This has actually never happened before, in all my two dozen+ DCC conversions.
Got up at 4:15 looking for somethng to do. Took a Spectrum SD45 off the shelf just to get started. Got it cheap on Ebay.
By 4:30 I was done and put it on the track.
Of all the DCC ready locos, I have never had one like this that actually had:
a) the NMRA socket wired correctly
b) space for a decoder taped easily under the light bar above the motor
c) LEDs already in place
d) working couplers with normal coupler boxes in place
and I had a decoder with just the right length of Jharness so the shell slipped right back on smoothly. Of course I wasn’t putting sound in this one, so I wouldn’t have expected hours and hours of work, but…
That got me to thinking, suppose there are people out there who are lucky enough to buy good DCC ready locos from the LHS. They might get the wrong impression of the fun and games involved if things always were so smooth.
The easiest converstion ever is the Atlas GP38-2. You take off the Dynamic Brake Blister you will see the 8 pin plug. Plug in a DZ123 and you are done. 15 second install.
I dunno,…something inside me goes all warm and soft focus when such things happen. It is the opposite of spending hours making speaker baffles, tweezing in LEDS and getting caulk all over the place, knocking off handrails (esp. on those darn old Katos with the detached catwalks) slipping on eight tiny shrink tubes, melting part of the shell trying to get the solder iron around to heat them up, putting the shell on and finding the baffles touch where you miscalculated the distances, or they hit the light pipe etc. etc.
Oh, yeah, it’s nice to pop off a top and pop in a decoder once in a while.