renew old DC 70 ton switcher engine to DCC

[gmpender]

To: Customer Service
Subject: Re: old 70 ton switcher



Hi Laura,



I know you say it is too old, but it is a good engine and it runs fine. Except it is just DC. Can you bear with me and help me figure out a way to convert this engine to DCC? Even if you have to talk to your engineers that design your engines, I would like to try to convert it. If you, or they, can tell me everything that I need to do to convert it, I will do my best to do it. I currently have two of your newer engines like this, and they are both very noisy. There may be ways to make them quieter, but they will never be as quiet as the one I sent you pictures on. Maybe you could start a new project to bring back and old 70 tonner. I would love to either write an article (if I do all the work) and include you as the help source, or contribute to an article in Model Railroader Magazine about the process. I hope you will help me do that.



I have a lot of questions. I Like this engine and would still like to be able to upgrade this engine to DCC. It is very quiet, unlike your current 70 ton engine. That is the one thing I do not like about your current 70 ton switcher engines. They are almost the same as the one I have except for the single/dual motor difference, and the PCB. But there are a lot of PCB's out there, and even if you had to use two, (one for each motor) you could "Multiple Unit" them to act as one unit. Maybe even come up with a new decoder that is a permanent multiple unit for this engine.



1. Can I use a decoder from some other company? Or can you develop one for use with my engine?

2. Since there are two motors, would it need 2 decoders?

3. If not possible to make DCC why not? I would like to try to convert the old engine to DCC. Bachmann, as the original maker of this engine, please help in overcoming the barriers to converting it to DCC.

4.Can you tell me all of the reasons you cannot convert it? My goal here is to help you make a better engine by either converting one of your old engines to DCC, or help determine and fixing the cause of the loudness in your current engine.

5. Can you tell me all of the reasons you cannot convert the old engine?

6. Are there solutions to those problems, or changes (even drastic) that can be made to convert it to DCC?

7. You say it is too old to fit your PCB. Why? Make your PCB smaller.

8. you say that it is too small to put the current decoder in it. Can you use different decoder(s)?

I know that you have to isolate the motor(s)  from the metal frame to install DCC. Is there a way to do that? I noticed that the wires for the wheels go to a sweeper on the wheels that are attached to the metal truck frame.

9. What would have to be done to accomplish that?

10. Can you determine what is causing the noise in your current engine and fix that?

11. Can you apply the same fix to my two nearly new current 70 tonners that I have, and make them quieter?

I am willing to use my old engine as the test engine and make the changes myself to try to convert it to DCC. It will be no good to me as a DC engine and will eventually die a very bad DC death on my DCC layout, unless you can help me convert it.

12. Will you help? All I need is some answers to the questions here, and I can get started.

Thank you,

George Pendergraft

[Atlantic Central]

George,

All you need to do is buy a decoder, from Bachmann or any company, Digitrax, etc, and wire it up according to the instructions. there is nothing about the old 70 tonner that would prevent this. You do want one with a reasonably high amp capacity just to be save with the two motors, but it is an easy conversion.

It is interesting that you do not like the new 70 tonner. My new single motor 70 tonners and 44 tonners run very nice and seem no more noisy than my old two motor version, of which I only have one. It has never preformed all that well for me so the new ones are my choice.

While I am very familir with DCC and how it works, I do not use it on my personal layout. I actuallyremove/bypass the decoder portion of the circuit boards on locos like the new 70 tonner. the type of DC throttle I use does not work well with dual mode DCC decoders.

Sheldon

[richg]

I do not think Laura reads the forums but the Bach Man does read the forums.

The two motor 44 ton and 70 ton have the motors in parallel. Just isolate the motor wires and connect the to the decoder orange and gray decoder wires. The red and black decoder wires go to the pickups on each drive.
Watch your wiring or you might have both motors pulling against each other or pushing against each other.

The two motors together draw about 600ma at 12 volts DC.
The two motor 44 ton is slightly smaller loco than the two motor 70 ton but are quite similar.
A Digitrax DZ125 decoder is quite small and can handle 1 amp. I use this decoder in a couple locos. It has very good slow speed control.

Be advised, this is not plug and play. I saw a MR magzine from 2001 I think that shows this install in a 44 ton with a Digitrax decoder. Again, the 44 ton and 70 ton are quite similar.
You would probably have to buy the back issue of the magazine if you have not done anything like this before.
I doubt we will see a sound version of this but I could be wrong. Today, most want a huge diesel. Think power.

If you know how to solder and can follow instructions, it can be done. The NMRA has all the DCC info you need. There is a ton of DCC info on the 'Net about DCC.
It sounds like you are not to aware of what is involved in DCC conversions.
Good luck.

Rich

[the Bach-man]

Dear George,
One reason for the move to a single motor is the fact that one motor often failed before the other. If you go through the effort and expense of converting to DCC, you will very likely face this situation eventually. You might be better advised to run this loco on analog and add the new version to your roster.
Have fun!
the Bach-man

[CNE Runner]

Gmpender: I don't have a 70-tonner, but I recently purchased a Bachmann Spectrum 45-ton model after a 'glowing' review from fellow forum posters. The 45-Ton is one sweet running model and well worth the purchase price. My point to all this is that often is makes more sense to buy new...then to pour resources into a marginal locomotive.

It seems the general consensus is that your best course of action is to begin searching the Internet for the best price on a new Bachmann GE 70 Ton locomotive. There are many comparison websites available; but one that I have always found useful is www.nextag.com you may want to give them a try.

Good luck,
Ray