Fitting DCC to Bachmann Collett 2251 Class

[Jon Harbour]

Morning everyone, 

 

I recently bought a Bachmann 32-304 Collett 2251 class locomotive second hand and on arrival found that it did not have the 8 pin DCC socket I thought it had. Is there an install guide anywhere for this locomotive? I get the feeling some surgery involved as the space I've seen on DCC ready versions of this model show the socket in the boiler. In the model I have, that space is occupied by a significant weight. Pictures to follow of what I mean. I will also document what I do to get this working in this thread.

 

Thanks in advance if you can help!

Edited June 30, 2020 by Jon Harbour

[Martin]

There used to be a guide for this on the forum, but I fear it may have been a previous incarnation..  It was posted by Trains4U on 18th March 2008.  I may be able to find and scan a copy if it can't be found elsewhere.

  

    Martin

[Jon Harbour]

I thought I'd expand upon this to show what I found upon taking the locomotive apart. Firstly, the fully assembled locomotive and tender:

 

 

The above image of the locomotive doesn't do it justice - I probably need to load another. It doesn't really show how the interior weight forms part of the boiler shape or the crude means of connecting the locomotive and the tender.

 

 

The locomotive body came away easily enough via two screws, one at the front of the body that does into the weight and one at the rear that goes into the cab interior. Here's the inside of the body. You can see the two holes front and rear where the screws come through from the chassis and fix the body to the chassis.

 

 

The middle hole houses a screw that fixes the weight to the locomotive body.

 

Here's a close-up of the rear hole that goes into the cab interior.

 

 

Next is the cab interior itself. According to the service sheet I have found on-line, this is supposed to separate from the locomotive body, but it appears fairly firmly attached to me and up until now I haven't plucked up the testicular fortitude to start surgery! Any ideas on how it can be removed without the need for radical surgery? I'd like to remove it to paint it and I also want to fit an LED for the firebox glow.

 

 

The interior weight is removed via another screw, leaving a nice big space (but no weight) and another hole where the weight is attached to the body. 

 

 

And here is the weight itself, which cleverly forms part of the underside of the boiler. Just like Eric and Ernie (you can't see the join)! 

 

 

One option I'm considering is milling away much of the weight (fully aware of the potential impact to haulage capability) to make room for the decoder, stay-alive and speaker. This loco will never haul more than three coaches and a few wagons, so the loss of weight may not have too much of a negative impact!

 

Here's the bare-bones chassis. Actually hooking up the decoder will be simple once I figure out where to put it and what to remove from the interior!

 

 

Whilst I had my screwdriver out, I took the tender apart as well - again two screws - very easy.

 

 

The inside of the tender body looks a possibility to hold all the DCC sound components, but the question of connecting to the motor in the locomotive when there is no electrical connectivity between tender and loco and a very primitive hook arrangement to connect tender and locomotive is pertinent here.

 

 

I confess the tender approach is tempting. It might lead to me removing the plastic coal load and putting real coal in its place as well!

 

Would welcome advice / suggestions from the collective wisdom of the forum. I've done a google search for fitting DCC to this model but drawn a blank.

 

When I do figure all this out, I will post details of what was done. Thanks in advance for any advice you might be able to provide? Surely somebody has done this?

 

 

Edited July 8, 2020 by Jon Harbour
Added text to images once loaded.

[RFS]

This is the description for the DCC-ready version - Bachmann 2251 DCC Fitting

 

I would have thought you could place a small decoder in the location that the 8-pin socket is located in this later example, and simple hard-wire it. I have a Bachmann N-class which uses the same vertical motor. Here I've used a Lenz Silver Mini decoder which is fingernail size, and located it immediately at the rear of the motor housing. Not sure about space on the 2251 but that might work too. 

[Martin]

img439.pdf

 

The instructions I mentioned above are attached (I hope!)

 

good luck

     Martin

[Jon Harbour]

Thanks Martin - that's a great find! It's kind of what I thought would be the scenario - mill out a space in the weight for the decoder.

 

My challenge is somewhat different- I've got a sound decoder, stay-alive, firebox glow LED and speaker to fit! 

 

Clearly not going to fit in the locomotive without radical surgery. It will go in the DCC-ready version if the decoder socket is removed and the screws the socket fitted to are milled down. However, that isn't going to fly for this version! Looks like the tender option will be the go, but the firebox glow LED may have to be sacrificed!

 

10 hours ago, RFS said:

This is the description for the DCC-ready version - Bachmann 2251 DCC Fitting

 

I would have thought you could place a small decoder in the location that the 8-pin socket is located in this later example, and simple hard-wire it. I have a Bachmann N-class which uses the same vertical motor. Here I've used a Lenz Silver Mini decoder which is fingernail size, and located it immediately at the rear of the motor housing. Not sure about space on the 2251 but that might work too. 

 

Before the locomotive arrived, I found a sound install guide for the DCC Ready version - YouChoos guide to fitting sound and firebox glow to 2251 Collett Goods - but unfortunately the model I have is not DCC ready. It's going to be an interesting challenge...

[Adrock]

On 09/07/2020 at 00:32, Jon Harbour said:

Thanks Martin - that's a great find! It's kind of what I thought would be the scenario - mill out a space in the weight for the decoder.

 

My challenge is somewhat different- I've got a sound decoder, stay-alive, firebox glow LED and speaker to fit! 

 

Clearly not going to fit in the locomotive without radical surgery. It will go in the DCC-ready version if the decoder socket is removed and the screws the socket fitted to are milled down. However, that isn't going to fly for this version! Looks like the tender option will be the go, but the firebox glow LED may have to be sacrificed!

 

 

Before the locomotive arrived, I found a sound install guide for the DCC Ready version - YouChoos guide to fitting sound and firebox glow to 2251 Collett Goods - but unfortunately the model I have is not DCC ready. It's going to be an interesting challenge...

Hi how did you get on with this? I have a Hornby decoder that I hard-wired into a non-DCC ready version of this loco, but am going to replace it. Just wondering if you were able to create a similar amount of space as they achieved in their DCC-ready version?

[Jon Harbour]

It looks like the decoder and speaker will end up in the tender. However, it means I have to have 6 wires (pick-ups, motor, and firebox glow that cross from tender to the locomotive. Haven't yet plucked up the inner fortitude to tackle it...

[Adrock]

On 18/02/2021 at 04:59, Jon Harbour said:

It looks like the decoder and speaker will end up in the tender. However, it means I have to have 6 wires (pick-ups, motor, and firebox glow that cross from tender to the locomotive. Haven't yet plucked up the inner fortitude to tackle it...

Hi Jon, I finally managed to take mine apart to replace the faulty decoder. 3 of the 4 wires had come unsoldered from the decoder! No wonder it wasn’t running. 
 

Here are pictures of what I did originally. I cut the boiler weight back half way. This gives enough room to pop the decode within, whilst mating the body to the chassis. However, the main problem I have is that I can’t put the second screw into the boiler weight, so it’s not a flush fit. 
 

I have used a zimo decoder here and have painted the cab back head, this dropped out very easily for me. 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a slight lip of the lower boiler weight showing because I can’t a) get the second screw up through the boiler at the rear end and b) given the way I have cut the weight, the fixing point is no longer there anyway and c) the decider is now there!

 

 

Edited June 4, 2021 by Adrock

[Adrock]

Thinking further, if you also made two additional cuts to the lead casting that I have marked red, you would create the same amount of space as in the DCC ready version. You could then fix the lead to the chassis and mount the speaker, chip etc on top of it. The only thing you would have to do is create a new fixing point between the chassis and the front of the body, under the front coupling. Because the original version uses the little protrusion on the lead casting to retain the front of the body to the chassis.