Graham Farish Class 08 DCC Conversion

Mistakes may damage your locomotive, controller or other accessories. Use a multimeter to make absolutely sure you have completely isolated the motor from the track before testing. Always use the Programming Track for testing. Our guides are provided for reference only, and you proceed entirely at your own risk. Unsure about something - try our DCC Conversion Service instead.

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This conversion follows the Graham Farish insulating bush (Digihat) method to isolate the lower motor connection from the chassis. You will need a very small decoder, such as the ESU LokPilot 5 Micro, as space inside the body is very limited.

This guide covers both the old Poole tooling and the newer Chinese tooling versions, which are essentially the same. Example models include:

• Class 08 Shunter 08500 in red 'Thomas 1' (1006)
• Class 08 Shunter 13365 in green with late crest (371-003)
• Class 08 Shunter D4192 in green with late crest (371-003A)

Step 1 - Remove Body

Detatch the body by removing the two screws holding it to the chassis.

Step 2 - Seat the decoder

There is enough space to fit a small decoder at the back where the cab is. If you use something like a ESU LokPilot 5 Micro, it can be positioned low enough so it can hardly be seen through the cab windows. Make sure the decoder is insulated from the metal body, using kapton tape or some shrink sleeving.

Step 3 - Connect one side of the chassis

Remove the capacitor, leaving a short leg attached to the chassis. Solder a red wire from the decoder to this leg. Solder an orange wire from the decoder to the brass clip at the top of the chassis block.

Step 4 - Connect other side of chassis

Remove the keeper plate from the bottom of the loco, followed by the brass clip. Solder a grey wire from the decoder to the tip of the brass clip. Now isolate the lower motor contact from the chassis by placing some heat shrink tubing on both sides of the brass clip. This will remove the electrical connection between the clip and the chassis. There are more photographs of this on the general digihat method page.

Replace the clip. Solder a black wire to the decoder, and then create a loop of bare wire at the other end. Put the loop of wire around the screw coming up through the chassis, and secure it using the nut.

Step 5 - Test

At this point, check there is no continuity between the orange/grey motor contacts and the red/black track pickups. If all is well, refit the body and you are done.

For further detail regarding the Graham Farish digihat conversion method, please refer to the main guide here.

Coreless Upgrade

The Graham Farish Class 08 shunter models convert well to a coreless motor. The one used here was sourced from TramFabriek.

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