Davenport Converted
Whilst taking a break from operating the Rio Florida Logging Co at the Amberley Steam Rail Gala on Sunday, I converted my first DCC loco.
The older Bachmann 0n30 Davenports, prior to being reissued as DCC-Ready, have a small printed circuit board on top of the motor, the edge of which has a couple of copper clips on it. Under these clips are holes in the PCB tracks into which the wires of a decoder are soldered.
Such are the instructions that are included with the loco, which miraculously I’ve managed to keep, that it’s a very simple and quick task to solder the appropriately coloured wire into the numbered hole. Seven holes, seven wires, all good.
Of course, I had to do it twice because I missed a hole and noticed I was going wrong when I had three wires left and only two holes to put them in! Thankfully, correcting the mistake was very quick but it did double the length of the task.
Then came testing. As we had a DCC layout to hand, and a paying public to fail in front of, we made sure that there was no other No 3 on the layout and then fired it up. It worked first time, amazingly! There are some minor adjustments to make on max speed, etc but it works.