My dahs * I won on ebay showed up today and as always I take my engines a part and look them over. WEll first I noticed it doesnt have the details like my Other two Dash 8’s have like see through vents and other things. So I figured either its newer or older. So I looked closer its older.
I decided time to take off the Shell the sheel didnt snap off ok this reminds me of theBachmann PLus locomotives I have to unscrew the Fuel tank ok this ios a First Gen Spectrum or late era Plus and I was right the frame is split and I had to remove sooo many screws to ipen up the motor and what did I see the cheapo way of making electrical contact just like my Plus GP35 I had purchased.
No DCC plug like he said but oh well its still I nice engine and for 20.00 you cant go wrong.
So here comes what I’m gonna do to it.
Remove the motor completely remove brass contact wipes in the motor so its Isolated.( I believe thats all u got to do for isolating not sure tho please correct me if I am wrong.
Cut the Brass wipers on the trucks and solder wire leads but I have to figure out which is + and whats - anyone know?
3 Install Ditch lights
4 after I do all that install a decoder and pray it works.
Primer, Pain,t Decal and Clear Coat the shell
If anyone knows anything else I need to cover up or do on this locomotive please let me know.
for the pos/neg I would assume they would not particularly matter - because the loco can run forwards or backwards (IE “nose” or “tail” first)
however, if you are asking about which is for the motor, i would suggest trying it one way, and if that doesn’t work either swap the wires or change the CV in the decoder…
I’m not too familiar with isolating the frame though… so i can’t help you there…
Your telling me that wasnt helpful from the other lister. and thanks for the help with what you said. I looks as the they Isolated the motor with plastic but I fugure since I am cutting the wipers off and soldering to pad on the trucks It shouldnt matter.
And to the first guy Hey I am ona budget till my SDL39 comes in from Canada which is still being produced.
Sorry I won’t be to much help either, I’ve got the same problem but double. I’ ve got four of those bachmann/spectrum engines. Two of them are the older ones you have, I pulled them apart also and noticed the same thing you did. So yes our hands are full, but in all honesty it does’nt look that tough of a challenge. Except you plan on repainting, that’s something I’m trying to avoid. If you come along with any tips please pass them on. Thanks!
those older spectrums arent so good. I had a few before i switched to DCC and they were loud and sometimes unreliable. If it were me, I would resell it or contact the seller about his false listing and try to get your money back. Also that split frame design is one of the hardest to install a decoder in. Whenever you are buying one of these, ask for pics if the ones provided arent good enough. The new spectrums have:
See through grilles
MUCH better paint and detail (you can tell the difference in a decent picture)
and they come in a much bigger box than the old ones did.
Good luck
PS. Curt, the new spectrums are very nice. This is a case of a bad ebay listing.
I am actually painting its undecorated.I think it can be done without doing much looking at the shell they used plastic pieces and it looks isolated. I need to find my Multimeter
Looks like little plastic washers I bet these are set up to beIsolated already wiper on both side of motor I bet this will be easy now that I looked at it.
I can’t help much here, not being familiar with DCC, but I do believe that the pos/neg does matter. If the pos pick up is on the right side of the loco and neg on the left and the engine runs forward then when the the engine is turned around it will still run in the same direction. On the other hand if you intend to double head locos, the polarity must be the same in both locos or or one would be going forward and the other backwards. Ken
With DCC, a CV value controls whether the loco runs in forward when you tell it forward or reverse when you tell it forward. So it does matter, but if you do wire it backwards you can just change a CV instead of rewiring. And since DCC uses AC power to the track, it doesnt matter which way you wire the track pickups.
Darth,
thanks for the link That helps 100% let me guess your website or did you have to do this and found it? I figured it was ISolated due to the Frame was the power provider… Again thank you.
Another very helpful post. The old specs arent the best, but they arent trash either. I would say overall they are comperable to athearn BB locos. They pull better for sure.
DarthSantaFe- that is a great website, I wish I had seen that a few years ago before I sold all my old spectrums.
Is it just me who’s getting really, REALLY sick of these posts? It’s hardly an isolated incident, either. Hindsight is always 20/20, but once I’ve bought a loco, I don’t give a flying fnord what I should have bought in its stead. For one thing, it’s rude, for another, it’s useless since most people would not toss a newly-bought loco into the rubbish pile merely on the say-so of a supposed expert.
I dunno, maybe it’s a cultural thing, but the European me is appalled.
Agamemnon,
I agree with you about getting sick of people bashing others cause they can’t afford the high end 100+ dollars plus locomotives. I have a few of those myself but I don’t bash the people who don’t have them. This hobby isn’t about that. I figure atleast the guy/women is in the hobby and enjoying it, purchasing what they can with the money they have.
And I am not the kind of modeler to throw a locomotive, I just got out in the trash cause some I am sorry to say it JERK said throw it into the trash. I have a GP35 Plus locomotive same set up and runs beautifully have had it for ohh heck 4 yrs or more an runs great.
CF7 get off your high horse just cause you and others can purchase the more eleberate, expensive locomotives does not make you the authority to tell me to “Throw it in the trash” or " sell it and get rid of it buy Athearn". I paid $20.00 for it if you can find me an Athearn or some other high name Dash 8 with motor, details for the same price then I will buy it if not get off my back and others that can’t buy what you think is the best.
Sorry to those who read this and aren’t jerks but these guys steam my butt.
For what it’s worth, I’m rather happy with my GP35 as well (I think it’s a GP35, I’m going off memory here, and frankly to me all 4-axle EMD diesels look alike, it’s the Conrail #1991 if anyone’s interested enough). It’s the smoothest running and quietest loco I have. Not much since most of my other locos are old German ones and tend to make a noise like an electric grinder, but still.
It’s not like we can afford to be picky, either, because I doubt the numbers of railroaders are going to be increasing much in the future, not in this era of instant-gratification-PS2-junkies.
You asked for advice and got it. If you buy junk it is junk and if you can afford to spend all the time here trashing people who are calling junk and all your time and money trying to make it not junk, it will still be junk.
If you want an engine with dcc and good paint that runs buy atlas. Otherwise, you will have a slightly better junker but still a junker[xx(]
Joe I havent had to bad of issues with his design, my GP35 hasnt giving me one issue then again thats DC I know DCC is a different issue.
As for the new Spectrums having better details etc I know I own two Newer Spectrums of the Dash 8’s I love the see through grills and all. I’m not even going to bother sending this back due to 5.55 shipping buy the time I get the 20.00 back I would have spent 5.55 for shipping to me and another 5.55 to the seller I would be out 11.10 and well Its just not worth it.
As for paint jobs I wouldnt know the difference I buy Undecorated versions for my Freelanced Railroad so thats not an issue.
I asked for a simple question of how to do DCC install, not hey is this junk. I have had experiences with Plus and now Spectrum, on DC this motor runs fine so now the next steap is DCC. I know its not your standard Atlas or Athearn but 20.00 hello find me one of these buy either company for 20.00 show me one by the end of today.
As for Atlas as oh great and almighty thats a joke yeah they are good I have 1 yup one and that was a trade I did decals for someone they gave me the locomotive. But anyway I know of 4 guys who wont touch Atlas cause they got bad ones either motor was installed wrong or something one guy wasted 10 gallons of gas going back and forth to the LHS then 3 hrs on the phone with Atlas. To this day they wont touch atlas. I had bad windings on Athearn locomotives so dont say these are great.
I dont know how old you are or how young but facs of life is not everyone can afford a 50.00-300.00 locomotive Some of us have budgets but enjoy the hobby.
I know why this hobby doesnt hav emany new modelers joining in the fun, its because people like you who have an opinion that if it isnt Atlas or some other top notch manufacture, its not worth buying.
Bergie Dont boot me for this please. I am just sick of people saying its junk cause they dont like them second I didnt ask for an opinion on is it junk.
