How on earth do I DCC this!

[Gixer]

Its a Bachmann 31-340 Shunter. I'm totally at a loss....

[brian1951]

It is not worth the hassle, it has a split chassis design which are a pain. Get rid and buy another which is easy to do.

[Mike Parkes]

No one does a 04 to modern standard yet; one has been announced by Rapido. I used the dcc ready Bachmann 03 chassis on mine which did need the wheel centres tweaking with milliput and etched balance weights alomng with body fixing arrangments tweaked. It was when I decided to replace the handrails I dicovered the body panels are incorrectly aligned showing the origins of that body as the old Mainline/early Bachmann 03.

It is possible nevertheless to DCC it - I did a old 03 which is basically the same. It needs the chassis completely taking apart so that a pair of wires can be soldered to the motor terminals and insualtion added to prevent a short. Once the chassis is reassembled check for any short between each of those wires and each side of the chassis block. If all is okay hard wire the decoders motor wires to the two wires (obviously you can solder the decoder wires direct to the motor terminals but then you have no way of checking for a short until activating the decoder) and attach the pick up wires to appropriate bolts on the chassis

[Brian]

Hi
Mike has said it can be done and indeed it can with care and some testing during reassembly The series of pictures on my web site show the conversion of a Bachmann split chassis loco.
See my item here https://www.brian-lambert.co.uk/DCC-Pag ... nstalation Scroll down a fairway until you reach the "The series of pictures below show the conversion of a Bachmann split chassis loco" paragraph. Take care, insulate the two brush connections (discard the two brush contact springs) and carefully reassemble the two halves. Then test each motor wire to the two chassis halves. If no connection is proved then connect these two wires to the decoders Orange and Grey wires and the decoders Red and Black to each chassis half. Locate a suitable position for the decoder ensuring any metal chassis is insulated from the decoders PCB if the decoder is mounted inside the locos boiler area.

[Gixer]

Done it!

Found a video on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ko-Zbw9gKgM

Took just over an hour to do including work with the dremel. Runs really well and my son is well chuffed! I really enjoy converting these old loco’s, there something very satisfying about it.

I’ve got the lights working in the old 125 also, both forward and reverse. Need to do the dummy unit now…

Your website Brian is a gold mine of information, you give me confidence to try this stuff.

[Mountain Goat]

I have done it in the past with a pair of early split chassis Bachmann 03's, and it involved reaming out the areas where the motor terminals are. It was a bit of a temp fix as the wires to the chassis for the pickups I temporarily stuck with tape that was also wedged between the chassis and the body as I had no taps and dies to tap a thread to take screws, but they did work when I converted them. Not run them for years!
.