Hardwire a decoder

Got a model you want to upgrade with a decoder? Chris Gadsby shows you how.

Since DCC is becoming increasingly prominent in model railways, there is an increase in the number of modellers converting their analogue layouts to digital format. This can be an expensive undertaking with a large fleet, but it’s straightforward enough with Dcc-ready locomotives, as virtually all new releases now are. It becomes more complicated in some models when trying to add sound if the locomotive has not been designed with space for a speaker in mind as you try to squeeze everything in, and even more complicated when there isn’t a DCC socket in the first place.

It’s the latter of these that I’m going to focus on in this article, and I’m not going to beat around the bush – this is not an easy project that can be done in ten minutes. It takes time and a bit of skill with a soldering iron but with care even a relative novice to soldering, as I am, can achieve success.

To start, let’s answer a question. What is hardwiring a decoder? Whereas in most locomotives it comes from the factory Dcc-ready and there is a socket for a decoder already in the model, older models do not have this. To add a decoder to these, it needs soldering directly to the electrics and the motor, wiring it ‘hard’ in place. With a decoder socket, if you would like to return the model to DC control, simply unplug the decoder, if it is hardwired you’ve made the change permanently.

There are many reasons why one might want to go to the trouble of hardwiring a decoder into a locomotive. It might have sentimental value, or it could simply be your favourite locomotive and you don’t want to see it sitting on the shelf gathering dust because you can no longer run it. In my case, it was a mixture of sentimental value and usefulness, as I needed some 0-4-0s on my layout.