Putting a decoder in a Grizzl Flats Emma Nevada

[Grapevine Flyer]

I have a friend (disabled) who has asked me about putting a decoder in his Grizzly Flats Emma Nevada. I am not super familiar wit this loco.

The product description says includes "circuit board to accommodate the control system of ... NMRA/NEM DCC).  Does this mean it has an 8-pin socket on it?


When I look through the parts online, I see 3 possible PCBs for 2-6-0s:

http://estore.bachmanntrains.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=66_69_145&products_id=4874
http://estore.bachmanntrains.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=66_69_145&products_id=5028
http://estore.bachmanntrains.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=66_69_145&products_id=6957

Does anyone know which one of these is in the Emma Nevada?

[Kevin Strong]

None of those.

The tender of the Emma Nevada has the large scale de facto "standard" 23-pin socket in it. There are a handful of decoders designed to plug directly into this socket. Not all of them are DCC, but some are. QSI's older "magnum" and newer "Titan" boards come to mind. You may want to check ESU and Zimo to see if they make plug-and-play variants of their decoders which are compatible with this socket. I can't remember all of their various form factors off the top of my head.

Failing that, however, the Emma Nevada comes with a plug-in board which I lovingly refer to as the "porcupine." It plugs into the socket, and has 23 wires coming off of it, each one directly connected to the individual pins. This allows you to wire any decoder on the market to the existing on-board electronics. Works like a charm! There's a wiring diagram which shows you which wires go where, and many modern decoders (TCS, Soundtraxx, QSI, ESU, Zimo, Massoth, etc.) for large scale have screw terminals, so you just put each individual wire into the correct screw terminal on the decoder and you're all set. I've run my mogul this way with QSI and Massoth decoders for testing purposes.

Later,

K