Atlas/Kato RS-3 DCC
Atlas/Kato RS-3 DCC
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Please note that the Lorraine Valley & James River Railway, who commissioned this installation, runs early diesels including RS-3's long hood forward. If your railway runs RS-3's with the short hood forward, please be aware that references to "front" and "back" will be reversed for you. Also note that the LV&JRR normally runs engines in pairs so the loss of rear (short hood) headlights is of no concern to them. Full headlight function could be achieved by adding a grain-of-wheat bulb to power the short hood headlights through a shortened light guide. For short hood forward operation with front headlight only, the decoder could be mounted in the long hood but then adding weight to compensate for weight removed would be difficult or impossible.
The first step is to remove the body shell. While this can be done with the railings in place, it is often easier to remove them first, unless they have been installed with glue. Supposedly you can release the tabs, two on each end, by gently squeezing the body shell. In practice some gentle prying with a small screwdriver is usually required, but be careful - the plastic is hard and fragile and the tabs are easy to break off. The second step is to undo the original connections and shorten the rear (short hood end) of the connector board/lamp board. To make room for the decoder, the board needs to be trimmed to within 1/8" (3 mm.) of the locking tab which holds it in place. The board is clearly visible in the lower photo and the black locking tab can be seen peeking through the wiring. The board is best trimmed with a fine saw. An attempt to snip a piece off the end using rail nippers resulted in a ruined board. Using a saw requires that the pickup wires from the trucks be removed, the gold wires removed, the motor power tabs straightened, and the board lifted off. The pickup wires are held in place by tiny hooks that hook into the board but they will come off easily if the gold wires are released from their clips by gently prying upward and outward. When reassembling the connector board, replace only one of the lamp wires under one of the gold wires (as in the lower photo.) This is also a good time to cut the motor power tabs flush with the tops of the board. Do not trim the gold wires. When reassembling, the motor tabs and the free lamp wire can be held in place with a bit of Goo. Note that with a shortened board, the pickup wires from the truck no long lock on at the trimmed end and so will be soldered in place in a later step. The third step is to install the decoder. Remove the body weight from the rear (short hood end) of the locomotive and cut it along the mould parting line (horizontal red line in the inset photo) using a bandsaw or hacksaw. For cutting lead, a little wax on the blade helps prevent binding. The lower part of the weight can then used to support the decoder. To do this, glue a 1-1/2" by 11/16" piece of .030 styrene to the top of the weight to make a shelf. Goo is the preferred adhesive but 5 minute epoxy will work provided you get the position right the first try, or silicone bathtub seal can be used, provided you are willing to wait overnight for it to set. The shelf should be centered on the weight and the rear end of the shelf should be aligned with the rear end of the truck gear tower. This should leave just enough room for the pickup wires from the rear truck to pass between the front end of the shelf and the flywheel. To prevent the weight and shelf from moving back and forth, cut two 3/8" by 1/2" tabs of .010 styrene and glue one on each side to attach the weight to the frame as shown in the upper photograph. There is a sort of indent on each side which leaves room for the tab. Again Goo is the preferred adhesive. Finally, attach the decoder to the top of the shelf using double sided foam tape. The weight, tabs, shelf, foam tape and decoder are visible in the upper photo, although the foam tape and styrene are both white and blend together. The fourth step is to connect the decoder wires to the engine. The wires
connect as follows:
* Left and right are defined as if you were sitting in the engine looking forward when the engine is moving forward. The photo shows the connections for long hood forward with decoder under the short hood. Be sure the white wire and the free bulb wire do not connect to anything else. Use some Goo or epoxy to make sure they cannot move around and accidentally touch any other wire. The real danger here is that the fine wire on the bulb can easily break while installing the body or any time afterwards and allow the white wire to accidentally touch one of the gold wires and destroy the decoder. It is OK for the other bulb wire (the one not connected to the white wire) to touch a gold wire, in fact it must do so for the light to work. Before reinstalling the body, program the decoder and check it for proper operation. The fifth step is to restore the weight lost when the body weight was cut. Strips of lead can be bent to fit over the body inside the cab and move can be glued inside the tool boxes by the cab. Rather than have the lead visible through the windows, the insides of the windows can be painted with a 50-50 mixture of Testors flat black and silver. Alternately, the lead can be cut to fit just below the cab windows and the slight loss in weight accepted as the price of installing DCC. The sixth step is to reinstall the body. There is no longer enough room for the light pipe to the rear headlights, so it will have to be removed. The end can be cut off and reinstalled to fill the headlight holes if so desired. The body can be installed by placing the engine on its wheels on a table, then sliding the body down over the mechanism. Downward pressure applied over both trucks at the same time will usually cause the tabs to snap into place. Once the body is in place, recheck the engine for proper operation and if all is well, reinstall the hand rails. You're finished!
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