DCC & pizza cutters


B

Bigboy57

Active Member
I have a pretty nice collection of old Rivarossi steam locomotives from the late 60s. All have pizza cutter wheels (oversize flanges). I'm a little apprehensive about going the dcc route. When I see the locos run in low light, I will sometimes see some sparks when going though turnouts. Not always, just occasionally. This tells me there is a momentary short depending on how the wheels hit the turnout frog. I am in the process of replacing all of them with new can motors. Will this cause problems in dcc? Not sure if this post should go here or in the dcc portal.
 
Updated cans will not cause DCC issues. If anything they will perform better than with the old Rivvy three pole motors.
 
I did a Rivvy cab forward years ago. Three pole motor out, can motor in, DCC installed. Ran fine. I also had a guy cut down the pizza cutter flanges. I've also done a ton of vintage brass conversions from open frame Pittmans to modern cans and DCC.
 
Thanks. I had a guy tell me today that I would have a lot of issues with the wheels and dcc. I wasn't sure he really knew what he was saying or just blowing smoke. Sounds like the latter.
 
Bigboy57 said:
Thanks. I had a guy tell me today that I would have a lot of issues with the wheels and dcc. I wasn't sure he really knew what he was saying or just blowing smoke. Sounds like the latter.
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The problem may be more with the turnouts than the flanges. Peco turnouts seem to be the worst offenders.
 
bnsf971 said:
The problem may be more with the turnouts than the flanges. Peco turnouts seem to be the worst offenders.
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My turnouts are Atlas mark IV. When I started, last fall, Peco's were really hard to find. Of course, about a month ago when I purchased the last few for my staging yard, the Atlas ones were in short supply. Had to get those off fleebay.
 
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