I have a dilemma now. On my On30 DCC 2-6-0 Mogul, 4 of the wires broke from the tender connector that plugs into the loco.There's no way I can fix those.
Does anyone have a spare DCC Mogul tender I could buy? I don't need the body or decoder.
I would rather do that than try to solder little wires.
If not, I looked in the parts section.
There is an HO connector - Connector 6 plugs large ( HO Universal ) Model: CONNIE-10548 8".
Is this the same one used in the Mogul?
If so and I order it, how can I find which wires go where on the pcb board? The wires are all black. There are only two wires still connected on old one so I tell where they go.
What little soldering I have done hasn't been little bitty stuff.
I'm in the same frustrating situation as you are in. I've been told to use a Multi-Meter to find where each wire goes. I just hope I can find the 2 pin plug and a 4 pin plug.
Hope this helps
~Dusten
I wouldn't know how to figure it out with multimeter and what readings to look for. There are six wires that go to the loco. The circuit board is labeled. None of the wires are connected to the plug now. I was trying to straighten them out after I unscrewed the board and the last one came loose.
I ordered what I think is the correct wire harness with the plug from Bachmann but I still won't know in what order they go on the board.
I looked through all the exploded diagrams on this website for On30 and HO steam locos with tenders. The On30 0-4-2 had a picture of the six pin connector on the loco with it marked. I don't know if it would be the same for the Mogul. Other locos with six pins have a four pin and a 2 pin one so that's no help.
I wish they would have a marked pic of the loco connectors for all their steam locos with tenders.
I found a good deal on another Mogul so I bought it and I got a diagram of the Mogul tender board from the paperwork in the new one.
If the "right pick-up" pad corresponds to the left hole in the socket and they are are in the same order in the socket, then things should work out once I get the harness in the mail.
With the new one, I'll switch bodies on the tenders and put the sound card in the new one. That way I can run my old "custom" Mogul again. I put super glue on the wires on the new one where they go into the connector and filed a little on the connector itself so it's not so hard to get out.
When get the harness from Bachmann, I can attempt to fix the old tender. If I fail, all is not lost becasue I have my old Mogul running now anyway. I'll just have a spare Mogul for if my old one goes down.
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Terry, glad you were able to locate another Mogul. I was going to suggest the multimeter route that someone else had already suggested - other than that I was out of ideas. Anyway, glad that you were able locate that Mogul and the wiring diagram. Best of luck and keep us posted.
Thanks Fred. The trouble is, I just don't know how I would use a multimeter in this case. I'm not savvy enough when it comes to something like. I have a multimeter but it has sat there unused for years other seeing if a battery still has juice. I don't know what to attach to what to get what reading.
It would have been easier if the circuit board was turned around with the pads in front. The pads are in the rear. The wires run between the board and the frame and the connector is toward the front. I had to enlarge the hole in the tender frame just to be able to pull the connector through from the bottom.
I got the tender bodies switched and the sound card switched and my old Mogul lives to run another day. :)
I think I take that tender back apart. I'll straighten the wires out (very carefully) and see which wire runs to which hole on the connector. That way I will know for future reference.
And this is why I don't like tenders connected to the loco with wires.......
I have the Mogul tender wiring figured out.
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Another question - On this pic, the two tabs on the left side are for a rear light (according to the black and white diagram), Could I add a rear light to my tender just by attaching the wires to those two tabs without any additional electric stuff? Would it work when I put the loco in reverse or would that require some additional programming?
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Terry, I think you could connect a rear light to the board. A couple of things: 1. Whether or not the light only comes on in reverse would depend on whether or not the decoder supports that in one of the CVs. 2. Before you go to the expense of purchasing a rear light for the tender, I would try connecting your multimeter to each tab and then turn on the lights with your DCC controller to see if you get voltage (usually 12V). Keep track of which tab is positive.
You can then connect a LED to the tabs with a resistor connected to the LEDs positive lead (it will also work on the negative lead but usually in electric protocol the resistor is connected to the positive). The resistor value is not critical but should range somewhere from 500 to 1000 ohms - 580 ohm comes to mind and it should probably be able to handle at least 1/2 watt. When you turn the lights on with the DCC, you should be able to tell whether or not the rear light terminals function OK. Hope this helps.
Fred
Thanks Fred. I could do that. I have some LEDS and regular bulbs laying around here. If I was going to do that, I would just get a box type housing for it like I have on the front of the Mogul. I might even have a spare one somewhere.
I made another pic of the Mogul wire connections between the tender and loco. It took a while figuring this all out.
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I just tried a light on the reverse light tabs and it works. I took the tender body off and put it back on the layout with the Mogul. I fired up the Mogul and turned the lights on. I poked the wires of an led through the holes in the tabs(One tab is marked "BL" and the other "V+" so I put the black wire to BL and red wire to V+.) The light stays on in forward and reverse. It get much brighter in reverse. I didn't think to try it with the Mogul lights off to see if the tabs were still "on". I already put the tender back together so I'll try it again later
I got my harnesses in the mail today from Bachmann so I'll try to resurrect the old tender now that I know which wire goes where.
Decisions... Decisons... Always decisions... Asking myself... Do I remove the old wires from the board tabs and solder the new wires to them or do I just cut the old wires shorter and solder the new wires to the old wires? Seems like it would be easier to cut the old wires and solder the new wires to them so I wouldn't have to disturb the already soldered wires on the tabs.
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Hi, Terry! Glad that the rear light test worked out for you. As far as the dimming of the rear light when going forward, I've had that in a couple of my locomotives, both N scale and HO scale. All of them were Bachmann. The HO scale one is a 44-ton diesel which I converted to On30 (same drive, different body). I've tried going into the CVs to see if I could change it to full-directional lighting but so far no success. I'm thinking that all of these engines sort of fell into the "low-cost" category and shared the same decoder (or at least the same decoder programming since a couple were N scale) that only supported the dimming of the rear or front light depending on direction. Best of luck in your endeavor to add a rear light.
Fred
Well Drat! I soldered the new harness to the existing wires. I clipped them both shorter. It ran for a couple loops around the layout and stopped. I could smell the dreaded burn smell and the pcb board was hot. When I unscrewed it, I could see that the "Motor +" wire got hot and the insulation stuck to other wires. I had the soldered wire joints all separated with elec. tape. I wonder if I figured out the wiring wrong. I don't know. I traced the wires on the new tender to figure it out. I hooked the new tender back to the loco to make sure I didn't fry anything in the loco. The loco ran ok with the new tender. I'm glad of that.
Terry, just wanted to let you know that TrainWorld is running what they call the Super Bowl/Valentine's Day sale and they show an On30 2-6-0 in PRR livery for $109.99 plus $10 off for orders over $100. I happen to be on their mailing list so I get all of their sales ads. They also have a couple of other 2-6-0s for more money, up to $139.99. The coupon code for this sale is SBVD23. I didn't think that $100 for a 2-6-0 with DCC is a bad deal so I thought I'd pass it on. Hope this helps.
P.S. According to the ad, the sale expires tomorrow, 02/14/23.
Thank. I just bought the PRR off Ebay last week for $99 with free shipping. I didn't figure I would find a tender and I wanted my old one running again.
Now that I have that one going with the new tender, I was trying to get the old tender fixed so I would have two Moguls running.
I ordered another sound card so I would have sound for both of them. I also ordered another stack, domes, and box headlight to back date the new one.
If I can't fix the tender or find a tender, it was all for nothing. I posted on the On30 Facebook pages so many someone there can help with a tender.
Quote from: Fred Klein on February 13, 2023, 04:18:57 PMTerry, just wanted to let you know that TrainWorld is running what they call the Super Bowl/Valentine's Day sale and they show an On30 2-6-0 in PRR livery for $109.99 plus $10 off for orders over $100. I happen to be on their mailing list so I get all of their sales ads. They also have a couple of other 2-6-0s for more money, up to $139.99. The coupon code for this sale is SBVD23. I didn't think that $100 for a 2-6-0 with DCC is a bad deal so I thought I'd pass it on. Hope this helps.
P.S. According to the ad, the sale expires tomorrow, 02/14/23.
I get the same ads and I just bought the same Mogul. My very first On30 locomotive. Let's see how I like it.
Careful Quentin. You're liable to get hooked on On30. ;)
Terry, you're absolutely right! It doesn't take much to get hooked on On30. For me it was "just a simple loop around our Christmas village". Set it up, fell in love with it and totally abandoned my N scale layout. Never looked back and have no regrets and that was about 2017 or so, IIRC.
How long do you think it'll take to get here? kinda impatient, ha
You've got the loco. Then it's getting some cars. Then it's maybe I also need a different type of loco then the Mogul. Maybe some more cars... And so it goes.
mmh... so lemme get this straight, On30 is basically O scale locos that run on HO track, correct?
Yes. 1/48 scale. HO is 1/87 scale. The "N" is for narrow gauge and the "30" is for 2' 6" distance between the rails (in real life). Standard gauge in real life is 4' 8 1/2".
Thought so. Thanks Terry.
Is there anyone out there who could fix my Mogul tender? I can't find another tender anywhere. I tried fixing it and failed.
You can see the fried chip. I thought I had the new harness wired right but I guess I didn't. It made a couple of laps and then the smoke unit kicked in. I have another harness for it.
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Terry, the only thing I can think of is to find a working Mogul, disconnect the tender from the loco, and then, using a multimeter, trace each wire from the connection on the PCB to the connector and make a diagram. Then, go back to your tender and do the same thing and see if your connections match up to what you found on the working tender. If you find a discrepancy, correct it and see if the unit still works. Otherwise, you would need a replacement PCB at the least, perhaps also a new decoder. Hope this helps.
Fred
I have a good tender. I bought another loco. I'd like to get the old tender fixed now so I can use both locos. The new tender is what I used as a guide to try to trace the wires on the old tender.
I took the new one apart and physically traced the wires. I was sure I had them right but I guess I didn't. I hate to keep taking the new one apart for fear of dislodging those wires. I might have to do that.
You can see by the pcb board that one of the chips bubbled up. Of the two vertical chips on the right, it's the top one. If I could get another pcb board, I could try it.
I guess I could get a plain decoder and just wire the motor and pickups and light to the harness. I don't know how I would the sound card though without the board.
I saw the bubbled chip on the PCB and that is what concerns me. Without a schematic for the PCB, its almost impossible to tell what the function of that chip is/was. Wiring in a plain decoder is not that difficult. I've done it on several of my old N-scale locomotives and didn't run into any problems. I just took my time and followed the directions that came with the decoder. BTW, these were very basic decoders - usually 4 functions, once or twice I got a deal on a 6-function decoder and had no problems with them either and all of them were Digitrax. Unfortunately, I don't know anything about installing a sound decoder. I'm one of those people that after about 2 minutes or so, the sounds on a layout really start to annoy me so I don't use sound on any of my locomotives. Hope this helps.