Graham Farish Class 52 'Western' 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.

Order Your Conversion Now

This conversion follows the Graham Farish insulating bush (Digihat) method to isolate the lower motor connection from the chassis.

This guide covers the Poole tooling version of the Graham Farish Class 52 model, including:

• Class 52 'Western Courier' D1062 in BR maroon (8426)

Step 1 - Remove Body

Unclip the underfloor detail and remove the body.

Step 2 - Modify Copper Strip

Remove the copper clip, spring and brass bush. You can then remove the long copper strip by undoing the two screws, being careful not to lose the two nuts from underneath. Remove the capacitor.

Cut the copper strip as shown, and discard the second and fourth pieces from the left for now.

Step 3 - Connect Upper Motor Contact

Solder a grey wire to the third piece in the photo, then replace it onto the plastic tray. Refit the spring, brass bush and clip back over the top.

Step 4 - Connect Inner Track Pickups

Solder a black wire to each of the two remaining tabs. Refit them onto the plastic tray using the long bolts, secured with the nuts underneath. Note that these bolts also hold the inner bogie contacts in place - make sure they don't fall out or become unseated.

Bridge the two tabs using one of the black wires, and leave the other one loose.

Step 5 - Connect Outer Track Pickups

Using a leftover piece of the copper strip, cut a piece into a 'U' shape and solder a red wire to it. Remove the upper large screw and trap the 'U' shaped piece underneath it as you screw it back in. If you prefer, you can just use a tinned loop of wire here, but using a piece of the copper strip gives a better, more reliable connection.

Step 6 - Test Track Pickups

At this point, you should have two good track pickup connections. Using a multimeter, check the wheels on one side have continuity to the red wire. Then check the wheels on the other side have continuity to the black wire. There should be no continuity between the red and black wires, or any of the wheels on opposing sides of the loco.

Step 7 - Connect Lower Motor Contact

Turn the loco upside down. Remove the clip, spring and brass bush. Replace the brass bush with the insulating digihat.

Solder an orange wire to the top of the spring and replace it inside the digihat.

Put a piece of kapton tape around the inside of the clip so the chassis cannot make an electrical connection with the spring. Refit the clip over the spring. Check the orange and grey wires have no continuity to the red or black wires. Pass the red, black and grey wires down through the holes to the bottom of the chassis.

Step 8 - Fit Decoder Socket

There is room under the body to fit a Next18 or 6-pin socket. This can be skipped if you prefer to hard wire the decoder instead.

Solder the four wires to the decoder socket, then fix it to the bottom of the underfloor trim. You can use superglue, or black tack for a less permanent solution.

Step 9 - Test

Tidy up the wires and test on your programming track. If all is well, replace the body and the conversion is complete.

Our DCC Conversion Service