Chipping the Alco F units

I mentioned before that I had ordered some Southern Digital frames and Digitrax DZ126 decoders for the FA1/FB1 loco set that I want to put DCC in. I only ordered two frames, enough for one set, just in case they didn't work out. I could have gotten DZ123 decoders a bit cheaper, but the 126 has BEMF and better motor control, so the added cost was more than justified.

They arrived and I set to work to put them together. I'm happy to say they worked out great, I did make one modification that I will show to connect the wires and I did have to deviate from the instructions a bit for the motor wire length, but overall they were well worth the purchase price.

The first thing I did was strip down one of the locos and compare the frames.

 The left half of the frame is virtually identical to the stock frame, about the only difference (not pictured) is the tab that contacts the upper motor brush is missing on the Southern Digital frame. The right side is very different, having the relief cut out for the decoder. The pocket that the motor fits into is also deeper to allow room for the decoder wire to run to the bottom brush. This becomes important when modifying the stock frames to use on the B units.

I assembled one of the frames as per the directions and discovered that the decoder wire lengths that are specified are too short for the motor leads, they both needed to be another inch longer than the instructions said so that they would reach to the relief where the decoder sits.

The instructions also said the white magnet on the motor went to the top, but both of my motors had the white magnets on the bottom. I left the white magnets on the bottom and when I was done the locos went forward when the NCE PowerCab had forward selected and backwards when the PowerCab said reverse, so they must have been right.

The second thing is the way the wires connect to the frame. The directions say to solder the wires to the frame, but I found the solder just would not stick to the frames. So I figured out another way to do it.

On the left half there are indents cut in for some brass clips to fit in, these clips hold the plastic bearing blocks for the worm gears in place. Being brass they were easy to put some solder on for the black decoder wire.

I had noticed some indents down the sides of the frame and thought maybe the red wire would fit in the one closest to the rear of the frame. I checked, and sure enough it did. So I took my rotary tool and a cutoff disk and cut a wire channel in the top of the frame.

Next, I inserted the truck pickup strip into its spot on the right frame half and marked it where the slot in the frame was. Then I tinned the contact strip.

With the contacts figured out I soldered the wires to the motor, put some electrical tape in for added insulation, and put it in the frame with the gears.


The frame was then reassembled and the black and red wires soldered to the frame tab and truck pickup strip respectively.
 

 The red wire was then tucked into its new slot in the frame;

 and the decoder was nestled into its new home.

The trucks were put in and the headlight wired up to the blue and white wires. The directions say to just hook the white wire up but I did them both.

A note of caution, if you ever do one of these be sure to cut the traces on both sides of the light PC board. They are both connected.

I then put the assembled loco on the track and tested it out, and it all worked swimmingly. This completed chassis then went under one of the A units.

I then took a close look and noticed that with a bit of judicious filing the old frame would work for the B unit, I just had to take off enough material for the decoder to fit in the depression where the cab would be on the A unit. I used a rotary tool and cutoff wheel to accomplish this. I then cut a slot for the red wire, on the front of the frame this time, and then while holding the frame halves together cut a slot along the spine of the frame from the front to the top motor contact tab to clear the motor wires. Lastly I cut out the top motor contact tab on the left frame half.

With these modifications the decoder fits on the front of the frame with no problems. The light wires were just clipped short and taped off. The contacts were soldered on the same way as before, and the finished locomotive was tested and put under a B unit shell.

That left me a spare Southern Digital frame. As luck would have it I had another set of locomotives to modify, so the work was done and I now have not one but two FA1/FB1 sets in Erie paint.

All I have to do now is speed match them and I'll be all ready to go pull some freight.

UPDATE: When I went to speed match the locos I found the chipped units were much much slower than the non-chipped units. The non-chipped units ran a max of about 106 scale MPH (prototype top speed was about 65) while the chipped units were fortunate to find themselves above 35. I took the units apart and found the decoder wires were causing the motors to bind on the modified stock frames. So I had to cut a relief in the modified stock frames for the decoder wire and I also had to adjust the tightness of the screws holding the two frame halves together. The screws have to be tight enough to hold the frames together to slip inside the shell but no tighter otherwise the motor binds. Screw tightness also accounted for the slow speed of the Southern Digital framed units.

With those adjustments and modifications made the chipped units once again ran at the same excessive speed as the non-chipped units. I set CV's 2, 5 and 6 on each  individual unit to give each loco a starting speed of about 2 scale MPH with a top speed of 65 and a mid speed of 35. Now they all run together as they should.

I now have four chipped units and two DC only units. I'm thinking of selling the two DC units because they have the same numbers as one set of chipped units, but I may just keep them for DC only operations.

But I have them all the same.

T-TRAK

I have been building T-TRAK modules with narrow gauge track on them. The latest module is a double straight with bridges. I had planned on going 1.5 inches elevation for the narrow gauge, but I changed it up to 2" (51mm) so that I can run the standard gauge underneath it if I want to, I thought it would work out better.

 I built the base on an open front so that I could dig down into the foam to put in a bridge or two.

 At first I thought about putting in a road crossing, but it just wasn't going to line up with the narrow gauge bridge that I wanted to use. Maybe I'll get a chance to try this again and I'll just build my own grade crossing instead of using the Unitrack crossing.

 So I just decided to go with just bridges. The plan is to put a waterfall in behind the narrow gauge bridge and have the river run under both bridges off the front.

I've been carving foam and casting rocks to put on the mountains, in the pictures the mountains are pretty straight but I've carved some reliefs in and I think the rock work is going to really set it off.

Tomorrow I'm going to take the roughed in modules that I already have done, two outside curves and the straight pictured above, to the club president's house and hopefully get the OK to put them in the shows once they are finished. If I get the OK I need to do two more single straights and then figure out if I want to do inside corners or junctions to connect them up to the rest of the T-TRAK layout.

Future plans are to make a junction so that I can connect these narrow gauge T-TRAK modules to my existing layout. And when that happens more pictures will get posted. At least then I'll have some narrow gauge track put in somewhere.

You Tube

The Path Valley Railroad now has a YouTube channel!

This channel will be used mostly to keep track of model railroad related subscriptions, but there will be a video or two loaded as well.

Come check us out!

More Projects

I have a few things on their way today.

First up is a couple of locomotive kits from Republic for that Marklin ten-wheeler chassis I told you about at the end of my last post. There aren't any ten-wheeler specific kits that I am aware of, so I ordered a C-16 kit that I am hoping to modify to fit and a Mogul kit that I have no idea what I'm going to do with but I liked it so I went ahead and ordered it. I'll have to come up with another chassis for it I guess, but it will be the 8803 series with a tender instead of the 8895 tank loco that the kit calls for. It's the same chassis, just a different bottom plate, so it will work fine.

I also ordered a pair of Southern Digital frames and decoders for one of the Life-Like PA1/PB1 Erie locomotive pairs that I have. When they get here I will use them to convert my slowest pair of locomotives, I have three sets to choose from and if I screw them up I would rather lose the set that doesn't play well with the others. If they work well I will order four more of each and convert the other two sets as well, then they can be speed matched and made to run together. I may actually end up selling one set since I have two with the same numbers, in that case I don't know if I will bother converting them or not.

I am glad to see Southern Digital makes these frames, since Aztec closed up shop they are the only game in town. I knew about Aztec frames but was completely unaware of Southern Digital, so discovering them was a happy occurrence. They also have frames for the Life Like SD7/9 that I have already converted, but I might have to order one just to see what it is all about.

With all of this in addition to the kits I already have and the modules I need to build, along with whatever Mrs Hades wants me to get done I have enough projects to last me until doomsday, I think.

This Week on the PVRR

Late last week the SD9 that had been sent in for warranty repairs returned, at no charge. Apparently I had turned in the little card that comes with the loco to register it, so the repair was made and the loco sent back. It took a while but the loco now runs just as well as the other one. I have speed matched them and they run perfectly together.

I am not quite sure if the loco was repaired or replaced, it came back in a different box with the decoder reset to factory specs and all the paperwork included. Either way it runs good and I have a pair of SD9's in Pennsy paint that run together as they should, both with sound. I must say I'm not crazy about the Rule 17 lighting though, but I don't know how to change that.

Today I speed matched the J class locos as well. Both of them top out at around 80 scale MPH, which is a bit slow for them since the prototypes were clocked at 100 plus. I found that they were topping out at speed step 85 (of 126) and then there was no change in actual speed from that point to the upper setting of 126. Changing CV5 got them to top out at speed step 126, CV6 has been set so the mid speed for both is right around 41 at speed step 64 and the step 1 speed is 1mph for 611 and 0.6mph for 601. They will run together when consisted, so I can double head them now. I don't know if the N&W ever did, but I can if I want to.

Unfortunately as I was putting 611 away I saw that one of the side rods had detached from the valve gear. It is supposed to have a plastic circle on the backside of it to keep it on the slide rails. That circle is gone. And, of course, this part is out of stock at Bachmann. I am going to try to put some thin brass on the loco in its place. So far I am 0 for 3 in replacement parts needed for these locos now; I need a new shell for 601 so I can rob the windows out of it, a tender shell for 601 because I cut through it to clear the decoder, and now valve gear for 611.

I refined the programming on the  semi-streamliner Pacific that was in Lackawanna paint that I had redone in Norfolk and Western as well. It now reaches a prototypical top speed and would probably run with the J classes if I chose to do so although the top speed is a bit lower than the J classes. All three of them run reliably now though. I still need to do something with the headlight on that Pacific, as well as the one on the Model Power Pennsy L2 Mikado. I am hesitant to take them apart for headlights though, since they are running now.

And on another note, the B&O Mikado that I had lost a smoke box face for got a new one, I had an old Pacific that I never could get running right and had taken apart for pieces and as luck would have it the smoke box faces are interchangeable between the two. Now all of my Model Power locos are up and running (with the exception of the Pacific that was taken apart for pieces of course).

I have yet to chip the Kato powered GHQ Pennsy L1 Mikado, I think I want to try to put a working headlight in it but I don't yet know how I am going to accomplish that. I'm thinking about SMLEDs with the wires run down to the existing Kato circuit board, I would have to put long leads on it and then try to figure out how to coil them up inside the smoke box but I am thinking that might be the easiest way to do it.

On the narrow gauge front I am the somewhat proud owner of a Marklin 8899 chassis, which is a 4-6-0. I need to get a kit for it, I'm thinking the best one would be the RLW C-16. Fortunately Marshall from RLW has decided that he would stick around as long as the orders were coming in, so I am able to get what I need for now. That doesn't mean I'm going to wait around for long, though. I also have a bunch of Republic Locomotive Works kits for EBT Mikados, boxcars and hoppers that need building as well, so I should be gainfully employed on railroad related materials for the foreseeable future.

And that's about it for now. Happy Rails!