mckinnell Posted May 17, 2014 Share Posted May 17, 2014 Hi all, Can any one PLEASE give me some advice on the best way to safely convert the Mainline J72 loco from DC to DCC, i have looked at one site that outline a way but, am sorry to say the directions are very disjointed to me, and, have politely ask the person responsible form the outlined advice if they could clarify the directions they had set out; no response from the person who has posted the direction has alas not been forth coming in answering my question. This Mainline loco J72 is as new, and, as such is a sweet little model and just BEGGING to being DCC converted and will make a worthy loco for my system, also, can get another two J72 as same for similar price...£32 inc P&P, not bad aye?????..... My grateful thanks and regards to all for any advice/ help.. Tom..................... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishmanoz Posted May 17, 2014 Share Posted May 17, 2014 Hi Tom, if we first look at basic principles for decoder fitting, I think it will become clear. First, you separate the pickup wiring and chassis from the motor connections. Then you wire pickups to decoder red and black, and the now isolated motor connections to decoder grey and orange. Job done. If you now take a look at this link http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/15582-mainline-j72/ this is how it's done. You can see that for DC! The pickup connectors and the brush connectors are joined by the one plate. These have to be isolated and the poster has described how he has cut them and fitted plastic to do the job. Can you follow now? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mckinnell Posted May 17, 2014 Author Share Posted May 17, 2014 Fishmanoz said: Hi Tom, if we first look at basic principles for decoder fitting, I think it will become clear. First, you separate the pickup wiring and chassis from the motor connections. Then you wire pickups to decoder red and black, and the now isolated motor connections to decoder grey and orange. Job done. If you now take a look at this link http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/15582-mainline-j72/ this is how it's done. You can see that for DC! The pickup connectors and the brush connectors are joined by the one plate. These have to be isolated and the poster has described how he has cut them and fitted plastic to do the job. Can you follow now? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trainlover23 Posted May 17, 2014 Share Posted May 17, 2014 Whilst the old Mainline J72 is a nice model they can be very bad runners and difficult to convert to DCC because of their split chassis construction. Be absolutely sure they are perfect runners before converting them. The other point to look out for is the fact that the wheels go out of quarter due to the fact that a nylon axle is fitted into a metal stub on the back of the wheels, and these work loose over a period of time and cause the wheels to go out of quarter. All Mainline steam outline models suffer from this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mckinnell Posted May 17, 2014 Author Share Posted May 17, 2014 Fishmanoz, Thanks for the reply, yes, i have read this information, but alas, these is the directions that appear very disjointed to me as so:- "To fit chip I removed from each long brush retaining plate, cut off the end that the screw goes through" It really does not flow, hence, disjointed to me, i am 60 now, that may be the problem, ha ha ha ha; if you are game, perhaps you might rephrase what he is saying in a way i would find easier to adsorb and would be very very grateful to you for doing so, BTW, am gfoing to purchase the Hornby elink system as, i have read so many many good and glowing reports on this system and, seeing as the alternative is the expensive RR&C0 or Itrains?, it will suit me for my needs, as long as i can get the J72 chipping sorted that is lol lol lol...... My very best and regards my friend...........Tom...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishmanoz Posted May 17, 2014 Share Posted May 17, 2014 Tom, there is a lot more info out there. Take a look at http://www.mrol.com.au/Articles/DCC/SplitChassis.aspx or just google split chassis DCC where I found this link and a number of others including a YouTube video. I had hoped that my original link plus the fact they you had to cut the connection between the chassis and motor connection/brush holder would be enough for you to figure it, but I'm sure those other sources will give you enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The son of Triangman Posted May 18, 2014 Share Posted May 18, 2014 The words that bring dread to every professional DCC fitter....Split Chassis....shudder! To be fair some are reasonably easy to fit with a decoder, others are absolute pigs to fit. Most require metal removing in places from the chassis and the metal is very hard to work on, a few are are much easier. Avoid them if you can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The son of Triangman Posted May 18, 2014 Share Posted May 18, 2014 The models in the photo show both types, the first type being the easiest to fit. The second type of split chassis can be a pig to fit, the model in the photo has had it's motor contacts draged towards the back with 1mm airpace between each side of the contact and the chassis casting. I would have insulated these contacts to be sure of them. Also not all of these chassis lend themselves to having the motor contacts moved in such a way, some have short contacts that touch two springs inside the chassis, this sort need metal removing to do a proper job. Then there's the spacer and washer problem. The chassis are held together by screws, and round pegs with a square plastic plate on the them and a washer fits between the chassis sections with the peg shaft passing through the washer. The screws and pegs sit deep in holes. The washers and pegs have a nasty habit of falling out when you try to put the thing back together. It's can be very frustrating, some of the split chassis models co-operate and fit back together easy, others put of a fight. I usually make a jig that will hold the pegs into place whilst I do the screws up. The chassis pegs also suffer from the dreaded plastic fatigue over time as well and you can sometimes find the screw just spins in it's hole and doesn't do up, I'm fortunate as I bought a pile of the pegs when they were available. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The son of Triangman Posted May 18, 2014 Share Posted May 18, 2014 The J72 is a very easy one to fit, but something like the J39, Royal Scot, 04, or Lord Nelson will be a lot more challenging. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The son of Triangman Posted May 18, 2014 Share Posted May 18, 2014 As has been said, make sure your J72 loco is a perfect runner if making DCC, it will show up any little fault. Also as has been pointed out it's not just the chassis pegs that hold the chassis together that suffer from plastic fatigue. Split chassis wheelsets suffer from cracking and breakage, there are two white collars attached to the wheels one has a square hold the other a square metal peg these fit together to form the axle and commonly suffer from cracking and age fatigue. The split chassis B1's suffer from the plastic distorting and "bubbling" that forms the spokes on the wheelsets, giving rise to distorted wheelsets. All in all, good in their day but not so good today and best avoided. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.