Thomas the tank possible for DCC?

[cinnamon999]

I bought for my son a few Bachmann locos (Thomas, Toby, Emilie and Gordon).
Is it possible to upgrade them with Bachmann DCC-Decoder? 
It will be much more fun for him, but I don`t know if it`s possible.

greetings from Germany

[MilwaukeeRoadfan261]

There is for Thomas but I don't know about Toby, Emily and Gordon. I have seen videos of Emily fitted with DCC but not Toby or Gordon. In the Thomas and Friends area there is a topic with the steps for fitting a Bachmann Thomas with DCC.

[Tom M.]

I suggest you go to the TCS decoder web site. 

www.tcsdcc.com

From there, select installation pictures and then go to the section on Bachmann locos.  There you will find images and instructions for installing DCC is almost all of the Bachmann Thomas product line.  It appears that they all must be hard-wire installations, but it is possible.

Good luck,

Tom

[napa15]

As stated already, yes it is possible to upgrade them to DCC. It's way more difficult to do in the smaller engines, such as Thomas. Most people who upgrade Thomas to DCC do it one of two ways: 1). Use an N scale DCC decoder, which is much smaller, so it will fit better, plus you have to fit the speaker in the small tender box area. 2). I've seen some installations where people install the DCC decoder into the Annie or Clarabel coach and run the wires to Thomas from it, permanently coupling the coach to Thomas.

I am a rookie at all this DCC stuff and just did my first DC > DCC hardwire when I installed a Bachmann DCC decoder into our Bachmann HO Spencer loco. I used the installation instructions from the link I provided below as the guidelines, as the insides of Spencer are much the same as Henry and Gordon. I have both of those engines as well and will upgrade them soon too.

Happy railroading:

Direct link to the Henry/Gordon DCC upgrade instructions:
http://www.tcsdcc.com/public_html/Customer_Content/Installation_Pictures/HO_Scale/Bachmann/Henrygordon/HenryGordon.htm

Direct link to the Thomas Engine DCC upgrade instructions:
http://www.tcsdcc.com/public_html/Customer_Content/Installation_Pictures/HO_Scale/Bachmann/Thomas%20The%20Tank%20Limited%202002/Spectrum%20Thomas%20The%20Tank.html

[cinnamon999]

As stated already, yes it is possible to upgrade them to DCC. It's way more difficult to do in the smaller engines, such as Thomas. Most people who upgrade Thomas to DCC do it one of two ways: 1). Use an N scale DCC decoder, which is much smaller, so it will fit better, plus you have to fit the speaker in the small tender box area. 2). I've seen some installations where people install the DCC decoder into the Annie or Clarabel coach and run the wires to Thomas from it, permanently coupling the coach to Thomas.

I am a rookie at all this DCC stuff and just did my first DC > DCC hardwire when I installed a Bachmann DCC decoder into our Bachmann HO Spencer loco. I used the installation instructions from the link I provided below as the guidelines, as the insides of Spencer are much the same as Henry and Gordon. I have both of those engines as well and will upgrade them soon too.

Happy railroading:

Direct link to the Henry/Gordon DCC upgrade instructions:
http://www.tcsdcc.com/public_html/Customer_Content/Installation_Pictures/HO_Scale/Bachmann/Henrygordon/HenryGordon.htm

Direct link to the Thomas Engine DCC upgrade instructions:
http://www.tcsdcc.com/public_html/Customer_Content/Installation_Pictures/HO_Scale/Bachmann/Thomas%20The%20Tank%20Limited%202002/Spectrum%20Thomas%20The%20Tank.html

Thank you very, very much.

[Keusink]

I had Thomas, James, and Gordon fitted w/ TCS decoders professionally. Their performance is marginal. Too few pickups. T and J particularly have trouble with autoreverse on reverse loops when used with an AR 1 automatic reverser. They stall there due to the pickup sparcity. Gordon might work better if we added pickups to tender wheels, and ran them to the loco, but it really does not seem worth the trouble or expense.

On the plus side, their fake lights can be replaced with working lights with the decoder.

Wheels and track must be shiny clean at all times, no tolerance for the slightest smudge. Hard to do with a layout of any size.

Were I  to consider doing it again, I probably would not. We have settled on the alternative of naming various buildings and stations after places in Sodor, but we use standard HO locos instead.

Hope that helps.
Chris