I went to the Train snow this weekend and picked up a few stream lined Rivarossi Hudsons…I want to make them DCC…Where do I start?
I have several myself from years past which I hope to be able to retrofit with decoders. Right now, I have too many other projects going on to tackle that issue but I am very interested in any suggestions others may have.
You start by emailing Tony’s Trains and giving him the info on the locomotives.
whats his email?
Rivarossi steam engines are fairly easy to convert, depending on how the headlight is wired. I have encountered two different types of headlight wiring, as outlined below.
There is room on top of the motor for a decoder and the motor brushes are already isolated from the frame, so all you will need to do is figure out how to get the locomotive shell off.
Normally, there will be a screw on the bottom under the smokestack, and you might have to remove the front truck to get to it. The rear of the shell is usually held on by small tabs on the bottom. Rear grabirons may need to be removed before separating the shell from the chassis. Lift up the front of the shell, push it slightly to the rear to release the tabs under the cab, and carefully lift the rear part off of the chassis.
A decoder such as a TCS T-1 or M-1 is a good choice for one of these engines. Other than motor control, the headlight is the only function you will ever need. Your next step will be to determine which motor wire is connected to the right-hand side’s drive wheels and which is connected to the left, when looking at the locomotive from the rear.
If there are two black wires soldered to each motor terminal, one of them goes to the headlight. If there is only one wire soldered to each motor terminal, then the headlight is connected to the front set of drive wheels separately from the motor wiring, as indicated below.
Unsolder the wire or wires from both motor terminals and separate them. Use a VOM with a continuity check to determine which wire is connected to the right-hand side of the locomotive by touching a probe to one of the drive wheels and the other probe to each of the wires, in turn. When you hear a tone, that’s the wire that is connected to the wheels on that side of the locomotive. If there were two wires soldered to each motor terminal, the other one is the headlight.
Solder the orange decoder wire to the motor terminal that was connected to the r
schom,
Tony’s Train Exchange site: http://www.tonystrains.com
Tony’s site also has a helpful DCC link called DCC For Beginners (#2 in the list in the middle) that has good, general info on the topic. You can either download it as a .pdf file, or read it online.
Tom
Thanks for the help!