Once again gentlemen my grattitude to all for enlightening me.
Regards Limey.

Hi friends, can anyone tell me if steam locos had tenders attached when they were on turntables or wether they just relied on the head of steam on board to position them in the sheds.
      My longest steamer is 2-8-4 Berkshire ( by Bachmann of course ) which measures 15.5 inches coupler to coupler with the tender attached and 8 inches without.

Thanks, Limey.

Thanks jward and richg,  I am not totally au fait with electronics but when I metered before this thing and got a reading and then metered after it and got nothing I thought that there was something askew. 

Regards, Limey.

richg,
           Sorry I can't do the pictures you want, but I know you a very familiar with electronics so picture this 22 diodes soldered together in a circle positive to negative.  Solder an input wire to the circle, count off 11 diodes and solder on a take off wire.
   I know how a bridge rectifier is configured but this doesn't even conform to that.  The diodes are marked N4004 then underneath that G164.  I am interested on your take on this thing.
    BTW. I just cut the thing out and wired in an 8 pin socket the normal way and everything works fine. I did have to reset the decoder to factory specs and then re-program it though.

Regards Limey.

Hi folks, I finally found out this is a C.N.  C.Liner put out by True Line Trains of Canada.  It has a 2 axle truck on the front and a 3 axle truck on the rear.  It seems to be nicely made, a good heavy one piece cast metal body, can motor with universals to drive the trucks with pick ups on all wheels. Very quiet operation.  The only thing to identify manufacture is plastic cover over the fuel tank which indicates it is made in China ( where else ) for  Canadian Hobbycraft Ltd.  Kind of sparse on detailing but a very nice operating unit.

Regards, Limey.

For those of you that might be interested on this topic, I removed the yellow shrink tubed gizmo and wired the motor direct to the plug. installed a new decoder and everything works great.

     The GIZMO turned out to be 21 diodes wired in series with a piece of insulation between them.  Why anyone would put that number of diodes together for any reason beats me.

     BTW. my friend told me that this installation was done by the LHS where he bought the locos.

   Regards, Limey.

Further to my original post, I replaced the decoder with the dummy plugs and the loco runs but very slowly, on full power it is barely creeping along, also, the packet in the yellow shrink tube gets quite warm after only about 2 minutes to test it.

Limey.

 A friend has asked me to have a look at this 5 axle diesel that I think is made by Kato although there is nothing on the loco to indicate manufacturer.
  The problem is that someone else has installed a decoder in this unit but the unit does not run. The headlight can be turned on and off, and on the program track I can read back the four digit allocated number.
   The decoder is a Digitrax  DH163 wired to an 8 pin plug. This 8 pin plug goes into a small PC board.

      What I can't understand is the orange wire goes from the 8 pin PC board to the motor via a conglomeration of electrical parts that are contained in a piece of yellow shrink tubing.  Looking into one end of the shrink tubing ( which is about twice the size of the decoder,) there seems to be a bunch of diodes and resistors on a PC board.  There are no other wires in or out of this shrink tube effort.
    Does anyone have any  experience with anything of this sort, it's certainly new to me.

Thanks, Limey.

nberpa,
              Go to the Bachmann site, Parts, HO, and then in the top right corner enter " connectors " in the Search field it will show you a 2 pin and 4 pin plug which although not specifically for your unit it should fit. I am pretty sure all the plugs for HO are a standard size.
Hope this helps.
Limey.

Hi Baldwinmikado,
                             I still don't know what the problem was with my unit, but I thought it was a bad decoder so I swapped out the Bachmann decoder for a Digitrax  DH123P. and programmed it O.K.
     
  However,I reused the Bachmann decoder in another unit, a Bachmann F2B DCC Ready and it checked out O.K. too.

        I have a feeling that one of the wires on the 8 pin socket was not making a good connection as it came off when I was switching the decoder on the 2-8-4 and I had to re-solder it.

Regards, Limey.

 I have been looking at getting a turntable for my layout but prices are very high.  $300 + on ebay plus shipping. for a DCC equipped 90 ft. turn table.
  I can get a new 90 ft. turntable and motor kit for less than $100,( Same make and model as the DCC)  does anyone know what is involved in making this into a DCC unit,  or is it even worth going the DCC route?

Regards, Limey.

utdave,
               These wires are actually two pieces of thin brass wire that are quite stiff and bent to shape around various parts of the unit, they are also hard wired to the PC board. They are power pickups from the rear trucks to the motor via the PC board. They are only about as thick as the decoder wire and pass through two holes in a bulkhead just in front of the rear cab. They are so thin I don't think you could attach anything to them to pull them back through the holes. They are a bit tricky to get through the holes but it can be done even by me with aging and shakey hands.
Regards, Limey.

 Thanks richg,  coming from you, that to me is high praise indeed.  I have been very grateful to your contributions over the past couple of years and thought if  I could help someone else with this effort well why not.  Figuring out some of this stuff for DCC helps keep the grey cells moving, lets face it once you retire if you don't use em you lose em.

Regards, Limey.

Well I finally got up enough guts to try and install a decoder in my ballast regulator. The install wiring etc is straight forward if you have done one before, however the tough part was figuring out where to put the decoder in such a small space.

  To start with remove the coupler from the engineers end ( small cab ) this is just a push fit with two springy plastic tabs. compress the tabs and pull the coupler forward.

  Next remove the rear truck, one screw hold it in, this makes it easier when you reinstall those two long wire pickups that run through the unit to the motor board.

   There are two indents ( one each side ) that hold the motor and front trucks in place, very carefully spread the sides of the unit until these are released. you can then remove the whole motor front truck assembly.

   As you look at the unit, on one side is a small PC board with the wires attached ( this is fitted into a nice slot on one side of the unit) there is just enough space on the other side of the motor to fit a DZ125 decoder.

   Now looking at the PC board,  there are two copper clips that are covering four terminals, carefully remove them.
   The wiring hookup is as follows:-  With writing on the PC board facing you and the Red and Black wires to the left the wires from the decoder are  connected to the four terminals in this order,  RED  GREY  BLACK  ORANGE.  since there no lights on the Ballast Regulator the White, Blue and Yellow wires can be clipped off.

     I installed my DZ125 head down so that the wires ran over the top of the motor to the PC board

    The really tricky part was feeding those two long pickup wires back through the body of the Ballast Regulator to the rear trucks.
    Lots of patience and some bad words. Get these wires in place, relocate the motor and front truck assembly, reinstall the front coupler then lastly reinstall the rear truck.

         I hope this helps somebody who might want to do this install.  Sorry I can't do pics. I am still trying to get my head round this Windows 8.

     Regards, Limey.

A very big thank you to all of you for the great advice,  now I know where I am going with my layout, power wise that is. I have 2.5amp Zephyr that I can use for my yards and programming and my DB100 for the main operation with a couple of PM42's for power districts. 

Many thanks, Limey.