Oops, sorry about that Tony, I did the one thing you should never do. I assumed he had a late version of the J, instead of asking which one he had

The J is fairly easy. Once you get the shell off the tender, there is a circuit board that has numbered holes (some with jumpers on them) take the jumpers off and solder the wires from the decoder in the holes. there should be a diagram in the paper work that comes with the J showing which wire goes where.

As Far as I know the 611 is intact; BUT she would have to go through a complete overhaul and boiler certification, before going on the rails again. I'm not sure that NS or the historical society are willing to part with the funds that would cost.

As Skipgear said it's DCC ready, the small dimpled copper clips at the top center of the photo cover the holes where the decoder wires are soldered. Pull the clips, solder in a decoder.

Alan

Quote from: richg on July 12, 2012, 05:35:49 PM
Vehicles are being hit quite a lot at crossings. It will happen again.
Rich

Yep, just heard of a truck/train incident early today in South Africa, 2 dozen dead, more injured. A truck carring farm workers tried to beat the train at the crossing and failed.

Alan

Pops, I tried using Railmodeller on my PC. it seems that it's a dmg file which Windows can't use. How did you get it to run?

Alan

Seadowns, one problem with that link, it doesn't explain how it was done. Was any of the weight removed to make room for the decoder? Pictures are nice, but explanations to go with them are better. I also see what appears to be a pinched area on the orange wire, cutting into the insulation, that could cause problems down the road.

Alan

If it's like the standard N-scale version, there are numbered holes in the light board to solder the decoder wires into, you should get a diagram with the engine, showing what color wire goes to each hole.

Alan

If it's the decoder installed at the factory, then no. The factory installed decoder is a very basic one. If you want sound you will have to change out the factory one for a sound/motor decoder.

Alan

Cats, there are several different engines (mostly Diesels) that can be run on DCC by simply changing the light board inside the Engine, others can easily be hardwired with any number of different decoders. We need more information, what type of engine, (GP-7, SD-9 etc) and who made it, we can give you much better advice.

Alan

"at least he died at a moment where he was on top of the world.".... Um, no he died under a pile of coal from a terminal case of stupidity.

 Yep, they're getting sneakier, got an e-mail a couple days ago from the "FBI", official seal & all. It said that a Nigerian lawyer was trying to find me, because a long lost great uncle had died and left me (his sole surviving relative) his estate valued at roughly $750,000.00. The problems with this are: 1) nobody in my family has ever been to, or came from, Nigeria. 2) Both of my parents, 2 brothers and a sister are still alive & kicking, no way i could be ANYONE'S sloe surviving heir    Sad too, because I could use that cash for my dream layout.

  Alan

I'd be in for a couple of dozen, at least

The ones on mine are truck mounted Rapido style couplers

There's a long bridge over the James River in my hometown, that has become a shortcut for the locals, no walkways, no safety spots. At least once a year, somebody gets caught on it when the NS trains come down the slope and onto the bridge. The last one was lucky, he was able to drop down onto the concrete supports, others....., well it's roughly 100ft down to the river, and the water is normally only 6-8 ft deep there.