Tenshodo Spud motor bogie

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Hi all

Has anyone ever converted a Tenshodo Spud motor bogie to DCC?

If so how? All i know is you have to somehow isolate the pickups from the motor.

Thanks

Gareth

2

I’ve never done a Tenshodo. The closest thing I have done is a power truck for a Bachmann 44 ton. I don’t know if the two are similar or not. THe bachmann was very simple to convert.

3

Wow, I converted a locomotive that had two of those years and years ago (1986?). As I recall it is just like you say, “isolate the pickups from the motor” and put the decoder in between.

Depending on the spud you have (there were three slight variations), it should have two wires that come from the side and touch two contact plates on the top. The contact plates are the motor. So you have to desolder there. Connect the decoder input (black and red) to those wires which is track pickup. Then the decoder output (orange and grey to) should be solder to those contacts. Make certain to use heat shrink tubing to seal the wire to wire joints because electrical tape will be too bulky in the area that close to the wheels.

It is really quite easy, except for splicing onto the very short track wires.

4

Wasn’t that a ZZ Top song a few years back?

No, wait, that was “Tube Steak Boogie”, not “Tenshodo Spud Bogie”…