I got the American Z Line C44-9W in, and absolutely LOVE it! I am now looking to convert it to DCC. Has anyone here performed this? I also want to install front and rear lights.
There should be a notch in the frame under the dynamic brakes fir a decoder. Also their should be the motor wires coming up right there also. The shell should just slide up off the mech. I only have the SD-45's which look easy. Now comes the hard part... Finding a decoder. I was told that you need to use an Ulhenbrock decoder because it is compatible with coreless motors. Other people say any BEMF decoder should be safe, but I don't know. I test fit a Digitrax DZ-123 ok after taking off the red shrink wrap, but did not install it fearing motor damage as it don't have BEMF. Tom Knapp, a local Nn3 modeler, uses a lot of Z Scale mechs for his creations, and does DCC on all of them. He told me to replace my 16vac DCC power supply with a 12v one, as when he did that, the engines started running a lot cooler. Before they used to generate heat jusd idle on powered rails. So I have not DCC'ed mine yet, but will first try to find a source for Ulhenbrock decoders, second, limit my DCC power supply to 12v, and 3rd, program the decoder's top speed to half way before pulling it from the programming track. -Robert
