. Then I should be able to cut the wires

 

and this should give me the required two feeds and the two connections to the motor. Th thing i am not sure about if i need to keep the small resister (it maybe a capacitor) that is on the motor.

 

Thanks

[Fishmanoz]

I'm not familiar with Dublo so I'm guessing a little here but the important thing with the motor is to ensure there are no connections from it to the pickups directly or via chassis given one side of the wheels is connected to chassis.

 

If the "resistor"

 

is a small circular yellow component between the motor connections, it is a capacitor and you should remove it. It can degrade the DCC signal. If it is a small cylindrical component of any colour and it is in series with one motor connection and a pickup,

 

it is an inductor and it too should be discarded for the same reason.

 

Trust that helps.

[PeterCook]

Thanks it must be a capacitor. I think I have worked out how to make the change to DCC. I will try with my little 0-6-0 and if i am successful I will convert all of them.

[Blackbird]

Can I make a broad statement in saying theatany DC Loco can be converted to DCC control. However that depends on the expertise of the person making the conversion.

[poliss]

Further modification is required on Hornby Dublo locomotives. See these pages for details.

http://rastall.com/railway/mr-vert-dcc.html

http://www.tcsdcc.com/public_html/Customer_Content/Installation_Pictures/HO_Scale/Walthers/Duchess_Class_LMS/Wrenn_duchess_class_LMS.htm

[Fishmanoz]

Thanks poliss, I knew there was a trick to these.

 

Peter, make sure you insulate the second brush sleeve as per these instructions or you will fry your decoders.

[81F]

Not sure if this helps but I have just done an Old wren 062T while this is reasonably successful the loco is not so controllable at low speeds as it was under DC. I may need to play around with the CV settings to get things right.

[The son of Triangman]

The Tri-ang-Hornby/Hornby LNER B12 4-6-0 loco 8509 isn't a Hornby Dublo loco and will be X.04/03 powered depending on it's year of production.

 

A beefy decoder will be needed something like the Hornby Sapphire, there are other makers of good decoders,

 

it should be capable of taking a stall current of 1amp or greater. An X.04 motor has a stall current of around 0.7 - 0.9 amps in decent fettle, a poor condition motor can stall at 2amps and there are some but very few deocders that can handle that sort of

 

current draw on the market. Normally a Hornby Sapphire is perfectly adequate, I use another manufacturers micro decoder for locos for the likes of the R.51/041/41 GWR 57xx pannier and the R.52 Jinty as space can be an issue. The Tri-ang-Hornby/Hornby Hall/Princess(short

 

model)/B12/Battle of Britain/M7 all have enough room for the Sapphire decoder.

 

The first jobs are to make sure there are no elctrical shorts and the loco is clean and running well under plain DC control. Poor runners will perform even worse under DCC

 

control and any shorts will fry the decoder. If it doubt get the loco serviced professionally

 

The X.03/X.04 is generally a very simple conversion dependant upon the loco. A word of warning DON'T solder to the brushes directly as it will make them hard

 

to remove when it comes time to replace them, use two feed clips, the loco will already have a small feed clip attached to a red wire, this clip should be removed from the red wire and soldered to the orange decoder wire. you will need a second clip the same

 

for the other side of the motor this second clip attaches to the grey decoder wire. Both sides of the brush spring should be insulated fully, I used insulation off 0.7/2 wire as it is thin and doesn't put too much pressure on the brushes so doesn't cause heavy

 

brush wear.

 

The red decoder wire should be soldered to the brown pickup plate wire.

 

The black wire goes directly to the solder tag and the back of the motor.

 

The motor capacitor is soldered across the two feed clips on the motor and the

 

legs of the capacitor are insualted to stop any accidental shorts.

 

A little adjustment of the feed clips may be needed but once all is settled you will have a good reliable smooth running DCC loco with plenty of grunt.

 

The Hornby Dublo castle

 

will be a reasonably easy loco to convert too. Some Hornby Dublo locos require more work but all can be converted

[The son of Triangman]

Here's one I did earlier. http://s157.photobucket.com/user/thetriangman/media/DSCF0015-5.jpg.html?sort=6&o=51

[The son of Triangman]

Here's a micro deocder in plpace on a Tri-ang Jinty. This jinty had an ealry chassis but the owner wanted later Tri-ang wheels to run on modern track so it was fitted with modern wheels during it's conversion to DCC.

 

http://s157.photobucket.com/user/thetriangman/media/DSCF0019-2.jpg.html?sort=6&o=50

 

A

 

Hornby 3 pole ringfield tender motor conversion.

http://s157.photobucket.com/user/thetriangman/media/duchess2.jpg.html?sort=6&o=49