DCC Series – Introduction

For a long time (I’m talking years), I have been putting off the task of converting all my locomotives to DCC. I did a half attempt previously of converting two PIKO locomotives to DCC, but the projects were sidelined due to not having a railway at the time. Now with a new house, a garden, and a hobby room, it’s time pick up the project again (and the hobby in general).

Now I will probably still find a thousand other excuses to postpone the conversions, as frankly it’s a daunting task. As an IT guy I’m probably quite handy with the computer and programming aspects of it, yet the electrical and/or mechanical parts are outside my comfort zone. For a bit of context: I have close to zero soldering experience, I now the basics of analog electronics, but that’s about it. And above all I’m not yet comfortable attacking a 2000 euro loco with a dremel and/or drill.

What I already know:

I have a backlog of 15 locomotives to convert, of which most are analog (7 x PIKO, 2 x Train Line), and some are LGB with mfx decoders (6 x).
The locomotives are a mixture of steam (7 x), diesel (6 x) and electric (2 x)
I will install ESU LokSound 5 XL decoders only, unless I need to resort to a LokSound 5 L in case of space limitations.
I will install pulsed smoke units in the diesel and steam locos.
I want servo couplers at least on locomotives where it’s relevant (diesel switchers), potentially on every loco. I will evaluate the “S-EntKuPLiX” from MDS Mueller first as I think the ones from Massoth are too bulky in appearance.
I want prototypical lighting patterns for every railway (HSB narrow gauge, modern RhB narrow gauge, DB standard gauge era III).
In case there are light bulbs installed (although I don’t think my LGB locos are that old), I will replace them by LEDs.
I don’t care about gimmick sounds, I just want proper steam chuffs, a diesel rumble or electric whizzing. I’ll care about a horn or bell, but I don’t need 30 other sound effects.
I will standardize wire sizes and wire colors according to standards/best practices.

Just this list alone is a staggering amount of work to achieve, and I don’t want the added complexity of applying immediately to a particular loco as there is additional complexity in that case (space restrictions, cable management, drilling, glueing, …). Therefore, I have purchased a separate (PIKO) motor block that will allow me to tackle all the complexity step by step. And a IKEA SKADIS pegboard will help me with that.

One thing for sure: I will struggle. Anyway, I’ll share the good and bad parts of this adventure in separate posts. In the next post, we start with the set up of my SKADIS test bench. Stay tuned…

Standards: Wire Color Code

The NMRA group has defined a standard for interfaces between decoders, locomotives and rolling stock. As I will do a lot of DCC installations in the near future, I will standardize the colors of the wires according to the NMRA standard as much as possible. Of course, if manufacturers like LGB and PIKO adhere to these standards, I would need to replace the wiring. If it’s not too much hassle, I will do this, otherwise I leave it as is and make sure to label the wires correctly.

Link: NMRA S-9.1.1 (external link – PDF)

One major difference between the NMRA and typical Large Scale locomotives is the travel direction. If you wire up a locomotive according to the NMRA standard, the locomotive will drive in the opposite direction of for example a factory DCC locomotive from LGB or PIKO. It’s a historic thing, but it’s something to take into account. So for the motor control section below, I will probably need to swap the +/- connections around.

Where I’ll follow NMRA:

Track Power
- Red – Track, Right Rail
- Black – Track, Left Rail
Motor Control [to be confirmed]
- Orange – Motor (+)
- Grey – Motor (-)
Lighting (Directional)
- Blue – Lighting (+) Common
- White – Lighting (-) for Front (Output 1)
- Yellow – Lighting (-) for Rear (Output 2)
Other
- Violet – Speaker

For other connections and/or accessories (cab lighting, uncouplers, …), I will probably use Green or Brown as those two colors are also in the pack of wires I purchased.

Standards: Wire Size

Wire sizes are important, yet I found it very confusing to know what sizes I should use. So I had to do some research, which I’ve summarized for myself below, maybe this is helpful for anyone else.

Locomotive internals:

Choice: 24 AWG = 0,2 mm²
Reasoning: PIKO uses 24 AWG for track and motor wires in their locomotives.
Usage:
- Velleman solid wire (10 colors) purchased from a local webshop Conrad (Belgium)

Indoors:

Choice: 20 AWG = 0,5 mm²
Reasoning: LGB’s track connectors (LGB 50160) have 20 AWG wire attached,
Usage:
- blue/red stranded wire for track (e.g. LGB 51235)
- orange/white stranded wire for switches/signals (e.g. LGB 50130)
- black/white stranded wire for lighting and other DC accessories (e.g. LGB 50140)

Outdoors:

Choice: 16 AWG = 1,5 mm²
Reasoning: LGB’s old “Jumbo” transformer (a really powerful one) recommended 1,5 mm² wires. Although 16 AWG should be enough for most railways outdoors, you could argue to go one step larger at 14 AWG.
Usage:
- blue/red stranded wire for track (e.g. PIKO 35401)
- orange/white stranded wire for switches/signals (e.g. PIKO 35402)
- black/white stranded wire for lighting and other DC accessories (e.g. PIKO 35400)

Axle Spacers for PIKO G Metal Wheelsets

I am currently in the process of adding metal wheels to any rolling stock that still has factory fitted plastic wheels. At the same time, I will replace the traditional hook and loop couplers with the much better looking S-KuPLiX couplers. More on that later.

Even though I don’t have any indoor and/or outdoor layout plans finalized, I know that I want to standardize my rolling stock to run through a minimum radius of at least LGB R2, or preferably PIKO R3. In any case, this means I have a bit more flexibility in terms of adding S-KuPLiX and maybe even shortening couplers where possible, without running into issues on reverse S curves.

Replacing the plastic wheelsets by metal wheelsets is usually a quick task, but I also want to fix an annoyance on PIKO’s (European) rolling stock. For example on PIKO’s 2-axle freight cars and the PIKO “Umbauwagen”, the wheelsets have so much sideways motion that the wheel flanges actually rub against the imitation brakes which increases friction. I understand this is required to get them through R1 curves, but as per my requirement, I could actually reduce the sideways motion to guarantee smooth running.

Let’s tackle this for PIKO’s regular metal wheelsets. Not a fantastic picture, but on the right you can see the wheel flange sits against the brake.