Model Railway Forum

has anyone successfully dcc a mainline j72 and if so what sort of a job is it to complete regards bob

bobclifford1953 wrote: ↑Fri Aug 15, 2025 9:55 pm has anyone successfully dcc a mainline j72 and if so what sort of a job is it to complete regards bob

There's quite a long video on YouTube.

It's a split chassis so not simple if you've not done them before, but it can be done.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7LPvlMYTfw

There are a lot on servicing them and a few more conversion to DCC.

I've done one. The pickup surfaces were worn out so I made some pickups out of phosphor bronze strip which I screwed to the chassis via holes that I drilled. These touch the back of the wheels The chassis halves have to be separated and put back very carefully. I used my Dremel to widen the gap in the chassis halves, and removing the contact springs. I wired the motor to the respective side of the chassis, once again with screws, making sure that the motor wires were well insulated from the chassis. It sounded like a coffee grinder when running but it was a good runner.

The chassis and gears all need a good wash in IPA. I used a very thin silicone grease after this.

That video seems to make it a lot more difficult that should be neccessary. All that should be needed to split the supply to the motor is to replace the brass bolts that hold the motor contact strips in place connecting them to to the chassis blocks with equivalent length and thread plastic bolts. The pick up wires to the decoder being connected to a suitably available fixing on each chassis side (or any new pick up strips) and the motor wires soldered to the contact strips.

thanks for the useful information i will attempt the conversion shortly and report the outcome regards bob