Chipping an old 2066 Pigsnout?

[Zerogee]

I've recently acquired a second Pigsnout railbus, but it's a much older model than my first one - it was made in 1988 according to the QC sticker, and unlike the newer version it has a rather unusual wiring system - the power feeds to the interior lights in the roof (and the top headlights) are carried by the actual metal handrail stanchions inside the car, rather than being via a wiring harness as on the newer types.
Added to the usual relative complexity of the light wiring in the railbus (for the changing red/white lights at both ends), I thought that before I started ripping into it all, I'd just ask here if anyone has first-hand experience of chipping a Railbus OF THIS AGE - the one in the decoder fitting compilation thread is of the newer version.

For the record, I'm using a Massoth LS programmed with the correct Pigsnout sounds by the ever-helpful Jeremy at Dragon G (lovely clunky and chuggy petrol motor sounds - the railbus, not Jeremy.....)

Thanks in advance as always,

Jon.

 

[mbendebba]

Hello Jon:
I have not had any experience with the pigsnout railbus, but I have had plenty of experience reprogramming decoders, and with older locomotives, it is best to discard as much of the old electronics as you are confortable with. In this particular case I would not keep any of it.

 

[Zerogee]

Thanks Mohammed, yes, I think you're right - I do normally bypass/strip out most of the existing circuit boards (unless I can easily re-wire them, as I recently did with the lighting boards in my V51). So probably best to remove and discard altogether the circuit board that surrounds the motor - I think I'm right in assuming that this board doesn't actually have anything to do with physically locating the motor in place, it should still sit firmly in its cradle with the board removed (?). I won't try and use the stanchions as the power feeds, I'll just put some new wires in I think.
Anyone actually done one of these and can offer any more thoughts?

Jon.

 

[muns]

Hi Jon,

I have done an old railbus (without the snout). Used an XLS and mounted it up under the roof. Used the handrails to take track power up and motor power down. Had to perform some surgery on both PCBs for it. I will try and find some pics.

I do have an analogue pig nose railbus in the workshop that has an LS decoder earmarked for it - just havnt got round to installing it yet.

 

[Zerogee]

Thanks Mark, any pics you can dig up would be very helpful! Did you put the speaker in the roof along with the decoder, or did you find anywhere else for it to go?

Jon.

 

[dutchelm]

I seem to remember Mike doing an illustrated description on one of these. I cannot remember how far back it was.

 

[muns]

Mike added a sound chip to an already MTS enabled one.

Jon, The speaker was stuck to the roof too.

i was thinking of trying to get a couple od speakers that would fit in the engine compartments of the pignose - but as I saud before - its not got that far yet.

 

[dunnyrail]

I have done a few of these being seduced by their ugliness. The speaker has gone into different places on mine, one had it mounted in this cab inside a black plasticard box that disguises it very well. Another has it on the roof under a tarpaulin. The chips have also been mounted in this way which is a great way to fit them without too much surgery. The chips and speaker are screwed in place on the roof with holes for the wires and some black material with cotton to secure it to the handrails does a pretty good job of disguising both the chip and speaker.
JonD

 

[dunnyrail]

Here are some picies of two of my Pigynose Railcars showing how I mount the Sound Chips, in these cases they are Massoth.
1st is the Red and Creme one with both the Chip and Speaker mounted beneath the tarpaulin:-


Then there is the Jaegermeister one with just the Chip under the tarpaulin (yes it is GWR, an O gauge one that I happened to have lying around. Story is it got left in Europe after WW1 and just ended up on the DR in East Germany. Rule 8 applies to this.)

Final Pic shows where I mounted the Speaker in the Jaeger Bus.

JonD

 

[Zerogee]

Thanks for the pics, JonD - I do like the idea of putting them on the roof, very effective, what material did you use for the tarps?

Jon

 

[dunnyrail]

Thanks for the pics, JonD - I do like the idea of putting them on the roof, very effective, what material did you use for the tarps?

Jon

Jon
The red and creme one used some old thin material sprayed Matt Black, the Jager one has a Raper O Gauge Tarp, probably made from thickish matt black paper the name of which escapes me now. Both were crumpled before tying on with thick brown cotton.
JonD

 

[idlemarvel]

I've recently acquired a second Pigsnout railbus, but it's a much older model than my first one - it was made in 1988 according to the QC sticker, and unlike the newer version it has a rather unusual wiring system - the power feeds to the interior lights in the roof (and the top headlights) are carried by the actual metal handrail stanchions inside the car, rather than being via a wiring harness as on the newer types.
Added to the usual relative complexity of the light wiring in the railbus (for the changing red/white lights at both ends), I thought that before I started ripping into it all, I'd just ask here if anyone has first-hand experience of chipping a Railbus OF THIS AGE - the one in the decoder fitting compilation thread is of the newer version...

Jon, I realise this was some time ago, but i have just acquired the same vintage LGB 2066 and I wonder if you remember if you used the lighting circuitry on the board or did you rewire the LEDs directly to the decoder? The circuit board seems to have some diodes to reduce the max volts to the lights (about 1/2 track volts). What voltage did you use for your lights if you connected them directly to the XLS decoder?
Thanks, Dave

 

[dunnyrail]

Jon, I realise this was some time ago, but i have just acquired the same vintage LGB 2066 and I wonder if you remember if you used the lighting circuitry on the board or did you rewire the LEDs directly to the decoder? The circuit board seems to have some diodes to reduce the max volts to the lights (about 1/2 track volts). What voltage did you use for your lights if you connected them directly to the XLS decoder?
Thanks, Dave

I am pretty sure that I changed the one where my pics have gone walkabout completely. May have Leds, may not. Will try to fathom out what I did for you.
JonD

 

[mike]

Mike added a sound chip to an already MTS enabled one.

Jon, The speaker was stuck to the roof too.

i was thinking of trying to get a couple od speakers that would fit in the engine compartments of the pignose - but as I saud before - its not got that far yet.

I also did a older one as well..used the handrails for track power and fitted the chip in the roof space ..speaker too if I rember...

 

[Anglian]

Here are some picies of two of my Pigynose Railcars showing how I mount the Sound Chips, in these cases they are Massoth.
1st is the Red and Creme one with both the Chip and Speaker mounted beneath the tarpaulin:-

Then there is the Jaegermeister one with just the Chip under the tarpaulin (yes it is GWR, an O gauge one that I happened to have lying around. Story is it got left in Europe after WW1 and just ended up on the DR in East Germany. Rule 8 applies to this.)

Final Pic shows where I mounted the Speaker in the Jaeger Bus.

JonD

Good afternoon Jon.
I was reading through this thread as I have just bought an old (1981/2) 2066 from Ebay Mike in Hemsby whilst on my travels. I couldn't resist.
The links to the pics are no longer active. Is there any way of accessing them as well as finding any thread about conversion?
Thanks for any time spent.
Trevor

 

[The Shed]

The following may be of use for a plan of action!

LGB 2066, service sheet here.....

https://www.onlytrains.com/manuals/2066-1.pdf

Drop in decoder from MD Electronics can be found here.

micron-dynamics - DIGITAL

www.md-electronics.de

Item second from the bottom.
DRIVE-SB 4A, 6 Outputs, SUSI, Servo, Lokdecoder for LGB busses Wismar/Hannover

Manual here...

https://www.md-electronics.de/sitecake-content/MD%20mXion%20DRIVE-SB.pdf

 

[dunnyrail]

Good afternoon Jon.
I was reading through this thread as I have just bought an old (1981/2) 2066 from Ebay Mike in Hemsby whilst on my travels. I couldn't resist.
The links to the pics are no longer active. Is there any way of accessing them as well as finding any thread about conversion?
Thanks for any time spent.
Trevor

Ok so I have updated post 8 with what pics I can find and a new one. In both these cases I have taken the easy way out and mounted things under a Tarpaulin. I have taken a new pic to show where the wires have been taken up to the roof via the cab. Hope this helps, searching through 21k of pics for unorganised pics is a bit of trial!

 

[SevenOfDiamonds]

I have just bought an old (1981/2) 2066

Trevor (Ah! it looks like someone beat me to it! Why couldn't I see that message when I wrote mine?)

Although the postage costs since Brexit have made it less attractive, Modell-land.de offers a digital circuit board shaped to replace the original (it has a hole in the middle for the motor) . . .

ML-Train Lokdecoder Drive-SB Schweineschnäutzchen - Gartenbahn Spur G Zubehör

Moderner, zeitgemäßer Plug&Play Lokdekoder für LGB Schienenbusse 2x64x; 2x65x, 2x66x

www.modell-land.de

. . . with a sound-chip add on (loudspeaker extra).

Decoder-Sound-Set SX6 Wismarer Triebwagen ML-Train 80609756

Mit diesem simplen Aufbau können Sie Ihre analoge Schweineschnäutzchen-Lok von der Marke LGB zu einer Digitalen-Sound-Lok umrüsten.

www.modell-land.de

I bought one last year, but have yet to fit it. When I fitted a Massoth LS to a mash-up of a Wismar chassis and a (widened) Faller railcar body a couple of years ago, I had to fit the chip and speaker in the roof . . . so the Modell-land solution seemed much tidier (for when I do a second one).

Cheers

David

 

[Anglian]

Many thanks for the prompt and extremely useful replies. They are very much appreciated.
Best wishes to all.
Trevor

 

[Anglian]

Evening all.
I've reopened this thread as I have recently obtained a 21650 railbus set, which came out between 2000 and 2002. It has a decoder interface, which I would like to use with an ML Train decoder as mentioned above. The question is, as the railbus is a later version, does the decoder simply utilise the existing wiring? If it does, is that the best way of proceeding given that I am, in the words of one of my sons, a technofail.
I did not proceed with the older pignose I had as I was content to use it on the analogue layout. I bought a dcc version for the main layout.
I still really am enamoured of these models.
Trevor