Installing a Decoder in an Athearn Blue Box locomotive

[kodeblew]

this was very helpful and simply explained, thanks man

[aaron13133]

where do you attach the 2 wires for additional bulbs?

[panglongyui]

does the blue box locomotives come with the hand rail and detail parts

[crazyfvck]

The only reason I would switch to DCC is to get realistic sound out of my diesels. Do they make a simliar plug-n-play decoder with sound for blue box engines? I have a trio of Athearn BNSF GP38-2's, two of them powered and one a dummy. They are my primary engines. I would love to give the powered units sound, assuming the cost isn't too bad.

[THOMASandline3]

cool

[flyingdenver]

Thanks for your fine demo. i have a DH123at to install. Great help.

Nice layout.

[trainssker]

Graysonator...Ditto to what you said!!!  LOL

[grabador9]

Hello, look at this loco, the 6336 is athearn RTR with decoder DH123AT and the 6300 is Intermountaint with decoder QSI DCC/Sound. Thanks men for your tips.

[BrodyFarmBoy]

ah crud I have 3 pwred Blue box engines so thats going to be about $90 and 2 others that I have to repower so thats going to be lot of money I dont have yet

[trainmaster101]

thanks for this demonstration

[MrkmTrainFAN]

That noise is a wire grinding in the shaft or rubbing on some other moving part. If you open it up again, you should see wear on the wires where it was rubbing.

[NSrailfan1]

i just order an Athearn GP38 and and GP40-2 and i will definetly be using this video for reference!

[12train1]

can you put a decodere in a life like engien

[knightbob81]

Does this work with F7 Engines by athearn

[MikeDelic14]

yes, it works for any locomotive

[graysonator123]

dude...screw the DHAT...HARDWIRE that thing. i love digitrax but the soldering job on the clips is terrible...if you wanna use the DHAT harness, cut off all the Motor clips and connections from the thing and solder the wires straight to the engine. it helps a LOT better....just a tip

[MikeDelic14]

i kno lol, I always do that now.

[locodkr]

Very helpful video. Did you leave the headlight standard or have to replace the bulb?

[MikeDelic14]

Thanks, I left the bulb standard.

[coryrusch]

My Athearn GP38-2 sounds like that when I put a DCC Decoder in

[flexspinner]

neat i have few that are still DC i REALLY need to change em i never got the ones with clips they seen alot easier ! thnx for the vid good job ! :-)

[graysonator123]

Yeah anyone can do it...it makes running your trains more realistic. 5*!

[akkksj]

for the grinding noise try taping the wires to the top of the body

[ATSFME]

nice mike im in a club so im gonna put a decder in my new whiteface my SW1000 and mabye my RTR GP40-2

[railfanfromiantha]

Now I'm going to install mine in my GP40-2. When's your layout update going to be?

[MikeDelic14]

cool, it will be up as soon as i recive somthing in the mail

[challenger151]

Cool! Now I'll try doing it myself!

[bigtrainrocks]

Hey Mike! I havent looked at your channel for new videos. Thanks for the tip. I might need it for the future =]

[steven8979]

hey mike great job! i remember one time i wanted to put a decoder in one of my CP SD-40s and ended up destroying the little spring things on the motor. this vid helps! p.s i think that loud sound is one of your wires rubbing against the drive train if that helps.

[MikeDelic14]

Yeah, I've fixed the problem. Its actually very easy putting a decoder in!

[Southernman7001]

hey mike sounds like wires might be rubbing on drive shafts

[MikeDelic14]

yeah, thats what I think too. I tried fixing it up and it seems to run fairly quit now :)

[Guilford88panam]

hey when you used the headlight were you using the light function or does it automatically come on like a dc operation? im looking to install one in one of my athearn locos. so does that wire cover on and off function for the light or just turns on by itself?

thanks for the vid Mike, it will help me alot.

[MikeDelic14]

No prob, I noticed there were not many videos like this on youtube. The headlight is controlled by the headlight function on the DCC controller.

[Guilford88panam]

alright thanks man

[railfanfromiantha]

YEA!!!!!!! you finally got the BN SW switched to DCC. Watching this video makes me a lot less scared about adding DCC to my GP40-2 and my F7a. does the decoder come off but not the wires? Just curious for sound upgrading. Now you need to make a layout update. It looks like you got a new siding.

[MikeDelic14]

ya the decoder can come out, ill make one soon

[pubybarstumpy]

you can try to hot glue the wires.or cut the ones off that you are not using. mini zip ties are also good

[pubybarstumpy]

it didn'nt make the sound before you had the shell on? hummm... cool video. probably the shell.

[MikeDelic14]

Yeah, I think it's the wires inside rattling around, it was it tight fit, so not much room to secure them in the shell.

[BNkid13]

could this decoder go with the bachman dcc system?

[MikeDelic14]

Yes. Any NMRA certified decoder will work with any NMRA certified DCC system (so basically all brands of decoders will work with any system).

[RailFanDavid]

that looks so easy.

[maryandrobby]

wow still looking into DCC but thought it would be hard and its a bit pricey try

WD40 on that locomotive maybe something is pushing on the motor

[MikeDelic14]

Its the decoder inside the loco, this one ran nice and smooth in DC.. Its just when u install a decoder.

[thetrainman407]

awesome video mike. you make DCC sound easy, but still not in my price range. o well.

[rebfrank12345]

kool

[NorfolkWestern34]

great video im looking into DCC, also, how do u like those bachmann switches, mine suck

[Stephenson18]

good vid mike!

[ntrains]

THANKS I planned on doing this to a sw15 this summer but wasnt sure how thanks again

[Sabrestrainsfan]

THANK YOU! this will come in handy in the summer

[ohiosouthern]

here is a dum question but since u use DCC dose it have speed control like on the o scale models,. like if i was pulling a 30 car train up a 2% grade it would go the same speed because that is one thing i want 2 take into thought, So does DCC have speed control

[ballparkfrank10]

well, im not to sure about that, but i have NCE and so does mike. im not sure that NCE does that but others might.

[MikeDelic14]

Not sure about O scale.. But yeah im pretty sure there is speed control.. Maybe the Momentum feature??

[ohiosouthern]

ya i was looking at the article and it said it has Speed control, so that is a big plus 4 me., thanks 4 your input on it

[MikeDelic14]

No prob. I was looking around youtube the otherday and noticed that there was no videos like this.. atleast for athearns, and you can say almost everyone has atleast one athearn. So i thought it was a good idea for a video

[jbrunsonjr]

Great video - thanks for making it and posting it up!

[guitar446]

thank you MIKE for doing this vid on installing a decoder

[ibiubuok]

Mike, great video.  Your demonstration & explanation were real easy to follow. I'll keep this vid in mind when I attempt a DCC conversion. Good job. Thanks so much for uploading it!

[Bramptonrailfan]

Nice video! Holy crap that thing is loud, i think its better without the shell on :P maybe some wires in the way of something or hitting it? Nice demonstration!