Consolidation Conversion

[jim464]

I need directions on putting an Aristrocraft Train Engineer receiver in a 2-8-0 Consolidation.  I got it used with an after market sound system already in it but on track power.  I have a Cordless Renovations 18.5 V battery I would like to put in the tender and convert to battery power.

[Loco Bill Canelos]

I am away from my resources for the next seven days, if you do not get some replies by then I will give you some basic info.  Have you ever installed a receiver or sound system?? Do you have some experience?

[Kevin Strong]

For starters, cut all the connections from the wiring from the wheels. On the tender, pull the bronze brushes from the wheels. On the loco, cut the wires coming from the PC board on sitting just on top of the frame. That will isolate the loco from the track. Next, trace the wires coming from the frame to where it goes into the main PC board in the loco. I forget if the power pick-ups from the tender come into the same spot on the PC board as that from the locomotive. If it looks like there are two sets of wires, then they do. Cut the ones going to the frame, but leave the ones leading back to the tender. That way, you can use the existing plug to run power forward from the battery to the lights. Now, find the wires going to the motor, and cut them. There's a filter PC board on the back end of the motor that you'll want to remove. Unsolder that, and then run two new wires from the motor back towards the tender. Next, look for the small 2-wire connector. That should already be wired to the chuff switch on the rear axle. So what you'll have is 6 wires between the loco and tender: 2 for the motor, 2 for battery power, and 2 for the chuff switch. You can use the existing plugs running between the loco and tender, you'll just have to re-wire the two leads that go to the back-up light to the motor instead. You'll wire the back-up light directly to the Revolution which will be in the tender.

Later,

K

[Loco Bill Canelos]

Another way to isolate the loco from the track is to unscrew the firebox cover and unplug the plug on the PCB marked "CON7"  by doing this you will not have to remove the pickups on the locomotive wheels. You still have to remove the tender pickups and do everything else Kevin recommended. 

[Kevin Strong]

Bill, do the tender power pickups go into that same plug? If so, then you'd need to run new wires forward to the loco to get power to the lights from the batteries, otherwise you'd back-feed the battery power into the track.

Later,

K

[Barry BBT]

Do not remove the springs or plungers from the pickup tubes, they are an essential part of each axle's suspension system.  There are four springs per axle, disconnect the wiring, but not the contacts.

Barry

[Loco Bill Canelos]

Hi Kevin,  "con 7" just disables the track pickup to all the loco wheels. The lines that go to the tender are not affected.  You do not need to run new wires to the tender.  I just use the existing wires that formerly went to the tender track pickups.  I have done both of my Connies that way without a problem.

I can't remember who taught me about the "CON 7" fix, it was not my original idea.

Unfortunately I am not at home, I am in Denver playing with my son,s  garden railroad.  To the best of my recollection there is one two wire plug from loco to tender for the chuff sensor and the other plug has four wires. I seem to recall pairing the four wires in parallel to make two leads which then go to the motor terminals or wires on the Revo receiver.  I made the coal load removable to get at things from the top and connected my battery connector to the power input terminals on the Revo receiver.  The rear headlight connects to the Revo receiver, using the existing wires cut when removing the tender pickups, per the Revo instructions being sure to leave the resistor in the circuit to protect the Led.
 
If you like,  can check all this when I get home, but the "con7" shortcut definitely works fine.

Bill

[Tony Walsham]

Hi Bill.

You probably read about the "CON7" wiring here:

http://www.largescalecentral.com/LSCForums/viewtopic.php?id=17049

[Kevin Strong]

I am in Denver playing with my son,s  garden railroad.  

You're in town? You've got mail. Come on over!

Tony, thanks for the link. I read that earlier, but didn't put two and two together. For whatever reason, when I read Bill's post, I thought he was referring to a plug in the smokebox (front of the loco) not the firebox.

Later,

K

[Tony Walsham]

Hi Kevin.

There two or three ways to wire the Connie depending on how complicated you want it to get.

(1). The easiest is to simply unplug the CON7 connection and remove the track pick ups in the tender.  Then hook  the ESC output to what were the points in the tender that the track picks ups were connected to.
The disadvantage is the lights etc behave exactly as they would on track power.

(2).  My favorite is to isolate the motor and rewire it direct to the ESC via a pair of wires from the tender to the loco.  Also unplug CON7.  After removing the track pick ups in the tender I then wire the battery to what were the track pick up connections.  The rear light is wired to the lighting controls.  Providing the polarity is correct this allows the loco electrics to be on full voltage with the front light on all the time, with the rear light illuminating with direction change.  Not unprototypical.

(3).  However, for those that want the front light to go out when in reverse you can add a small DPDT relay to the battery voltage.  The relay coil would be controlled by the ESC lighting output and reverse the loco wiring on direction change.

One thing you must do is put some silicone adhesive on the wires in the loco to tender plugs to act as strain relief and prevent wire breakage.

[jim464]

Thanks Guys.  I have a friend coming over on Wednesday and we will give it a go.