I have been told that while it is possible to convert old Fleischmann locos to DCC it is not particularly easy due to the way these locos were made. has anyone done this and who could kindly pass on their experience ?

I have a setup with 4 Fleischamnn HO locos in perfect condition. What is the problem with fitting them with decoders. There appears to be plenty of room. Has someone a wiring diagram and which system would you reccommend ? Lenz ? Zimo ? Lok Boss ?

Any help would be most welcome

-- Allan roberts (gdz00@twistedfish.com), March 20, 2004

Answers

Yes it can be done. I have converted the following Fleischmann engines to DCC using the Digitrax DZ123, DZ143 and TCS T1:

BR38 BR50 BR53 BR55 BR65 BR86 BR89 BR91 BR94 BR141

The main difficulty is finding the hidden connections on the motor shield. However, once these are identified, it takes a sharp hobby knife to seperate them. It is not too difficult, but definitely not the easiest installation. What lcos are these, and what is their vintage?

Ulrich

-- Ulrich Albrecht (albreuf@auburn.edu), March 22, 2004.

I just reworked two Fleischmann Locos for DCC. Both are about 15-20 years old. The issue I ran into was the one of the brushes is tied directly to the chasis which is more or less ground in an analog DC environmen. This is not good for a DCC system as the motor brushes need to isolated; the short will burn up the programming resistor. I was able to correct the problem by taping out the brass housing (which holds one of the brushes) that is tied to the chasis. I then drilled out the hole to increase the size and replace the brass housing using epoxy; taking care to ensure that the housing does not touch the chasis. Once the epoxy dried was dry it was ready for being wired to a DCC decoder.

Let me know if somone has a better way. I took photos of the engine during the process if anyone is interested.

-Eric

-- Eric Z. (fantus67@hotmail.com), March 22, 2004.

I found this article that might help with upgrading older Fleischmann engines to dcc. It basically describes what I had to do to my own engines. Use Google to translate the web page (it's in German). http://www.stayathome.ch/fleischmann_v42.htm

-- Eric Z. (fantus67@hotmail.com), March 23, 2004.