My neighbor came over today and brought his Hudson he had bought some ten years ago. It has been in the box the entire time. (He also has a Riv Big Boy still in orignal box). We cleaned up the wheels, lubed it up and it kind of ran around the track (DCC 00). To make a long story short he is really thinking about getting into HO and wants to convert his Loco to DCC. It has two drivers on the same side with traction tires (rotted away). Apparently only one side of the loco gets rail power and the opposite side of the tender gets the other rail power. As I will be helping him I was wondering if it would be practical or possible to rewire so one side of the loco is right track and left side of loco is left track (you know normal) and the same for the tender. Or are we sort of stuck with this older method of wiring. If we can figure that out I can wire the rest for DCC and sound. Any ideas or advise. I know it needs lots of extra weight. Comparing my BLI Hudson the Riv is feather lite. Any help we can get bringing this loco up to speed will be greatly appreciated.
Terry[8D]
I have an eveen older Hudson which I would like to convert as well so I am interested in these replies. I have another problem in addition to the DCC issue. Older Rivarossi engines had oversized wheel flanges. The purpose was to allow their large steam locos to run on tight (18" and 22") curves. Back then code 100 was the standard for track but now code 83 has become popular and the oversized flanges drag across the tie clips. The also lift up when passing through code 83 frogs. All the wheels have this feature including the ones on the tender so all of them would need replacing. Since Rivarossi has gone belly up, is there a supplier who could provide replacement wheels.
jecorbett - If this hudson is 10 or 12 years old are we going to have the same wheel problem? I can’t tell by looking. I guess I could compare the wheels to my BLI Hudson. This should be a fun project. Glad to have your company.
Terry[8D]
I actually have two streamlined Hudsons, the original gray designed for the 20th Century Limited in the 1930s and the fluted stainless steel one designed for the Empire State Express in 1941. The gray one was purchased some time in the 1980s.
The stainless steel one I know I got in 1991because it was part of a set co-released by Rivarossi and Con-Cor. The engine is a Rivarossi and the passenger cars are Con-Cors. It was released in observance of the 50th anniversary of the train.
Although it is almost imperceptible to the naked eye, the flanges on the fluted Hudson are slightly smaller and do not drag the ties. When I pull the gray Hudson down the track, it has a faint washboard sound but the fluted Hudson does not make this sound at all so I don’t think your 12 year old Hudson will have the problem either.
I remember the release date of the Empire State Express for a very curious reason. I had already purchased my set via phone order, no internet retailers back then. I was in a LHS when I overheard the owner talking about the set to another customer. I had just read the full story of this train in a NYC book I had bought and I couldn’t resist going into my Cliff Clavin routine and boring them with it (as I may be doing to anyone who has read this far). I told them that the train had made its inaugural run exactly 50 years ago to the day. The NYC wanted to generate a lot of PR for its new train so they scheduled the first run as a special for press and radio people only. They scheduled it for a Sunday morning which figured to be a slow news day giving them a good shot at front page coverage. The train was one hour out of Grand Central Station when they received word that Japan had attacked Pearl Harbor. Needless to say, they didn’t make the front page. I was telling them this story on December 7, 1991.
Hey thats a great story. I learned alittle history tonight. I model the NYC myself.
Terry[8D]
I learned something, or more accurately relearned it, from your original post. I can run a DC loco on my DCC system using address 00. I vaguely remember reading this somewhere in one of several books I bought to get me up to speed on DCC. I can’t remember for sure but it seems to me the book also said it was not a good idea to do this on a regular basis but I can’t remember why.
I have noticed that if I have a DC engine on the track when I power up my DCC, the engine produces a feint hissing sound. Why is that?. I’m also not sure why this works. I’ll take a stab at it and guess that when loco address 00 is entered, the DCC system converts the track current from AC to DC. How good is my guess?
I don’t know all of the mumbo jumbo but a DC loco on 00 DCC the hum and noise you hear is normal. Something about the AC signal on the dc motor. I have heard both sides of not running 00 very long. I am not sure. I usually only put a DC on DCC when I get a new Loco and want to check it out before putting in a decoder. So you were pretty darned close. I guess we are on our own with this conversion. Hopefully someone will come foward with some info soon.
Terry
Well we decided the best solution would be to buy a new BLI NYC Hudson.
Terry[8D]