DCC decoder for Stewart F3A?

Model Railroader Electronics and DCC
1

Can someone recommend a good decoder for this locomotive?
Thanks

2

You don’t mention if you want sound, so here is a link to the install of a basic motor control TSC decoder.

https://tcsdcc.com/installation/ho-scale/1488

Digitrax also makes a basic motor function decoder that would be installed the same way.

There are lots of choices for decoders.

Mike.

3

Chris,

  • Motor-only: TCS MC2A-3.5" or MC2P* (*you’ll need to purchase a separate harness)
  • Sound: TCSWow121-Diesel or Loksound 5

Either brand will give you excellent motor-control.

The TCS T1 link provided above by Mike is for an older Stewart F3. The newer Stewarts came with an 8-pin NMRA socket.

Tom

4

Thanks for the responses. Yes I want motor control and sound. Do I need 2 decoders for this or is there an “all-in-one”? Getting back into the hobby, not up to date on my DCC tech yet.

Thanks

5

A sound decoder will take care of both, Chris.

Tom

6

The Stewart F’s don’t have a lot of room for a large speaker and enclosure in the A units. Because the A and B units use the same chassis, it’s easier to find room in the B unit. So if you have an A-B set of F’s, it might work best to put a regular (non-sound) decoder in the A unit, and a sound decoder just in the B-unit.

On my Stewart FTs, which are A-B pairs connected with a drawbar (like the prototype usually was), I’ve put a sound decoder in the A unit and run two wires back thru the windows of the doors between the A and B units, and used a 1" speaker and enclosure in the ‘dummy’ B unit.

7

They aren’t that limited in space. You get more by replacing the factory board with a board replacement decoder, or you can take the easy way out - Bowser made powered chassis with a sound decoder, just swap the shell onto the new chassis and you have DCC + sound. If you search around, you can get them for the same or less than you’d pay for a decoder and speaker and then still have to install it yourself. Then if you have a dummy, you can put a motor only decoder int he old powered chassis and put the dummy shell on that one.

I DID take a dummy B unit, which has everything but the actual wires from the trucks (easy enough to add) and put a sound decoder and a VERY large speaker in it, which does sound kind of nice, but some of these new sugar cube speakers are superior even though they are smaller.

–Randy