70 Ton Industrial Switcher - DCC conversion

The latest modifications From Rainy Day Hobbies

Sometimes when you love a locomotive, even an inexpensive one, you'll go through great lengths to make it better or convert it from DC power to DCC control. Such is the case for this 70 Ton Industrial Switcher.  We agreed to make the conversion for one of our customers.  Once we removed the shell we were surprised to see not one, but two open frame motors.  And as luck would have it, they were powered via the frame.... a no-no for DCC.  The motor must be isolated from the frame.  To isolate the motor we had to completely disassemble the trucks and motors.  We cut back the tab from the motor brushes that made contact to the frame and soldered wire leads to each tab and the opposite motor brush being very careful not to overheat the brush contact.  We used a voltage meter to check connectivity between the frame and motor contacts to be sure of isolation.  We fitted the locomotive with a Digitrax N125 decoder.  See our YouTube video for the test runs.

Disassemly - removal of light board

Severe lighting leads to power from decoder.

Final decoder installation with resistor for 12 volt lamps.

MTH GS 4 Southern Pacific Repair

The GS 4 Southern Pacific by MTH is an exceptional steam locomotive!  Can you imagine how disappointed I was when I fired it up for a demonstration to visiting family and friends when it didn't move down the track when the throttle was increased.  The sounds were going but no movement...not even when I pushed it by hand.

A call to MTH on Monday was fruitful.  The knowledgable technician informed me that I could send it back to them or attempt the repair myself.  I had examined the locomotive earlier to see if I could disassemble the unit but couldn't figure out how to remove the shell.  The technician told me to remove two screws concealed by hatch covers on top of the boiler.  I did and off came the shell. 

The flywheel, as I suspected, had separated from the drive shaft.  When the locomotive didn't move on the layout and the throttle was set to high speed I could clearly hear the motor running.  The connection was a press fit.  

I carefully applied gap filling contact cement with a toothpick all the way around the shaft seeing the cement move into the flywheel opening.  I let it set over night.  The next day I placed the GS 4 on the test track.  Success!  The GS 4 Southern Pacific was back in business.