Bachmann Online Forum

I recently started a new DCC layout and wanted to use the Conrail rolling stock I have, but besides the SD45, Dash 8 and GP40 I can't find any Conrail locomotives with DCC. not even with other brands!

That would leave two possibilities.  One is to add a decoder to an existing Conrail locomotive.  The other would be to repaint a locomotive with decoder in Conrail colours. 

Of the two, adding a decoder is probably the easiest and requires the least investment in tools.  Some locomotives are "DCC ready" and may require only     a small screw driver to open up for decoder installation.  Some do not even require that.  Other locomotives are not DCC ready and will require some soldering.  That means you will also need a soldering iron with small tip, rated about 25 watts, plus a pair of wire cutters/strippers.  A supply of small diameter shrink tubing to insulate the joints is also a must.  If you have not yet learned to solder, this useful skill is easy to learn and there are many articles on the net to help get you started, including the following:

http://members.shaw.ca/sask.rail/TechNotes/soldering.html (http://members.shaw.ca/sask.rail/TechNotes/soldering.html)

Thanks for the reply. I will have to learn how to solder a decoder into some older engines. thanks for the link
   
      Tom

Tom,
      Before "decodering" a loco make sure the motor brushes are isolated else exercise will be for naught. If you scan through past posts you will run across a number of how to do it postings. Actually most of the decoders you buy will have illustration of how to wire it up(at least the ones I've bought so far).

    Jon

Well, in the 'obscure' category, Broadway Limited released DCC and Sound equiped GG-1's a few years back, including in Conrail paint. Unfortunately, if you want blue, you're out of luck. BLI only produced the black stencil scheme. On the subject of stencils, If you want a Conrail loco but don't need the full paint, Conrail was notorious for running thousands of stenciled units around- many times for years. It took them seven years to paint all of them!A few examples of Conrail's weird paint schemes which could be useful for a custom paint job, since that would be just erasing what was there and slapping on a 'CR'.




The first is an SD-35, the other three are SD-45's. The Conrail Cyclopedia, where I got these pictures, is an excellent resource for this sort of thing.

Thanks for the help. I think I will use some of these older paint schemes, though I only see a couple from Bachmann. looks like I have a lot of work to do

I'm not sure it it works for other manufacturers, but iI know it works for Bachmann: use an ordinary pencil eraser to remove the lettering. Nothing will happen for the first five minutes or so, and then the lettering will suddenly come of very quickly. Best of all, it doesn't remove the base paint (if you want to do that, you need 91% Isrophyl Alcohol).

Proto 2000 made quite a few locomotives in Conrail paint schemes. The easiest to convert to DCC would be the GP30, the SD50 and the SD60. As related by Jim, these fall into the category of only requiring a few tools, in this case, a set of small screwdrivers. Remove the shell, remove the existing circuit board, pop in the decoder (a Digitrax DH163LO, which does not require changing out the bulbs) and you're done except for programming it with its own address.

If you can find them, the SW series (8/600/9/1200) requires a little more work and soldering skills.

John Loesch