Mantua General with DCC

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I have seen a couple questions before concerning the Mantua General.
I upgraded mine before Mantua went out of business. I put in their can motor and Mantua trucks. The motor is a Mabuchi, number FK-050SH. I also found plenty of room for the Lenz LE0767XF decoder. Someone on eBay sells the appropiate motor for a nominal fee. I also put this decoder and same can motor in my Bachman 4-4-0s. I used Mantua tender frames and Mantua tender trucks. The Bachman tender shell with lead shot glued into ever possible area in the shell. I put in a coal load for each tender. I have pickups on the tender trucks for both sides of the track. NWSL flexible wire is used to connect the truck pickups to the decoders. The bearings in the engine are modified by cutting out what is not neccesary for a bearing. The engines crawl through #4 turnouts without stopping.
I use Kadee 711 couplers as the #5s make the small cars look like a little boy wearing his fathers shoes.
If anyone is interested in old time there is a Yahoo group at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EarlyRail/
Membership is free.

Cheers

rich

2

Here is a link to improving the Bachman 4-4-0 and more ideas for an old time railway. Some users have the General.
http://www.pacificcoastairlinerr.com/

rich

3

Rich,

I just joined the group, so thanks for the links. I saw your site before when you were showing how to hardwire turnout point rails.

I remotored my Rivarossi J.W. Bowker with a Mabuchi FK-130SH, and what a difference it makes. I’m working on constant lighting for the oil lamp headlight, though it’s on hold right now due to other projects.

Nelson