DCC Conversion Complete

Well, I have finally got my loco fleet DCC chipped and running.

As this is my introduction to DCC I made a bargain purchase off eBay of a Bachmann E-Z Command Control Centre for around £30. As it happened I was visiting Plymouth (where the selling lived) for my brothers wedding the very weekend after I won the auction so I didn't need to pay P&P on top of that. As a beginner this controller makes an excellent and cheap starting point.



I then decided to sell all my old loco fleet (which I have probably mentioned previously) and buy all new DCC-ready Bachmann-Farish locos (their new blue-ribbon standard ones). Being DCC-ready they have the 6-pin decoder sockets underneath the shell, and are designed to take the Bachmann E-Z command decoder chips (product code 36-558).

The fitting of the chips was relatively easy. The steam locos, with the exception of the 3MT tank, all had the chips fitted in the tender. Following the instructions these were all relatively easy to fit. Each tender has 4 screws holding in the tender shell to the chassis (there are more screws so be careful to undo the right ones as per the instruction sheet). Once removed, the shell will unclip from the chassis with a bit of careful easing. The socket contains a small circuit board 'blanking plate' for DC running. This is then removed and replaced with the new decoder chip. This has to be put in the right way round to work. However if it goes in the wrong way no harm will come to the loco or decoder, it just won't doing anything.



Two helpful hints when fitting the decoders:

1, Pin 1 on the decoder seems to be indicated with a small grey dot/square.
2, Remember which end pin 1 ones before you pull out the blanking plate (it is indicated on the plate) so you know which way to put the decoder in!

The 3MT tank was even easier to fit. There are two screws under the front bogey. One of these, as per the instruction sheet, holds the shell on. Once unscrewed, again the shell unclips and the socket is revealed.

The worse one to fit was my 3 car Class 108 DMU. There are no screws holding the shell onto the chassis here (WHY?!?!?) the shell is just clipped into place. What's so difficult about that? I hear you ask! Well, firstly the shell is clipped on so tightly and in so many places that you seem to require the many arms of Vishnu to be able to prise the shell from the chassis in all the places it is clipped. I found on many occasions unclipping one side just lead to the other side clipping itself back on. Secondly, given you have your brand new DMU with all its fragile detailing on the underside its very difficult to apply enough pressure to unclip the shell (of which you need quite a bit) without begin constantly worried about snapping something off. And even worse than this, the DMU set requires two decoders fitting, one to the drive car and one to the dummy (for lights). So you have to go through this pain twice!

I did in fact break something off the bottom of one of my DMU cars in the process of fitting the chips, but it was easily fixed with a spot of superglue. Can you see where?! ;)



One other word of warning with the DMU - the seats and the lighting units seem to have a tendency of moving around when the shell comes off... ie, they try and come off with it in some cases. The lights in the dummy car have since stopped working between now and the last time I used it. So lucky old me I'm going to have to get the shell off again and fix it!

So finally, my loco fleet is up to date (although undressed - Mars still needs its name plate), And here is the final roll call (for now!)... (all from the late crest BR era)

Class 108 DMU (3 car)
Royal Scot "The Royal Air Force"
Jubilee class "Mars"
Black 5
3MT tank engine

Relocation Relocation Relocation!

I have finally found a dry warm permanent place to keep my railway, with only one small comprise to the board itself! After convincing the wife its the only reasonable place for it(!), its now under the bed!



The one compromise I have had to make is to cut a small section out of the beach area where the supporting legs in the middle of the bed get in the way of sliding it under the bed properly. Without this mod it would stick out a long way, and that isn't compatible with the wife!



I have also added carpet/furniture sliders to the underside of the railway to ease moving out and back under the bed again.

More soon...

Big Weekend

A momentous event!

Having completed the track last weekend, I wired it up this weekend, with only one wiring fault to speak of, and that was because I soldered the red and black wire onto a bit of track correctly, and then decided to use that same wiring in a different place, but unfortunately I reversed the tracks! Simply fixed though.

With the track successfully wired and a standard DC controller attached I used my multimeter to ensure everywhere had power, which it did. So, then came the moment I've been waiting for, testing my new (and first) completed track with one of my five new locomotives, under DC for the time being, partly because the locos need testing under DC and running in, and partly to test the track reliability.

What follows are photos of the completed layout, with my Black 5 hauling five coaches.! :)



The left side is the town/winter scene and the right side is the beach/summer scene. At the far end you can see the fiddle yard and sidings.





The cork underlay looks untidy but I intend to trim it down at a later date. I used the Black 5 for testing as it seem to be the one that derailed the most. So using that, I figured if I fixed the problem areas of the track for that then it should be OK for the other engines! Surprising there seemed to only be one or two problem areas, usually down to slightly uneven track. By the end the Black 5 was running smoothly. I also tested my 3mt tank and my Class 108 3 car DMU. The 108 is brilliant!

Unfortunately I came across something else that put a dampener of the event. Two of my 5 new engines are faulty. The Jubilee 'Mars' will only run backwards (albeit very well!) and The Royal Air Force doesn't move at all and causes the controller to cut out. I'm sure they could be fixed, its probably to do with the gears, but that's not the point, these are brand new and I expect them to work from the box. So a call will go in tomorrow to get them replaced.

Final layout plan

It had better be final because I have already laid it!


I am going to finish the wiring and test hopefully at some point this week.

Finished the new board

The fiddle yard area has been added this evening and filled in the gap for the track. The board now needs sealing and then I can start laying the track.

The new idea

I am beginning again!

The original 'Port Mallard' project has never got passed board three but I have not completely abandoned it. It is going to be moved into the loft once converted and turned into a fixed layout circling the entire loft. The reason for this is three fold. Firstly, after last winter, the idea of going outside to a cold damp garage isn't appealing! Secondly, whilst the system I finally devised for a modular layout worked, it was still a complete pain in the bum. A fixed layout will be easier to build and be more reliable. Thirdly, I can build something far bigger in the loft than I could in the garage!

But anyway, I digress!

So, in the meantime I have decided to create a small simple(ish) layout. It will be portable and give me something to practice and learn on.

And it will give me an opportunity to experiment with something entirely new to me... DCC! Instead of converting my existing Farish engines I have sold the lot, plus my DC controller and Cleaning Unit, and purchased all new engines from the latest Farish range that are 6 pin ready. A little word of advice for anyone who is thinking of doing the same - for the love of God - take the time to list them on eBay rather than part exchanging with a dealer! I was offered £270 by a dealer to part-ex 9 locos and a cleaning unit, which, for a dealer, isn't a bad offer. However, I decided to take a chance and put them on eBay instead - with the controller as well. After the dust had settled, and minus eBay and Paypal fees, I managed to total £525! I was pleased to say the least.

Anyway, I digress again...

The plan for the new layout is to be a basic oval of two tracks with a few sidings for industry, and a very basic fiddle yard at one end (on the curve). The layout will feature two separate scenes on either side of a dividing scenery board. One scene, “Port Mallard”, will be a seaside beach scene and rural seaside village with (hopefully) a harbour. This will be set in the height of summer. The other side will be a small town station, the name of which I have not quite decided on yet… although I’m leaning toward something like ‘Drakeswood”. This scene will be based in early winter, around Christmas. Both scenes are set in the late 50’s early 60’s.

The board itself will be approximately 2’10” by 5’6” with a useable track area of 2’3” by 5’6” and a scenery area of 2’3” by 4’. The summer scene has a two level area to allow for a beach and harbour. My hope is that by raising the scenery in the town scene and lowering the scenery in the sea side scene I will create the effect of different elevations of track with out actually changing the elevation at all!

The track will feature three sections. Firstly, the town scene will have a two platform station with station buildings above on a bridge over head. This will also feature a run around siding leading to industry – potentially a brewery.

The second will be the seaside with a small island station, and a single siding to the harbour.

The third will be the fiddle yard on the returning curve that completes the oval. I will be based on a 1’6” board that will be added onto the main 2’x 4’. Not entirely sure how this is going to arranged, I’ll just suck it and see. It’s going to be difficult given that I want to avoid using Radius 1 curves but I do want each line to split into two. But the board hasn’t been added yet so it can be any size I need it to be (within reason!).

The photos should give you some idea anyway.

Back to the future!

I am now back to where I was about a year ago, maybe a little further on, and with some important mod's!

Firstly, the latches are in place, and make the whole business of connecting the layout together much easier.

Secondly, I now have adjustable feet for each board, which makes leveling the connecting tracks a lot easier.



Third, and most importantly, I have placed a cork underlay under the track. This will hopefully make the ballast stand out more, and make for smoother running. This involved taking up ALL the existing track and placing the cork bed underneath... time consuming, but worth it!

On the progress front, I have laid and wired up the return loop for the 3 existing boards.





Finally I decided on doing a test run of the mainline :) I am happy to report that eventually, after much cleaning, both the diesel and the steam loco went around forwards and backwards without derailing! And the narrow curve was navigated with collision.






Cooking on gas...!