I own a Rivarossi Big Boy and Challenger. I used to use them on and off as a kid. (They never stayed on my layout, I just took them out of the packaging to run them). They are both in Display cases now, and I run them once a year out of fear that their gears will rust together or something horrible like that. I am seriously considering building a new layout. Most of my other engines are diesels (I am not versed in the model numbers), and most don't run as well as they did 15 years ago. When I make my layout I am definitely going to go the DCC route. When I got the Big Boy and Challenger, i'm pretty sure that DCC didn't exist, and believe it or not it was even hard to find a big boy in a store. My question is how difficult would it be to wire up my Big Boy and Challenger for DCC? Is it so hard that I should just buy new ones??? For reference, I believe that each locomotive has two "engines" inside b/c they are articulated, but I am not sure.
I haven't seen the insides of either of those locos, but I bet it wouldn't be that hard to do. You may need to isolate the motor from the frame to run leads to it if it is one of those locos that uses the frame as one side of the circuit. I do have one thing to tell you. Once you get a newer Steam engine such as a BLI or life like or bachmann, you may decide that the older locos just don't run as well and should be kept as shelf queens.
Hi MWRailFan I also have several older Big Boys and Challengers and have modified a couple to DCC. There is plenty of space inside to put a decoder, and the wiring is not too difficult to do as the motor is isolated from any other parts of the frame (there is only one motor with drive rods passing through the first engine group to the second group)11. The motor is one using brushs and is not that great to be using with DCC, but does work-lots of ozone smell. Because of the space inside the model, remotoring to a canon motor is feasible, although I have not done so. Another alternative is to pull the motor out, strip the drive links from the engine groups so the loco free-wheels and use it as a dummy in a double header operation. I use my old Riverossi Y6b Mallet like this with a PCM Y6b and it looks great. Keep those old Riverossi's chugging.
Remotoring Old Rivarossi Articulateds, and RR parts See: < Micro Loco Motion > "Wes Barris' Steam Locomotive" site, surprisingly, has an article on remotoring the old RIVAROSSI 'Big Boy', that might be helpful to those that can perform such tasks. I guess since that guy with modeling interests has joined to help support the site that is where it comes from. RIVAROSSI is now owned by HORNBY. On the "WB Steam Locomotive" site there is a reference to MODEL EXPO being importer of RR at current time. That is not "currently" correct, as Model Expo does not sell any model railroad rolling stock at this time. If you need parts for old AHM/IHC imported steamers, GOLF MANOR HOBBIES in Cincinnati ( that has website) is the party to contact. Good-Luck, Peter Boylan
