henryparrot said

Les

you are right the bogies are at the rear I think what Ron meant to say was you normally expect bogies at the front not at the rear.

cheers Brian.W

Brian, you are corrrect - with the body off, I did get confused- normally bogies at the front ( like 2-6-0's) but on M7's they are at the rear.
I thought I had plugged the decoder in properly but in my excitement to get it working, I got carried away & considering that some reviews made getting the body on/off a tad difficult & I got it back on first time, I did not want to spoil the day.

Sorry Gents & Sue for any confusion.

Bachmann Class 56XX 0-6-2T
- remove blanking plug & capacitor. fitted TCS M1P-UK .
Programmed running number as 566 , ran OK without body back on.
I then slid the decoder into smoke box, fitted  body & even with loco not selected, it had a high pitched sound. Selected loco & when running & crossed into another district, another loco -  GWR railcar #29 decided to run as well. No other locos in the same district moved.
Removed body & problem disappeared so I removed the screwed-on weight over the gears, & using double sided tape, fitted the decoder in that now free space. Still worked ok - body back on & problems stayed away. Still had plenty of adhesion.

Do not ask me what happened, it is one of the vagaries of electronics.

My power districts have car globes 12v/21W as overload indicators so they prevented the 56xx problem from causing any other effects but when in the same district, it must have generated a false command signal to make #29 move.

Hornby Class 73 R2517 ( one of the new versions ex Lima)
TCS MC2 plug in - no problems.

Following on from my previous postings, I had decided about 2 weeks ago to hard wire the decoder as this would give me more space ( I had the body off as I had played with back to back measurements & giving the electrical pickups a good cleaning, etc).
Well, tonight I finally got    A Round Tuit.
 
I hard-wired M1 decoder into M7 by removing existing 8 pin socket & did the dirty deed. Lot more room to put body back on but before I did, I made sure all was OK.
 
 I had left the decoder running the wrong way for direction from before when it was plugged in the wrong way so using CVs, reset the lot, tested to make sure it ran right way under address 3, then changed address to a long number 111.
Spent the next 30 minutes trying to work out why in no longer ran at all. Muttered, cursed, reset time & time again so much the decoder got dizzy not knowing who it was.
Finally the light switched on ( after reading the instructions again for the 42nd time) , long address of 0111 & all was OK. Long addresses under 128 need a 0 in front.
RTFI  is what someone told me !!
 
This explains why I had no problems with locos 600, 681, etc ..
 
By the time I get to my allotted 3 score & ten years, I may know a little bit about DCC.

Hornby A1X Terrier - TCS M1 - instructions at http://www.bromsgrovemodels.co.uk/hornbyclassa1xdccinstr.htm

can anyone recomend which decoder to fit to a hornby ddc ready railcar please? r 2524a to be used with a dynamis  :D  :D

Reg

That is the easiest locomotive to install a decoder into about 3 minutes complete job done.

Any 8 pin decoder 2 function or above will be fine.

Lenz. Bachmann.TCS. whatever you supplier stocks really.

I personnally would avoid hornby decoders.

cheers Brian.W

ok thank you brian  :D  :D

Hornby 08 diesel shunter.
body came off very easy. cut the capacitor, fitted a TCS M1P-UK, removed from the inside body shell ,the foam block that sits above the motor & the decoder sits above the motor. As the harnesss wires are not long enough, I could not fit the decoder at the radiator end of the loco
as detailed in MRF site ( available via Bromsgrove Models site) .

Normally forward running is the cab end but me being different, I have set the radiator end as the smokebox end being forward.

Hornby R2218 "Wilton" West Country Class 4-6-2, used Bromsgrove Models page as the guide , fitted TCS MC2 no problems - hard wired of course.

Bachmann 2-6-2T Prairie Class 4575 - I fitted TCS MC2 decoder as per this link
http://www.ukmodelshops.co.uk/UKMS/class45xx.shtml
hard to be hard wired but it was easy.

Bachmann Class 42 Warship in 00.
It was not DCC ready but I stripped the capacitor & chokes away & hard wired in a NCE D13SRP. I used the existing capacitor/choke board to connect the wires between rail, decoder & motor.
I glued a thin piece of card across sides of the frame above one flywheel similar to how the circuit board is anchored & with double-sided tape, stuck the decoder there. Left the 3 function wires intact for possible lights later in life.



This loco did not want to run well after sitting for 11 months, so tweeked & cleaned the pickups & now it is a good'en.

As this is hard to determine front from rear as there are two fans in the roof, I decided that the steps on both sides leading to the cab door plus buffers at the nominal default DCC front end will be painted red like the buffer beam.
This will also be done on all other diesels to maintain uniformity - it is my Railway anyway!

I have been after one of these loco's for ages now but sadly Bachmann do not make a new version in green. Where, when did you get it Ron?
I know I can pick one up on a certain on line auction but my experience of buying locos there is not a good one. :x

If I do eventually get one I'll need to come back to this post for fitting the decoder. :wink:

Les

Les, it was my second diesel I purchased about 4 years ago from Hattons.

Bachmann Class 25/3 diesel,  the new one released fitted with 21 pin socket & lights, fitted the Bachmann E-Z Command Decoder 36-554 ( 1 amp, 3 functions) & on NCE Procab, starts to move on step 1 of 128 steps.
Have not removed capacitors as in discussing this with DCCconcepts, his advice was " If it runs well, leave them in"

First class.

Ron

That has always been my policy with capacitors If The loco runs fine without operating problems leave them in position.

cheers Brian.W

Heljan Class 33 - fitted TCS DP2X-UK straight in - removed nothing ,very good runner.
Rear red lights dim compared to Bachmann Class 25 - will have to look at the CV 50 for this.
Fittted Kadee NEM coupler straight in & height is OK.

Sol,

I have just made a post about lights in another topic and then come to this next!  I believe that Heljan are closer to what the lights should be like if you want to be accurate, as on locos of this vintage the lights were very dim.  It is only the more modern locos (Class 58 onwards) that they started putting much brighter marker lights on.

Having said that bright lights do look very impressive of course!

Thanks Chris for that info.
Yes I fiddled with CV's & got nowhere. I spoke to DCCconcepts & hesaid that the incandescnt globes could have been set for European DCC which has 16v or higher on the the track whereas NCE put out 14v so they will be dimmer.

Not that the red reversing lights are needed on the train with coaches/wagons anyway.

Bachmann Class 20 DCC fitted 32-042DC, the motor sounded noisy so I disconnected decoder, fitted a blanking plug ( 21 pin version)  ran on DC &  motor is quiet.

Removed capacitors, re-installed decoder still a bit  noisy- time will tell.

Loco  fitted with a 21  pin unit plus a 8/21 pin convertor - decoder is a basic ESU 3 functions but only 2 digit addressing. For 50 pounds - can't complain I suppose.