Is this newer version of this loco dcc ready or do you have to seperate the two frame halves and the wheels and all that stuff, like the life like Bekshire.
This one is fairly easy to add a decoder too. You don't need to split the frames, just remove the boiler. There are two brass tabs that key into the frame to make the motor connection. Cut the tabs so that they stay in the frame but no longer contact the motor. Use the tab to frame pickup then solder directly to the motor.
It is probably easier to tear the loco down completely but you don't need to. The one thing you should do is add tender pickup. Without it, the loco will not run very well on DCC. It needs the extra pickup to be reliable. You will be in the tender to hide the decoder so go ahead and add axle wipers while you are at it.
if it is a newer model 4-8-4 they already do have tender pickup.
Quote from: axle17921 on February 07, 2012, 08:42:03 PM
if it is a newer model 4-8-4 they already do have tender pickup.
NO THEY DON'T.... We are not talking about the Spectrum J class.
The only version of the 4-8-4 Santa fe Northern that had tender pickup was the very first one from the 70's because it was half axle pickup, the engine picked up one side, the loco the other, like a lot of the Rivarossi stuff.
:'( I just Nabbed a Batch-man FEF in Great Northern livery from that Dread Dim Auction site for a few coins thnking that it would be like my 2 Mountains (1 light, 1 heavy) and tha I could slap a decoder in the tender and all would be well but you're saying naught to be the case ?
the difference is the mountains are spectrum and the 4-8-4 is from the regular series both are made by bachmann but spectrum is different in design.