DCC suggestion

[glennk28]

With Bachmann now firmly in the DCC field, perhaps they could consider developing some DCC decoders specifically targeted at Large Scale.  These would be capable of handling the current loads of the larger motors, and be set up to control two-motor locomotives as well.  They should also be capable of supporting the additional functions that are frequently used with sound. 

How about it, HLR?   gj

[tsnydersr]

I'll certainly second your idea! After buying the necessary parts to add DCC to my "Big Haulers" Christmas trains, I find out that they cannot be converted  If I live long enough, maybe there will be a fix for this.

[the Bach-man]

Dear Glenn,
I'm with you!
Best,
the Bach-man

[Jon D. Miller]

tsnydersr,

The Big Hauler can be converted to DCC.

http://www.girr.org/girr/tips/tips1/big_hauler_tips.html#dcc

George Schreyer has converted a number of Big Haulers to DCC.  The above link will take you to George's site.  He details converting  Big Haulers to DCC.

Take a look.


One of the "Enthusiastic Children"


JD

[rperego]

I've converted a number of Big Haulers as well as some other Bachmann locos using NCE D13SR decoders (1.3 amps continuous, 2 amp stall).   On flat track with 5' curves the most I draw is about .7 amps pulling 4 to 5 cars.  I've had some stalls but have yet to blow a decoder.  Hardest part is knowing how to get the loco apart without damaging anything.

[glennk28]

Point I'm going for is two things:
1) most decoders suitable for large scale locos are rather pricey. Perhaps a line targeted at LS could get the costs down.

2) It seems to me that most installations in 2-motor locos tend to be a "Kludge" job.  There are a lot of 2-motor LS locos out there now--all the Bachmann Shays, Climaxes, Heislers, 45-tonners, and probably the coming 2-6-6-2's;  all the diesels from Aristo, LGB, and USA Trains--the potential market is out there--let's see some drop-in units in our scale. 

[rperego]

I understand your point, but I'm not sure by "drop in" what you're looking for that is much easier than what can now be done.   My conversions for Big Haulers and some others took some soldering, but for my Shay I kept the factory board in place, made the swith over according to the instructions and supplied interface points, and $20 later I had a DCC conversion (obviously more for the Tsunami I use for sound).

[glennk28]

I don't believe any of the Big Haulers has more than one motor.  Likewise they are fairly low current draw.  The locos I am referring to are the Spectrum locos with usually two or even three motors.  When I first tried to get a Shay wired up,  the usual recommendation was to treat each drive truck as a separate locomaotive--one reason I backed away from DCC for the big stuff.  gj

[rperego]

I curious where you found a recommendation to treat each motor as a separate loco.  If this is true, it is strange that the wiring diagram for the Shay board just shows how to hook up a single decoder.  This said, I'm currently having an issue with some jerkiness at slow speeds but this only recently happened - i.e. it worked fine when I first installed it.

[glennk28]

This was back around 2000, when the first Shays were coming in--and we were frying the pickups regularly--I think it was in discussions on the predecessor to this board.  I was trying DCC in HO at the time and had difficulty getting units to MU. 

One of the most important consideratons then was the "stall current" of the motor--and some of the big Pittmans like used in O Scale locos, and now in the K-27, have stall currents over 10 amps. 

[rperego]

Glenn - As mentioned I've stalled a Big Hauler without blowing the NCE D13SR 2 amp decoder although I haven't tried stalling my Shay - it might do it.  But, for $20 per loco no big deal.

Tsnydersr - by Christmas train do you mean the Bachmann "Christmas" Big Haulers or just others you run at Christmas time?  Why don't you think they can be converted?  Seeing is believing - here's a youtube of my holiday layout:  I think the North Pole and Southern is the one from 2 or 3 years ago but I've converted some other pretty old Big Haulers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2d67i4L1FLE&feature=related

(Sorry about the video quality - my first attempt at making one)