Concor 2-8-8-2 with decoder

[propmeup1]

Is there a thread, has anyone put a sound decoder in either the Rowa, Rivorossi or Concor 2-8-8-2 Y6B. I have three. Two run pretty good but are semi noisy.  Also is there a cure for the noise in those engines. Guess as long as they have brass gears there will be noise. 

[nickelplate759]

I have not done this model but have some general advice.  John Colombo  ( @jdcolombo ) seems to be the resident expert here.

There's plenty of room in the tender for everything you need to install - you'll need to run wires from the tender to the engine.   These old engines are not set up for DCC conversion, but it is certainly doable and not terribly hard.   The biggest challenge is going to be getting decent electrical pickup (sound is very fussy about that) and you almost certainly will need some kind of Keep-Alive capacitor as well (it should also fit in the tender OK).   

If i recall, the tender pickup is from one side only - on my Rivarossi tenders I switch around one truck so that each truck picks up from a different rail.  Making that work will require changing how current is routed inside the tender.

[mmagliaro]

I wouldn't spin a tender truck around and rewire it for the opposite rail unless you also add wipers on the left-side drivers or something like that to compensate.  The only pickup from the left rail is from the two tender trucks.  If you spin one truck around, the left-hand rail pickup will only come from a single truck and that will be very spotty.

I have fixed up a couple of these in the past (never with DCC... just mechanical repairs).  If I were doing one today, I would get rid of the wiper-based tender trucks and replace them with Kato GS-4 or water-tender trucks, or whatever 6-wheel trucks you can get from Kato that have axle-point all-wheels-live pickup.  That will get you six wheels on EACH rail from the tender.  Of course, you would have to cut some holes in the tender floor to allow the truck fingers to poke up in there, and then either put phosphor bronze strips into the floor to contact them or solder super flexible wires to the truck fingers.  But this would be so much better than the axle wiper one-side pickups that are in there.

As for noisy... well, yes, lots of brass gears.  They are just noisy.  But those old 2-8-8-2's do run nice when you get them clean and tuned up.

[propmeup1]

Thanks for the replies. I’ve installed sound in my steam, the deck friendly ones but never one that needs the motor isolated etc.  I think they have Buckeye trucks too.  I can manage all of that. Just like my concor Dreyfus. She’s a tad noisy so I just turn up the chuffing a little higher so it drowns it out a little.  Also the Y6Bs weren’t out setting speed records so the gear. Lose shouldn’t be too bad at a lower coal drag speed.   KTB

[Mark5]

Also the Y6Bs weren’t out setting speed records so the gear. Lose shouldn’t be too bad at a lower coal drag speed.   KTB

In operation, top speed about 50 mph.

Mark

[nickelplate759]

just a thought - you take @mmagliaro  suggestion to replace the tender trucks with all-wheel pickup, AND you add a keep-alive, you might not need to run red and black wires from the tender to the loco.  You'd still need orange and grey, plus whatever you need for headlights.

Then again, you can never have too much pickup.

[peteski]

Then again, you can never have too much pickup.

A big +1!  Just ask Victor Miranda.   

[propmeup1]

I’d love if someone put out an up to date Y6B.  Bachmann perhaps.

[mmagliaro]

I forget how the motor is mounted in those.  Is it wedged into the frame so that one leg is actually the motor frame itself?  You might find, if you take the motor out, that its frame is not "hot" at all.  Many fewer motors actually have a hot frame than people think.  If that's true, then the only "isolation" you have to worry about is clipping off or insulating wherever the brush holders touch the frame, and then soldering some wires to them to power them from the decoder.

[jdcolombo]

just a thought - you take @mmagliaro  suggestion to replace the tender trucks with all-wheel pickup, AND you add a keep-alive, you might not need to run red and black wires from the tender to the loco.  You'd still need orange and grey, plus whatever you need for headlights.

Then again, you can never have too much pickup.

This essentially is what I've done with the ConCor/Kato Hudson.  I modified the tender pickup and added a TCS KA-3 along with an ESU LokSound micro and an 11x15mm speaker in a custom enclosure.  Plenty of room for it all.  Wires go from the tender to the motor and headlight in the boiler.  And it is electrically foolproof.  Never, ever stalls even at 1 smph.

John C.

[u18b]

A big +1!  Just ask Victor Miranda.   

Last year, I had the honor of working on a couple of Samhongsa brass diesels that had been previously modded by Victor Miranda.  I was amazed at the creative way he added electrical pickup.  Dramatically improved those locos.

A guy is never too old to learn something new.