The past few days has given much time for reflection, but it is now time to get on with the good old “bread and butter” Locoyard articles!  And today, we see a DCC chip fitted to the yet to be reviewed Bachmann S&DJR 7F 2-8-0.  This is a relatively simple job and involves fitting a 21 pin DCC chip into the tender of the model – however be gentle when handling the model, particularly as the brake rigging comes pre-fitted (which is a good thing in my book!)

To separate the tender top from the chassis, three screws need to be undone.  First unscrew the two screws at the front of the tender.  Remove the last screw slowly and gently pull off the tender top.  If done delicately the screw will remain in place (as below) and you won’t have the task having to relocate the screw through the tender wheels and brake rigging.

21 pin DCC chips are generally easy to fit.  As they are larger than 8 pin chips, they often do not need a wiring harness and can be slotted directly into the socket and can only go in the correct way around.  A Bachmann 36-554 DCC chip was fitted to this model – a reliable and cheap to purchase DCC chip I’ve used many times before.  The next step in the DCC fitting process is to remove the blanking plate from the socket and replace it with the DCC chip.   Tip – the 21 pin chip is inserted directly into its’ circuit board – the DCC chip sits with the rubber piece facing up.

Now test that it works and re-assemble the tender.  Note – this socket on this model did not like being fitted as straight as I would usually hoped.  It works well never-the-less.  The model itself will be tested in the not-to-distant future.  As ever, watch this space!