Roco Ae 6/6

[bantam61668]

I plan to hard wire an old Roco Swiss electric (Ae 6/6) an  have done a few similar Roco conversions before but this one is a little different under the body and seems to conduct via the metal chassis block through the two screws in at the top of the picture. I have sketched on the picture where I plan to solder the wires and cut the PCB, does this look the right way to do it? Would rather get a 2nd opinion before butchering my model.

Many thanks in advance

[Hamburger]

Correct. In addition, remove all catenary contacts.

[SRman]

I did something similar with non-DCC-ready Roco locos - in my case, a Swiss Re 4/4 iv and Ae 6/6, plus a DB BR 151 (an another I can't remember off-hand). Finding space for the decoders taxed me a bit because of the solid chassis blocks and the light guides in the roof spaces.

My method for isolating the overhead pickups was to add a blob of solder to fix the contacts in the 'rail-connected' position. This leaves the 'fix' as being reversible in the unlikely event that someone wants to restore the locos to original condition. 

Less reversible was my method of separating out the circuits for DCC use. I used a slitting disc in the Dremel to cut the tracks on the PCB at variious places. I did goof with one cut on one particular model, so had to solder a bridging wire to reconnect that track, but overall it worked very well. I also bypassed any chokes in-line with the brush feeds.

I also took the opportunity to replace the light bulbs with some 3mm white LEDs and resistors.

The photo below shows the Ae 6/6. Sorry it isn't as clear as I would like it to be.


P_20200303_234049_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr


 

Edited September 24, 2020 by SRman
Added information and a small correction.

[bantam61668]

Thank you both, will get on with it at the weekend