I have a Williams 2-8-0 USRA that was my fathers. It is an O scale HI Rail model with the big flanges. It has a switch under the cab to turn off the smoke unit, as well as some kind of “E-unit” in the tender. It has a can motor in the firebox, that appears DC to me. I would like to run it using my Digitrax DCC BigBoy. I use it around the Christmas tree and it would be so convient to convert it to sound DCC for next Christmas. Anybody have any good Ideas? I am well versed in HO scale, but have very little experience in HI-Rail, other than the Christmas tree 072 with my Dads original scale cars from the 30s. I know some of these are collectors items, but I am not interested in the value, just in re-living the past and introducing my grandkid(s) into scale railroading. Thanks for your thoughts.
You can get a decoder but you need to check on the power consumption of your loco. The Big Boy encoder has a 5 amp limit. You need to total up the current draw for the motor and any sound board you intend to install. There may also be issues with sound as the tender may not be set up for installation of a speaker.
You can see if your Williams locomotive is D.C. by using a small H.O. transformer on the motors. Do not disconnect any wires but hook up jumper wires with alligator clips on them to the wires going into the motor and see if it will work when you by-pass the circuit board. Most Williams use D.C. can motors that have a circuit board converting the output to D.C. current and can change the polarity to the motors for forward and reverse.
You may need a larger transformer to use the Williams loco with for D.C. than an H.O. transformer, may have to go to G gauge trains for a power supply.