Ask the Bachman

[gmpender]

I sent a message to "Ask the Bachmann" in October, and so far have not received any answer or even a reply. Am I on my own? Is there not someone who can at least give me some idea of what I am up against? I tried to get an answer from the company, but they told me to go her and so far, nothing. Please help?
I wanted to convert an old Bachmann 70 tonner engine that has two motors, one on each truck, and I wanted to find out what I would have to do to convert it to a DCC engine. I am willing to do the work myself and I can get two decoders if necessary to run the two truck motors. I just want to know if it is possible or not.
I was complaining about the new 70 ton switchers being pretty loud as opposed to the old one I have that is very quiet.
Any ideas??

[jettrainfan]

Its not that your on your own, it could be that no one knows the answer or they don't notice the topic. I personally search for stuff that mentions sharing pics of someones layout/work, or anything that catches my interest like "Whats your favorite layout" or  "what should i buy...? "  Don't take this the wrong way, its just that their are many topics posted and posted in all the time. I hope that someone can help you but sadly, that person is not me. 

[jonathan]

Never tried it, but...

Perform a search, on this forum, for the two-motor 44 ton diesel.  I believe there was someone who actually did the decoder magic on a 44 ton.

Just a suggestion.  As mentioned before, if no else has ever done it, it's hard to offer advice.

Regards,

Jonathan

[richg]

I sent a message to "Ask the Bachmann" in October, and so far have not received any answer or even a reply. Am I on my own? Is there not someone who can at least give me some idea of what I am up against? I tried to get an answer from the company, but they told me to go her and so far, nothing. Please help?
I wanted to convert an old Bachmann 70 tonner engine that has two motors, one on each truck, and I wanted to find out what I would have to do to convert it to a DCC engine. I am willing to do the work myself and I can get two decoders if necessary to run the two truck motors. I just want to know if it is possible or not.
I was complaining about the new 70 ton switchers being pretty loud as opposed to the old one I have that is very quiet.
Any ideas??

Obviously,  the Bach Man or anyone in Bachamnn has done this install. This loco is ancient compared to the ones sold now.

The Model Railroader magzine, January 2001 article describes the 44 ton two motor install with a small Digitrax decoder. The 70 ton is slightly larger but same general configuration according to the diagrams I have seen.

Get the back issue from Model Railroad magazine and carefully follow. It is not plug and play.

Use standard NMRA DCC wiring code. The motors are wired in series in the factory install.  I did the same.

Been there, done that, have the T shirt.

I was told by someone to use the Digitrax DZ125 decoder and it works fine. There are a couple other brands that have a small decoder but do not have the numbers right now.

Rich

[Jim Banner]

gm, I remember your post.  I for one have not done that particular installation.  Maybe one of the other people who post here regularly has, and hopefully will be willing to elucidate.  I doubt if any of the people working for Bachmann have done the conversion - for them, obtaining a later one with DCC already on board would be an easier solution.

If you cannot get a copy of the January 2001 MR that Rich suggested, post again or email me direct (clicking on my name above will take you to my profile, including my email address.)

Jim

[richg]

The 44 ton and 70 ton two motors are quite similar in construction. The motors are nestled in their individual truck assemblies. The pickups have contacts that connect to each motor terminal. Those have to be disconnected. Solder red and black #30 wire to each pickup.
Remove the plastic cap the holds the motor in place. Remove the motor.
Solder orange and gray #30 wires to each motor contact.
Remove everything from the top of the frame. I removed the original bulbs from the PC board and used those. You might want LED's with a 1k, ¼ watt resistor.
Connect all the appropriate wires to the decoder wires. Insulate each connection with shrink tube.
Tape the decoder and wires in place at the top of the frame with Kapton tape. You do not need very much slack in the wires. You will see the trucks do not swivel very much. I had not problem with that.
Now the fun, if the motor connections are  not correct, the motors will push against each other or pull against each other depending on direction selected. Reverse one pair of wires at one motor.
Do not leave any wires uninsulated during testing. Others have smoked a decoder by doing that during a testing stage when a wire contacted, say one rail.
As you can see, this is quite easy.   

Rich

[richg]

Forgot to mention, before I did this, I went to the Trains.com site where Model Railroader magazine is and ordered the back issue for about $6.00. The complete description with good photos is in the magazine.

Rich