Everything on model trains, model railroads, model railways, locomotives, model train layouts, scenery, wiring, DCC and more. Enjoy the world's best hobby... model railroading!
Everything on model trains, model railroads, model railways, locomotives, model train layouts, scenery, wiring, DCC and more. Enjoy the world's best hobby... model railroading!
Hi Rod yes it is simple , take the body off the loco remove the decoder and replace it with the little plug that came with the loco, it is back to DC
Remove the decoder and loudspeaker and sell it on eBay. On. your locomotive you will have six wires left. Two wires from each truck, usually red and black and two connections to the motor. Probably also red and black. Connect all the red wires together and all the black wires just the same. In essence, the left rail wires to one side of the motor and the right rail wires to the other motor connection. When there is a headlight on the locomotive you can connect the plus and minus connection to the motor. The headlight will always be on irregardless the direction the loco is moving. Now, this is a very simple way to do it. However, if there are two headlights or a gyro/MARS light, you will have to get the proper circuit board that came with the DC version of that locomotive.
If you don’t still have the plug that came with the locomotive (usually called a blanking plug) or it came DCC fitted without one, they are available cheaply on eBay or similar. Just get the right one for your decoder.
A lot of DCC locos will run on DC with no changes.
The advantages are that you don’t have to rewire anything, the loco will still run on DCC, and usually you will still get basic sound, while converting to DC will disable sound.
The disadvantage is that usually they won’t start until the DC power is at about 6 volts.
hi Ian, 1)even for the loco to shunt (criple slow speed) does it need at least 6Vs? 2)how can you get sound to work out on DC?
Appreciate your comments
saludos = cheers
Richard
I agree with Ian. As far as I know, Dcc loco’s will run on Dc. However, if it doesn’t, you may have to go into the locomotive’s decoder setup to set it to run on Dc.
Most DCC locos will operate on DC tracks, but it may be necessary to use a DCC controller to set the appropriate DCC decoder CV to the correct value to enable this.
Most new DCC locos are already set to run on either DC or DCC without adjustment. Sound effects can still work automatically according to train acceleration etc.
But as mentioned, the loco will require a higher DC voltage to start start moving, because the power is still being moderated by the decoder.