Ok… I’m about to install a decoder into a Model Power 4-4-0… There’s plenty of room in the tender and all the wires are there with the exception of the headlight… The headlight gets its power from the loco’s wheels and the motor get it’s from the tenders wheels… I’d like to hook the decoder to the light but I don’t think it’s possible… Has anyone done anything similar? Will the light still work once I convert it to DCC without hooking it to the decoder?
No one?
Doesn’t surprise me at all that you’re not getting a response. When these locos first came out a couple of months ago they had problems and the manufacturer issued a recall and sent them back to Korea to be reworked by the fabricator. The revised locos have just started to hit local hobby shops within the past couple of days. Give it some time.
Having said that, it seems to me that I read of a decoder installation on another forum, by some guy who kept his loco instead of having his hobby shop return it. I’ll see if I can find that and post a link.
Edit: Okay, found the thread. The thread talks about other stuff too, but does have several posts regarding decoder installation in a MP 4-4-0. Unfortunately, looks like a couple of the old photo links have been changed.
One of your assumptions is only partly correct. The headlight does get it’s power from the drivers, but the motor gets power from both the drivers and from the partial pickup from the tender wheels.
Here’s the link:
http://www.trainboard.com/ultimatebb.php/ubb/get_topic/f/9/t/006405.html
Regards
Ed (still waiting for his LHS to get their allocation of these locos…)
Why worry about the headlight. If you put the decoder in and only use it to run the motor the headlight will stay on all the time as the DCC power is always on so the headlight will stay on. If you’re running a 4-4-0 you’re not likely to be double-heading and who cares if the front headlight stays on when you back up. K.I.S.S.
Ed Schultz
Farmington, MN