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I am attempting to install a decoder in a mantua camelback 2-8-0, anyone with experiance in doing so please chime in and give me some pointers this is my first decoder installation and I dont want to burn it out. I am very unsure of whether or not I figured out how to isolate the motor from the p[ickups? Does anyone know the engines configuration or how the best way to do this should be?
Just so you don't think anyone is looking at your post, I wish I could give you anything more than general information. They Mantua Camelback was never a very popular engine so there aren't a lot of them around. If it's like other Mantua metal body engines, you have to be very careful to isolate the motor and any wiring from the frame or shell. The usual method is to remove the motor from the frame and then remount is with double sided tape. I'd also wrap the sides in electrical tape. You then have to solder the decoder wires to the track pickup wires but make sure the solder joints don't touch any parts of the shell when you're done. The decoder itself will need to be completely wrapped in electrical tape since I'm sure it will sit right up against the bottom of the shell.
Just a point of information. The entire shell of the Mantua camelbacks are plastic, so the motor only needs to be carefully isolated from the frame, not all around it.
NYW&B
I had a Mantua Camelback and the shell was metal. It was old, probably about 1965, but there are metal body Camelbacks. If the newer ones are plastic, that considerably simplifies converting it to DCC.
I had a Mantua Camelback and the shell was metal. It was old, probably about 1965, but there are metal body Camelbacks. If the newer ones are plastic, that considerably simplifies converting it to DCC.
Jim;
Was it the 0-4-0 Camelback? A friend of my in Mobile had one. Only one I ever saw, and was made of brass. Said it was a 1948 model.
As to mounting a decoder into a mantua loco, in gen, the only thing to do is isolate the brushes. This is easily done by sliding a piece of shrink tubing over the "spring" that applies pressure to the brush. The brushes are isolated, and the install can procede.
I did just what you said with the spring and the loco responded to my commands for a few seconds and then just stopped. I was using an mrc decdoer so that might have been the trouble. From what I hear they are terrible decoders.
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