now i have three old style bachmann sd 45 now can i put the new dcc PC board in my SD45
now i have as Burlington northern loco # on 5491 it look like a uboat with four axle.. it brand new it not dcc i want to converted to dcc so can do all and what dcc unit do i use for and number of them
If you have a U boat, I wouldn't bother converting it to DCC, the U boats have been out of production for some time , I had one for about 15 years and it never ran too good, I finally had to send it in for a replacement last year. If your SD-45s have a 8 pin socket all you need is any HO scale decoder with an 8 pin plug.
sorry it a bachmann b-23-7
where do i find the decoder for it just bought this week at hobby shop ..
the bachmann sd45s are of the split frame design, as are many spectrum diesels including the gp30, gp35 and h16-44. there is a step by step illustration of installing a decoder in an h16-44 here:
http://members.shaw.ca/sask.rail/dcc/tmaster/tmaster.html
this procedure will work for any split frame design locomotive, i have used this tutorial to convert 3 h16's, a gp35 and an sd45 so far.....you can hard wire digitrax dh123 or dh163 decoders as they are similar to the one shown in the tutorial.
the b23-7 will be a bit harder to convert. i have one of these, but am still working out the specifics of a decoder for it. it is not a split frame, the bachmann gp40 and "gp50" are of similar design.