Model Railway Forum

hello i have some mainline and bachmann manor class locos which are very good runners and i am in the process of changing to dcc and want to know if said locos can be converted to dcc i know hornby ringfield and x03/4 types and lima pancake motor types be can any comments or help on this would be most welcome bob clifford

I think they may have split chassis which will make them difficult to convert.Someone will be along to advise.

IIRC the Mainline Manor has a white plastic pod mounted motor with metal contact strips across it from a bolt to the metal casing of the brush holder. You need to break those contacts, possibly the easiest would be piece of plastic card on the brush end of the metal strips with further metal strips on the brush side of the plastic card which the motor wires from a decoder are soldered to.

The Bachmann ones are more difficult needing a virtually complete strip down off the chassis as shown in this Youtube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BY5Qitms23ofor the Royal Scot. A multimeter is essential to check when reassembled the motor leads are still insulated from the pick ups.

An alternative re the Mainline one is to use a plastic retaining bolt for the metal contact strip

hi mike when you say use plastic screws in place of the steel ones would that be similar to a hornby ringfield conversion when dcc chip is fitted to them regards bob

Could be if that provides the necessary break in the circuit