I bought this loco a little while ago, but it's had to wait in the queue for work to be done on it along with my other ongoing projects. This is not the current model of this loco, although it is "New/Old stock", and it's fitted with the 'Scalextric' motor with a supposed 150 hour lifespan, so for the amount of use it'll get, it'll see me out I guess! It's not supposed to be DCC-able (if that's a word) but I've yet to find a model that fits this description, you just need to be a bit creative in finding space and a way to do it. Anyway, off with the body, which is easy enough, just 2 screws, 1 each end of the chassis, upend it, and the body just lifts off. I fitted Kadee No 5's easily enough, just removing the large Hornby 'Tension lock' couplers and securing each Kadee using a 3mm washer and the original screw, so that was easy enough. This is what you see with the body off.
So everything's a pretty tight fit, there's a small weight in the bunker, another in the boiler, so it's a case of gently prise off the smokebox cover and by either cutting down or removing the weight altogether, it's possible to squeeze a decoder in here, much easier than trying to get one in the bunker, and I'm all for the easiest! At the rear of the boiler is a plastic bulkhead, so I drilled a series of holes around the inner edge of this where it met the boiler, removed the obstruction and cleaned up the hole, meaning I could now get a decoder inside the boiler, directly connected to the motor.
So now it's time to look at fitting the decoder, in my case, I chose a 7 wire (no plug) LaisDCC one, modified by removing the un-needed White, Yellow and Blue wires, just leaving Red/Black and Grey/Orange, again saving space.
Warming up the soldering iron, it's time to desolder the motor wires from the motor terminals, remove the pickup wires (3 each side) from the capacitor, and throw the capacitor in the bin, 'cos it's not needed on DCC and in fact can interfere with operation.
Time to construct rather than destruct! Solder the 3 pickup wires each side, then onto the decoder input wires (red and Black), Right hand side of the loco (looking from the cab) is normally the Red wire, Left is the Black. Heat shrink the cables to prevent shorting, then solder the Orange wire to the right hand motor terminal, grey wire to the left side.
Now with the boiler weight modified by having around a third of it's diameter lopped off at the top, it's fitted back into the boiler and re-secured with the original screw, leaving just sufficient space for the decoder to slide in above, between weight and boiler casing. Here's the weight in place.
Now the loco chassis can be refitted to the body, sliding the decoder into the boiler above the weight so it's a snug fit like this. You can just see the end of the decoder above the weight.
Whilst the body was off, I unclipped the cab and took the opportunity to fit a crew, not a lot of space here, but just enough! Job done! Keith.
Hi Keith Lovely neat job with a pretty little loco - she does look good. I DCC'd a Hornby Peckett this week and likewise binned the capacitor etc, but I was curious about the black 'thing' attached to the capacitor. Do you have any idea what that is .. or does ? John
It appears to be just an insulator as far as I can see as it seems to be rubber-like. I had wondered if the rubber had some Ferrite content so it acted as a choke, but it doesn't appear to have, and any form of 'interference suppression' is not needed on DCC. It didn't stop me interfering with it anyway!!! Keith.
I have done three of these older style Terriers from Dapol and Hornby. The first two had a hole drilled under the firebox door to allow the decoder to sit vertically in the cab, between the driver and fireman. For the third, most recent one, I found I could sit the decoder on top of the motor, with no modifications needed to the body or any other components. Terrier Decoder Fitting - 2 by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr
As usual Jeff, "More than one way to skin a cat" (or Terrier in this case!). Don't know that I'd fancy attempting a sound fit to this particular model, the latest Hornby or expected "Rails" versions are a different story though, having had a bit more thought gone into the design, and about time too. Keith.
Yes, I am awaiting the arrival of the Rails' Terriers to see if I want to buy one. If I do buy one, that then leaves me with the problem of what to do with these older models. At this stage I am not considering sound in any Terrier, although I do have a rather nice Drummond sound from YouChoos (Zimo decoder) in my Hornby 0700. Even to get a speaker into that I had to cut a rectangular hole in the coal space so the speaker protrudes through and has to be covered by the coal load.
I always fancied a sound fitted terrier but was unsure how much would have to go inside. I think I’ve seen you can fit a speaker in the coal bunker, but with sound decoders being that little bit larger, I’m not sure I have the skills.
I believe one of the options (at least with the "Rails" 'Terrier') is factory fitted sound. Not sure about the Hornby. I agree that it's sometimes a "Deep breath and jump in" regarding fitting sound to some models, Zimo decoders are (at least the last time I looked) slightly smaller than ESU, though I have a preference for Zimo personally. Often the biggest problem for sound fitting is where to fit the speaker, decoder can usually be shoehorned in somewhere, even if the decoder socket has to be removed and decoder hard wired in. Keith.
