Model Railroading > Decoder/lights questions for Athearn blue box SW1500's

Which decoders are the best to install into Athearn BB SW1500's? I'll use either NCE or Digitrax. I have decent soldering skills and was wondering do I need to isolate the motor on these? Both have been upgraded with Mashima motors. Also what are the best lED lights to put in these?

Thanks for your time!
VAmidlandrr
S. Crabtree

I've used a TCS MC-2 decoder in my SW1500. For lights I use 1.2mm Minatronics 1.5V bulbs, with a 650 Ohn resistor (for a single bulb - 510 Ohm for two bulbs in series). These small bulbs fit nicely inside the light fittings provided. Not sure on LED's. As for isolating the motor, mine have the standard Athearn motor, and I remove the motor, take the brass contact strip off the bottom, cut the two folded tabs off, and then cover it with heat shrink (making sure to leave it clear of the brush location, and the locating clips).

With your re-powered models, they may well be isolated from the frame already.

Good luck with your project. Keep us posted on progress.

Allister

New Zealand.

If you want a neater way to fire up those 1.5v micro bulbs, may I suggest you buy one of the Athearn adaptor boards that come in many of their RTR series. These have the resistors in place, so you can drop 1.5v bulbs in and have no problems. The 1.2mm is fine enough to fit into the light sockets, once the clear plastic lens is removed. Use clear silicon to seal the bulbs in place (so they don't stick out too far, or drop into the shell). The Adaptor board also has the 9-pin plug or both 9-pin and 8-pin socket (later versions have this feature). The neat thing is, it has the motor clip on the bottom of the board that snaps in place on top the motor. Now, if you remotored (I think you said that), then remove the brass clip and just isolate the board from the motor with a rectangulay piece of plastic. The board sells for around $20 or so from Athearn. If you have friends that don't use these, see if they'll part with one.
I've taken several of the older Athearn Blue Box and done just this to all of them and love the results.

Jim

Tunnelmotor40 check your private messages.

Thanks! for the info

I either did not get it or it got deleted when cleaning up the computer files. If you could re-send?

Jim