HO Spectrum N&W J Class

[Graham Sturman]

I plan to fit DCC/Sound to my J Class loco (Ref. # 82105). It appears to be DCC ready, with an 8-pin decoder socket (currently occupied by a blanking plug)on the circuit board in the tender, the floor of which is perforated to accept a speaker. Do I need to make any modifications to the existing lighting circuitry/components to ensure OK function of the lamps on the front of the .oco and rear of the tender, when running DCC?

[trainman203]

All quality decoders have many lighting related CV's.  You should be fine

[Graham Sturman]

I know that CVs can be used to set up control of loco lighting under DCC. My concern is that, when going from DCC-ready to DCC, whether its necessary to alter the original lighting circuitry to either protect/replace the original filament bulbs, because of the possible increase in the supply voltage to them.

[trainman203]

I'm not the electrician that a lot of model railroaders are, but when you consider that DC operated engines generally run on voltage 0-12 and that for motor usage DCC rectifies to DC a track AC voltage around 13 or so, it seems reasonable to assume the original bulbs are good. If you have the knowledge and ability though, LED lighting looks a lot better, to my eye anyway.