Thanks for the help!  Does anyone make a good pair of wire strippers for that little bity wire?  Also do they make butt connectors?

Hello,

I just got my first oval done to test out some locos that I bought at an auction.  I have a HO GP 40 Conrail and a 8-40CW that are both DCC equipped.  They both run but I would like to replace the decoder with a NCE decoder.

How do you get the entire top off the loco to access the motors and the decoders.  I am guessing that these are not real cheap locos, so I do not want to break anything.  There are a couple others that the tops pull right off and really do not stay on.

Also, from what I read it is well worth the time to replace the decoders.  Is this true?

Any help would greatly be appreciated.

Thanks in advance!