As some of you guessed correctly, Locoyard’s ghost train in the Halloween blog post was indeed a Bachmann 00 scale GWR Hall class.  4936 Kinlet Hall is going to be put through it’s paces before long, but in the meantime we learn how to fit a DCC chip to the model.

Step one is to access the 8 pin DCC socket located in the engine body.  To remove the body from the chassis you need to undo three screws, two at the rear under the cab and the other from the front under the bogey as indicated above.

Unusually the 8 pin socket is located at the rear of the body chassis, which makes fitting a DCC chip a little interesting!  You will need a small DCC chip with long cables – a Hornby R8249 (wrapped in insulating tape) was used in this instance, although a chip with longer cables would have been a better.  Remove the blanking plug from the socket as shown by the largest arrow in the picture above.  Then loosen the screw as indicated by the other arrow, but you only need to do this a little, as it is only to allow space for the cables to run behind the circuit board as indicated in the picture below.

After fitting the cables under the circuit board, tighten the screw back.  The cables will now run nicely along a grove in the plastic under the motor.

If the cables are long enough the chip can be fitted in front of the weight, if not a small chip will fit above the motor.  If doing this, be very careful that cables do not get caught in the mechanism (you may wish to remove the none-essential wires).  Test that all is ok on your track and the finally, carefully re-fit the body and then you’re ready to go.  Note that the chip can be fitted at the front of the chassis if the weight is removed.  This makes a massive difference to the model’s performance and is not advisable.

It’s not the easiest DCC job as space in the model’s body is limited.  I hope that the current trend of manufacturers putting DCC sockets in locomotive tender’s continues, as it makes DCC chipping a lot easier.  Bachmann, Hornby et al. take note!