Anyone converted their brass Steamers to DCC

MasonJar

It's not rocket surgery
We have a guy at the local modular club (www.hotrak.ca) who does this. He has some beauties...!

He says the key to converting brass locos is to ensure that the motor only receives power from the decoder. So any designs that use the frame, drawbar from the tender, or any other parts of the loco itself to carry electricity have to be modified. Often this simply requires that the motor be remounted on an insulating material (like electrical tape) and fixed using a nylon or plastic machine screw instead of a metal one. Additional wiring may be required to get power to the decoder, and then route it to the motor.

Be aware these are only general suggestions! Your milage may vary! If in doubt, try a well-known source, like Tony's Train Exchange for more info, or to do the work for you.

Welcome to The Gauge!

Andrew
 

Fluesheet

Member
I'm in the process of converting one - I am very happy with it's running characteristics. I'd like to get some additional electrical pickups installed before everything gets buttoned back up. Currently it's using the standard electrical pickups - left rail from the tender via the drawbar, right rail via a lead attached to the engine's frame.

As MasonJar noted, make sure the motor is isolated from the frame. It's also a good time to convert to a can motor if the locomotive has an older open-frame motor - the latter can draw quite a bit more power than the former. I used a Zimo decoder, for no other reason that that's what I had (and they tend to have good low-speed running characteristics).

I found a very nice powerpoint presentation on brass maintenance / DCC conversions, etc. If I can find it, I'll post it later.

Edit: Here it is - http://www.markschutzer.com/Brass_Clinics/InstallingDecoders.pdf
 
Top