Has anyone done an install on one of these Bachman 2-6-2s ?
This is from thier standard line of locos and has a split frame
with driver wheel pick up only
First of all, you better improve the pickups with that loco before you consider installing a decoder into it.
Secondly, because of the split frame design, this is a difficult install.
David B
Not this particular loco but a K4 split frame. Here is a usefull link.
Pete
Thanks Pete
This looks promising !
To start out I removed the tender weights so i could drill out the trucks to make room for the pick up wires
I first drilled out the truck frame then used it as a guide to drill thru the tender floor
buy turning the truck first one way then the other and drilling a hole in the tender floor at the end of the turn
it makes a cresent shaped slot for the wires and this keeps them from binding when the truck turns
once the 2 holes are in the tender I used a hobby knife to cut a slot between the holes
so you end up with a curved slot (
I also drilled out the fake tender light and inserted a 16 volt bulb
Getting the Loco apart was fun as Bachman doesn’t have a drawing on there site
The HO Seeker has a drawing of a 1990 model that is close enough
The motor and frame are different but the rest is the same
http://www.hoseeker.org/assemblyexplosionbachmann/bachmann262prairiediagram1990.jpg
I started by taking off the front and rear trucks and then the center strip plate that covers the drive wheels
then i covered them with tape to hold them out of the way
I put a few drops of oil in the cracks on the front boiler to make it slide off
Once the center strip is off the rear of the motor frame will drop down but there are to little nubs on either side in the front that hold the front
from dropping down
you have to gently pry the small cylinders on the plastic boiler housing outward for the nubs to clear
notice how the screw driver is placed
The kinfe is pointing to the metal nub
The light bulb can be removed by gently scraping the wires free from the frame on either side
Once the motor is out of the frame you can remove the 2 small contact springs
that contact the brush tabs
The good news is they have insulated the motor from the frame by placing 2 clear plastic selves
over the motor ends
Now I can solder wires on the tabs
I’m betting the one with the red dot is the positive
Even though there are clear plastic sleeves on the motor i still wrapped it with Kapton
Tape just to be safe
I soldered the wires on the motor tabs and used shrink tubing to keep them isolated
I placed a 16 volt light bulb in the front using some shrink tubing to hold it
in place and ran the wires
down the split in the frame to the back of the loco
I drilled 2 holes in the frame one on each side for the pick up wires for the decoder
and soldered them to the holes in the frame
after all the wires are hooked up I will paint them all black
As discussed earlier I installed pick up wires on the tender trucks
this method can be seen at
Wolfgang Dudler’s web site
http://www.westportterminal.de/tender080.html
and also Gary Hopkins Web site
http://www.nmra.org.au/Hints/Pickups/Pickups.html
Both are nicely Illustrated
I wired up an 8 pin male plug to the truck wires
I put plugs on both the speaker and light so I can detach the shell if needed
The speaker is facing downward and I will cut a hole in the front of the tender
to direct the sound towards the loco
I did this on my 0-8-0 and it worked out very good
the sound is better than drilling holes in the coal and pointing the speaker up
I also installed lead weights along the sides and in the rear of the tender then cover them with tape
to insulate them
I installed an 8 pin female plug on the wires coming from the loco
and cut 2 notches in the tender floor to route the wires for the plug
So when it’s connected there will be 3 wires on either side of the draw bar
Here’s a short video of the finished product
It looks and sounds very nice! I think that a conversion as yours is so worth it [bow].
Thanks it was alot of work but also alot fun
Same Loco different video
Nice job! Maybe I missed it, what decoder did you use??
I used the old soundtraxx 090LC I took out of my Berkshire when i replaced it with
the QSI Revolution A with the T-1 sound track