Thank you.   One last question.  Do I need to lose the front light bulb that came with the Athearn engine?  I remember seeing somewhere that I should.  Can you tell me if that is true and why?

As I have been building my layout, it has been a while since I got on this board...so I extend a belated Merry Xmas and Happy New Year to everyone.  The layout is pretty large with a lot of scenery...a Northern California industrial park is the setting with oil refinery complex (tank farm, natural gas loading facility and truck loading facility), fire house, rail yard, construction equipment rental company, truck-rail terminal, station, bus stand, gas station, wharehouse and cement plant.  I plan to take pics and post them soon.

I have had no problem installing my Digitrax 165AO DCC decoders in my Atlas engines...piece of cake!

I had set the Athearns aside until now so I tried to install 1 of my DH163AT decoders in an new Athearn RTR F-7.  I checked to see if it ran before I started.  This is what I did:

1.  I got the shell and weight off and took the engine out.  I used double electrical tape over the shiny copper part on the frame under the engine.  If I had put electrical tape under the entire bottom of the motor, it would have blocked the four holes where the plastic motor mounts plug in to re-seat the motor.  I replaced the 4 mounting screws and the original motor mounts with the screw holes with the plastic motor mounts (which do not use screws) that came with the decoder.

Question - Did I properly isolate the motor?

2.  I plugged in the decoder to the harness.

3.  I got the top and bottom motor clips off (and kept the springs in) and replaced them with the motor clips (attached to the gray wire on the bottom and the orange wire on the top). 

4.  I re-seated the engine, taking care to re-align the drive system.

5.  I plugged in the red wire to the front and rear truck posts.

THAT WAS THE EASY PART.  AFTER THAT THE PROBLEM BEGAN...

6.  The instructions say that the black wire should be clipped to the headlight post at the front of the frame but it doesn't say how to do this and I have no clue!  What do I do?  At present, the black wire is not hooked up.

7.  The instructions show the violet (F-2) wire and the green (F-1) wire, but don't say anything about where they go.  Are they supposed to be hooked up?  How?

8.  Do I leave the headlight in?  Do I take it out (including the clip)?

9.  What do I do with the yellow, white and blue wires?  I am leaning toward not hooking up any lights.  The Athearn F-7s have no rear light anyway.

10.  I put the engine on the track and while the headlight lit up, nothing else happened.  When I tried to program it, the light went off and then came back on after I had completed the programming process.  The engine does not run.

Question:  Have I ruined it or is my work just incomplete?  I need someone to walk me through this. 

Help!

(1) Are Athearn "Blue Box F-7s DCC ready?

(2) In an earlier discussion (3/10/08), it was suggested that I use the Digitrax DH163AT (with the top and bottom clips) decoder.  I bought 4 Digitrax DH163AT decoders.  Is this advice the same for both the older Athearn diesels and the "Blue Box" Athearn diesels?  If not, then I will use these in just the older Athearn diesels.

(3) In that same discussion, I was cautioned I need to isolate the motor (with paper or electrical tape).   Is this advice the same for both the older Athearn diesels and the "Blue Box" Athearn diesels?  In Athearn's "exploded" drawing for F-7A diesels, there are motor mount pads.

(4)  In that same discussion, I was cautioned that the clips hold the motor together and hold the brushes and springs in place...and to be careful in pulling them off or be prepared to so some searching.  Is this advice the same for both the older Athearn diesels and the "Blue Box" Athearn diesels?  The reason that I ask this question is that when I examined Athearn's "exploded" F-7A drawing for a "Blue Box" F-7A, I didn't see brushes and springs anywhere in the drawing...the engine uses a "worm drive and motor mount screws hold the engine in place.

(5) Is the Digitrax DH163AT the right decoder for the Athearn "Blue Box" F-7 diesels or for only the older Athearn diesels?  If not, what is the right Digitrax decoder to use with an Athearn F-7 "Blue Box" diesel?

(6) Do I isolate the headlight, too?  I saw in another recent discussion on DCC installations that the headlight mounting bracket is connected to the frame.

I am just trying to be careful here before I do anything.

Excellent discussion, answers and suggestions!  This board is a must for me!

Thank you all for the valuable information.

My freight rolling stock primarily consists of 40' and 50' boxcars, 40' 1 and 3 dome tankers, 2-bay open and closed hoppers, a few 72' box cars and covered hoppers.  The manufacturers are primarily Athearn, Walthers and Atlas.  So are we talking 33' wheel sets for these?

All of you have completely answered all of my questions...as usual.  Some of my freight cars do have metal wheels and they do roll a lot more smoothly.    I will change over to all metal wheels.  I will also do so for my passenger cars.

Thank you all for your prompt responses to my inquiry.

Three last questions:  (1) which brands are non-magnetic? (2) you mentioned a tool for deburring the journals (which I assume are the sockets in the plastic trucks where the wheels fit).  What kind of tool are you talking about and where can I obtain it? (3) what is the difference between 33" and 36" wheels?  Are they used for different kinds of cars or what?

Does using metal wheelsets on the rolling stock (particularly freight cars) make for quieter operation?  Does it make for smoother operation?  Does it make for cleaner operation?  If so, does this also apply in the case of metal wheels and plastic trucks?  Should the trucks also be replaced?  I am just trying to get some information here.

What are the advantages for using metal wheels as opposed to plastic?

If using metal wheels is recommended, where can I purchase them in bulk?  I have a bunch of cars and most of them are either Athearn or Walters.

Your thoughts would be appreciated.

Thank you for the information.  When I went to the hobby shop and saw that the Atlas #56 required 3 wires to connect to a switch, I decided to stay with the Bachmann EZ-track controllers.  I am saving this, however,and when they ultimately wear out, I'll probably follow your advice.

It seems to me that it would be a good idea for Bachmann to offer the remote switch control for sale as an individual item, or at least as a part you could order.  It's not like they would have to make a new product or anything.

Your suggestion was perfect!  I used Scotch 2-sided heavy-duty mounting tape that I got from Home Depot and it worked fine.

Thank you.

Do these switches accept the plug from the Bachman EZ track turnouts?  Do I have to cut off the plug to accommodate the Atlas switches?

Here's the deal...I already have 10 of the Bachmann switches and wanted to see if I could match them, as opposed to buying 13 Atlas switches.  I want to have all of the same kind if possible.  At the same time, if you are telling me that the Atlas switches are better, I could buy all 13.

Your suggestions and opinions on what I would be better off doing for the long run would be appreciated.

Does anybody have any ideas about what is a good way way to securely mount the 2" square black turnout switch control boxes that control Bachmann #5 and #6 E-Z track turnouts on a layout?  I don't really want to glue them down (and you can't screw them down because of the size of the circuit board)) so I am interested in hearing from anyone about how they handled this issue.  I am considering making some sort of mounting bracket and, so far, that appears to be the only option.

Thank you in advance for your response.

Question: Can I purchase the individual black 2" square control boxes that come with Bachmann #5 or #6 turnouts anywhere?  I am not talking about the track component.  I am only talking about the black switch box that controls the turnout itself.  I have never seen this item listed as an item that can be individually purchased.

If anyone can help me with this, I would really appreciate it because I need 3 or 4 but don't want to spend the money to buy the entire turnout if I don't have to.

I had made a mistake in the programming sequence.  The decoders now work just fine.  Hopefully, my experience will benefit someone else.

I talked to the experts at Tony's Trains (where I purchased the decoders and they told me the following: (1) if the decoders are working on the default address ("3"), then they were successfully installed...otherwise, they wouldn't be working at all; (2) the 8-pin plugs that came with the original circuit boards are not supposed to be re-inserted (unless it's a sound decoder, which these are not); and (3) they are supposed to work with the Bachmann EZ-Command system.

I am going back to try to re-program them again and see if I was doing something wrong there.

Hello Everyone:

It's been a little while since I have posted, but I have been busy working on my DCC layout...with considerable success.  The wiring is completed and the kinks in the track have all been worked out.  I can now run 3 different trains on my DCC layout.  I use several different Atlas, Bachmann and Athearn engines.  The railroads that I am running are Union Pacific, Santa Fe (and BNSF), Southern Pacific and Denver and Rio Grande.

I am beginning to install Digitrax decoders into a few of my Atlas engines. 
I have run into one problem that I am not quite sure how to resolve.  It involves the use of Digitrax DCC decoders.  Here it is:

As per the Digitrax Decoder Selection Chart, I determined that the DH163AO was the right decoder circuit board to order and install in my Atlas GP-38 and GP-40.  Keep in mind that I use the Bachman EZ Command System.  The DH163AO has been replaced by the DH165AO.  No problem there, so that's what I ordered and installed.  Now, these engines run on "3" (this is the default DCC decoder setting for the EZ Command System) as they should when a decoder circuit board has successfully been installed BUT I CAN'T PROGRAM THEM!  They will only work on "3".  I want to be able to program them so they will work on other than the decoder default setting.

The original circuit boards each had a multi-pin plug (8 pins, I believe), but the instructions for the Digitrax decoder said nothing about re-installing the plug into the installed decoder.  The decoder circuit boards have the holes for the multi-pin plug that came with each of the original circuit boards, but I didn't reinstall the plugs because the instructions said nothing about them.

Question: Am I supposed to re-install the plugs into the newly-installed Digitrax decoders?  Or am I missing something else?

I hope that I gave you enough information and that someone has encountered and resolved this problem before.

Thank you all again for all of the great advice you have given me in the past.