DCC Conversion for a Rivarossi F-19 Pacific/With Photos and Video Added

Model Railroader Electronics and DCC
1

I’ve been searching the web for a “How to guide” with pictures

for this project but so far no luck

I did find this link for Rivarossi drawings on the HO seekers site

http://www.hoseeker.org/ahminstructions.html

And a remotor how to on the NWSL site

http://www.nwsl.com/Catalog/pg047-cat4-19-v0605.pdf

Tonys trains has some links for how to sites

on page 7

http://www.nwsl.com/Catalog/pg047-cat4-19-v0605.pdf

But nothing for a Rivarossi Heavy Pacific

One of the sites has lots of locos

But again nothing for the Pacific

http://www.tcsdcc.com/HO_Search/search.html

So it looks like i’ll be flying blind on this one

To see how i got the tender apart go here

http://cs.trains.com/trccs/forums/t/151015.aspx

2

Not much room in the Vandy tender for a speaker

3

Part of the conversion involves remotoring the loco as the newer motor draws far less current

The new motor fits right inside the old motor housing

The Motor is held together by 2 bent tabs on the side of the housing

After Prying them straight You remove the insides to make room for the new motor

4

You also remove the Magnet ring

and use a 3/16 bit to drill out the old bushing

5

Once you drilled out the old bushing you can use some silicone

glue to glue the new motor in side the old shell

Included in the kit is a new drive shaft

Using a dremel I cut it to length and the universal joints

just tap on with a hammer

You can get these kits on Ebay

http://cgi.ebay.com/MOTOR-UPGRADE-KIT-FOR-AHM-RIVAROSSI-STEAM-or-DIESEL_W0QQitemZ360142263864QQcmdZViewItemQQptZModel_RR_Trains?hash=item360142263864&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2|65%3A1|39%3A1|240%3A1318

I got mine from

http://myworld.ebay.com/cv-backshop/

The instructions are good and easy to read

the work can be done in under 1 hour

6

Terry,

Nice tutorial. Cv-backshop has some nice retrofit kits, and his instrutions look great. Being cheap, I would just use one of the own motors I’ve salvaged and drill holes in the plastic mount and screw the motor to it without cannibalizing the old one.

I had problems with my Pacific soon after I bought it, because the motor melted the mount. Years ago I put this Sagami in it, but it was a high RPM motor, and was too noisy.

A few months ago I actually opted for a much cheaper motor. This is the motor that is used in the IHC GG1, and it’s actually smoother and quiter. It has a low top RPM, so that the speed range is realistic even with the original gearing. I had to lay in a cab floor, and hog a tremendous amount of plastic out of the boiler and firebox. There was barely enough clearance for the screws that hold the firebox together, as I had to grind a lot off the the screw bosses as well.

7

You’ve done alot of work there and it looks like you added some weight

Nice Job !

The motor mount on one side of mine was heated to the point of being brittle

I’ll have to reinforce it some how

Also when i took the old motor apart one of the brushes was all but gone

I don’t really know how it even ran

I am mainly after the less current draw

Hope this motor will be as advertised

8

Great job terry. I have used cvbackshop motors a couple times. The current draw is wicked low. I used the heisler motor for my riv heisler and put an n scale decoder in it. I also put a heisler motor in an ahm plymoth diesel switcher. With very little work this has also turned out to be a quiet and slow runner. I think you will be very pleased with your motor.

Mike

9

I plan on adding weight to improve electrical contact

I drilled and tapped the rivet that holds the electrical contact in place and inserted a 2/56 screw for the wire attachment

10

I made a Speaker face plate out of card board

That fits just under the coal load

I also made a Cardboard shelve for the decoder in the back of the tender above the weights

11

Nice job Terry. Thanks for the picture tutorial. I am saving this for my berk transition.

Mike

12

I made a speaker baffle for the oval speaker
out of cardboard but i may still use the
round high base speaker if it fits

13

The motor is very quiet but i’m having some gear problems

I may have to replace some as it wants to lock up when i change directions

14

That’s odd, the gearing in these was quite well made, although a bit too fast. I would clean the gears thoroughly and regrease, but it sounds more like a running gear or quartering issue, which can be directional in nature.

15

Thats funny. How did it run before you put the motor in it? Maybe there is something binding in the shaft or something.

16

Ok I found the problem ME !

STUPID STUPID STUPID !

There was another loco on the layout bridging the isolation gap which by it’s self

was causing a short but it was alowing the Pacific to run slowly for about a foot before

shutting it down with overload protection

once I moved the offending loco back accross the gap and removed the short the Pacific ran

like a dream in both directions

I found the problem by accident when i removed the pacific but the over load light stayed on !!

so i checked the whole layout and sure enough one DCC loco was about one inch too far forward

accross the gap

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr [banghead] [banghead] [banghead]

17

Rather than use the oval speaker i’m going to try a Round High Bass Speaker

I cut a support to hold it steady in the tender

and i lucked out because it does just fit

It comes with it’s own baffle

Kinda looks like a bottle cap

I’ll use a 2 pin connector for the wires so i can easily swap speakers

18

I Soldered the speaker wires and used shrink wrap to insulate them

after testing i will seal the hole in the base where the wires come out

to make it an air tite baffle

19

Tested the head light and it was bad so i replaced the bulb with a 16 volt bulb

Not as bright but should last longer

Finished up the tender side of the wiring

The automatic wire strippers are really a big help

I used a 2 wire plug and a 4 wire plug between the engine and tender

the 2 wire is for the light and the 4 wire is for the track pick up and motor

The other 2 wire is for the speaker

20

Finished up the Loco side wiring and test fit Tender and Loco

I used the Drawing from Tony’s Train Exchange to wire the loco

the only difference is my motors + and - polls were switched

The Step plate looking thing you see between the Loco and tender is actually the wire plugs