Some help please

[ianb26]

Hi there,

I need some help/advice please.

I have just bought a Bachmann Santa Fe Red & Silver F7, road #307 on ebay in Australia for $AU20! Also an extra one for spares was included. It doesn't have bogies on the front. Both locos have the Bachmann hook coupler on the front, but no coupler on the rear.

Not sure what year they were manufactured, could be pre 2000. On the bottom of both it says Bachmann, China. The one that is the good one has 91129 stamped on the chassis, I haven't taken the shell of the spare one so I haven't checked the chassis number

I intend to put a decoder in the good one, and I think it looks quite easy compared to a couple of other locos I have done.

Attached are some photos with one detailing the current connections to/from the pickups and headlight. I intend to mount the decoder on the weight - with insulation of course between decoder and weight.

Decoder Red and Black to pickups front and rear.
Decoder Orange & Grey to motor.
Decoder Blue to headlight Red.
Decoder Green to headlight Green.

I stand to be corrected on those. Any comments most appreciated.

I will need to replace the couplers. Would Kadee #5 be suitable or is there another Kadee that would best suit the job?
The screw holding the front coupler on is a very fine screw. It looks to be about a 1mm hole in the rear coupling holder.

Ian

PS. Can't seem to post attachments. There are 4, and as far as I can ascertain they are less than 128KB in total, about 112KB. Can I put up another post with just the attachments?

[WoundedBear]

You need to host your own photos on this site. Attachments are not permitted.

Here is a proper wiring diagram as per NMRA standards. Blue is the light positive lead, and the grounds are usually white or yellow. Not green. The rest of your plan seems ok.



Sid

[Terry Toenges]

Those 307 locos came in their basic train sets. I've had a couple over the years.
Here's an old Bachmann thread.
https://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/board/index.php?topic=15994.0;wap2

[jward]

Does the locomotive have all wheels powered? Do any of the wheels have traction tires? When you oper it up, is the motor centrally located with drive shafts to each truck? Or is the motor mounted on only one truck?

If it doesn't have all wheels powered, has traction tires or a truck mounted motor, it is a very poor candidate for DCC.

[ianb26]

Hi jward.

Thanks for your reply

A couple of wheels have/had traction tyres. One was broken, so I pulled it off, and I will remove the other one. The motor is on the rear bogies/trucks, there are pickups on ALL wheels.

The spare loco has traction tyres on the motor bogie. But need to find out the part number - if any - and assembly instructions to replace the wheels on the front bogie. This will the give me an unexpected 2nd loco!

Ian

[ianb26]

You need to host your own photos on this site. Attachments are not permitted.

Here is a proper wiring diagram as per NMRA standards. Blue is the light positive lead, and the grounds are usually white or yellow. Not green. The rest of your plan seems ok.



Sid

Thanks Sid.

The loco has Red & Green from the incoming pickups to the headlight. It appears as though the Red to the headlight comes from the Red from the pickup to the motor which then has a Black to the front bogie. The Green to the headlight comes from the Black  from the pickup to the motor which then has a RED to the front bogie.

I hope that all makes sense. FWIW I have NOT verified the leads to the front bogie as yet, that they are the same side as the rear.

Ian

[Terry Toenges]

I don't know it this will help.

[ianb26]

Thank you Terry,

Just what I wanted. Now I'll have to check out ebay, although probably won't be any available, especially here in Australia. Maybe I'll have to search Mr Google as well.

Thanks again,

Ian

[jward]

If that is what you have i wouldn't bother converting it to DCC. Those were notoriously poor performers.

[Geeraider]

You look like you have a pancake style motor I'm looking for one can you get an extra one I have a Bachmann dda40x Union Pacific it's an older model Hong Kong manufactured from like the early 80s

[rich1998]

I have run a pancake motor loco with a  one amp DZ125 decoder but the main issue were pickups. The slightest DCC interruption and the decoder stops and resets. It can be very frustrating. Decoders requires continuous power.
I did it to see if the motor would operate with a decoder. Very noisy. Only reason. An experiment. I improved the pickups.

Rich

[jward]

A much better solution would be to buy a new f7 or FT unit and put the F9 shell on it. There are alot of older locomotives that go cheap on ebay for a reason.