Quote from: napa15 on March 21, 2012, 03:15:46 PM
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.
