Model Railroading > Can You Stuff DCC Into a Hustler?

This Question was asked a couple weeks ago.
Answer: Yep.
I completed this little bugger yesterday.  It's a stock Athearn Rubber Band Drive Hustler- an older one with brass wheels.  I kept the Horn-Hook couplers out of respect.  I did add working directional headlights that flip white to red.  There's no sound or Keep Alive (I didn't want to encourage it!), just a simple Digitrax 140 glued to the underside of the cab roof.
Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
SR

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Bachmann has / had a  Hustler (Bethlehem Steel Mill) in HO with factory DCC, no sound, not sure if still available.
Ed
P.S. you did good!

Ed Stewart
Jacksonville, FL



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/10/25 09:27 by calsubd.

0 to 60 in about 1 second!

Thanks for posting this and showing us it can be done - I was the OP on that.   Fastest Hustler in the West -  or wherever you're from!

Regards,

SkokieSwift

skokieswift Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thanks for posting this and showing us it can be
> done - I was the OP on that.   Fastest Hustler
> in the West -  or wherever you're from!
>
> Regards,
>
> SkokieSwift

Bonneville. Bonneville, Utah
SR

Those don’t look like salt flats out your window…and thanks for showing it can be done! What kind of wiring and insulation did you do under the hood?

As to the Bachmann product, they’ve done Bethlehem Steel on both their General Electric 45- and 70- ton switchers, both of which are larger and far more modern in so many ways than the Hustler.

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV

Posted from iPhone

Out of the box the motor is held in place by a screw on the frame bottom. I glued (ACC) a sheet of styrene to the floor of the frame, and then glued (Gorilla Clear Grip) the motor to that to insulate it. For the most part I simply soldered the wire harness from the decoder straight to where it was going. The Hustler frame is in 2 halves, and I took my track power from those frame halves.
Pretty simple stuff, actually.
I got a little tricky with the lighting- I glued two micro LEDs together (a white and a red) to get the White/Red directional lighting. This meant 4 resistors for the 4 LEDs.

See you on The Flats!
SR

Oh- And this was all for the fun of letting a Hustler be a Hustler. I know there are better alternatives for a credible critter- but not where I was going with this one…



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/10/25 17:36 by BoilingMan.

When was the Hustler introduced?
I remember rubber band drives on the Athearn RDC also (later version plastic).
jb

1957

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV

Posted from iPhone

That's hilarious SR!

It has only one trick-
But it’s a good one
SR

When's the ski jump going to be finished, ya gotta go for distance.

BoilingMan Wrote:
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> It has only one trick-
> But it’s a good one
> SR