Tender drives. . I never ever thought

[aleopardstail]

You may already know this, but with Hornby ringfield tender drives you need to check with a test meter to check there is no direct means of current from the wheels to the motor as on some of them (Not all) they have current feeding through one of the screws. (Trying to remember where) which needs a plastic replacement screw fitted which are available from Peters Spares. Do not rely on just removing the little wire as I found some of them had this screw connection (Which therefore didn't need the wire if used on DC which they were designed for) and also had the little link wire as well. Usually it is either/or but on a few they had both so beware and do an electrical check just incase!
The rest of the conversion is simple, but one may need to run a cable and put the decoder in the loco. The old Hornby Zero 1 decoders (Which were half wave so only needed one side of the motor to be isolated. DCC needs both wires to be isolated though years ago in the early days of DCC Lenz did come out with a half wave decoder for hardwiring certain difficult locos though not sure what became of them. Saw them in the year 2000 catalogue price list if I recall correctly. But for nearly all DCC both sides need isolating, hence why with these ringfield style motors one needs to doubly check as some of them (Not many) had the hidden screw to chassis/wheel electrical connection whils most d idnot,and the two look outwardly identical so it is best to do a check so you don't damage your decoder).

cheers, devious design

[LesW]

On the subject of tender drives, these loco's have been sat in a box since 2004. Last week I thought I would take the plunge and rather than have them sat on isolated track in a shed, I converted them all to DCC. They all run really well, so if I want a rest from all of my sound fitted steamers, I can use them.
20240512_172221.jpg

Just had a Hornby D49 open, tender drive, looking to DCC it, well looking at how. looks nicely isolated but lacks decoder space. how have you been doing them? decoders into the locomotives?

No, I used Lais 860021 decoders and they fitted in the tenders, just about! A bit fidly but do-able. I think it's possible to get smaller decoders though, so that might be worth looking at.

[LesW]

You may already know this, but with Hornby ringfield tender drives you need to check with a test meter to check there is no direct means of current from the wheels to the motor as on some of them (Not all) they have current feeding through one of the screws. (Trying to remember where) which needs a plastic replacement screw fitted which are available from Peters Spares. Do not rely on just removing the little wire as I found some of them had this screw connection (Which therefore didn't need the wire if used on DC which they were designed for) and also had the little link wire as well. Usually it is either/or but on a few they had both so beware and do an electrical check just incase!
The rest of the conversion is simple, but one may need to run a cable and put the decoder in the loco. The old Hornby Zero 1 decoders (Which were half wave so only needed one side of the motor to be isolated. DCC needs both wires to be isolated though years ago in the early days of DCC Lenz did come out with a half wave decoder for hardwiring certain difficult locos though not sure what became of them. Saw them in the year 2000 catalogue price list if I recall correctly. But for nearly all DCC both sides need isolating, hence why with these ringfield style motors one needs to doubly check as some of them (Not many) had the hidden screw to chassis/wheel electrical connection whils most d idnot,and the two look outwardly identical so it is best to do a check so you don't damage your decoder).

It's the left hand screw, although only one of mine had that. The earlier motors are different and don't need the nylon screw, just like the Lima ones. So they are quite easy really.

[Bigmet]

... with Hornby ringfield tender drives you need to check with a test meter to check there is no direct means of current from the wheels to the motor as on some of them (Not all) they have current feeding through one of the screws...

Absolutely right! Don't make any assumption that because you had one that was fully isolated, the next one will be. I have decoder fitted several of Hornby's LNER group standard tender drives from the B17 and D49 for friends, and it appeared to be random! I have put an outline description of fitting a decoder in these tenders in the DCC section.

... in the early days of DCC Lenz did come out with a half wave decoder for hardwiring certain difficult locos though not sure what became of them. Saw them in the year 2000 catalogue price list...

Rapidly discontinued, they weren't available when I enquired in 2004. In common with the address 0 option for running a single DC loco on a DCC layout, operation was noisy, and by report of the German dealer I spoke to many motors were liable to be rattled or heated to failure. And as he put it, with DCC so refined and obviously superior, most customers said 'All DCC then, no compromises'.