Last Updated: 17 June 2024

Graham Farish Class 43 (HST) DCC Conversion - Early Chinese Chassis

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.

This guide covers the early Chinese-made Graham Farish Class 43 diesel locos, including:

This chassis often has a 'Made in China' sticker crudely placed over the original 'Made in Britain' wording embossed into the plastic. If your chassis looks different to the ones pictured here, have a look at the Split Chassis with PCB page instead.

The conversion requires two brass sleeves replacing with isolated ones. The procedure is basically the same as the Graham Farish insulating bush (Digihat) method, but both the upper and lower parts are live to the chassis, rather than just the lower part.

Convert Graham Farish early Chinese Class 43 HST to DCC

Step 1 - Remove body

Remove the body by gently pulling upwards.

Step 2 - Track Feed Wires

You may find this step easier to do if you remove the bogies. This can be done by removing the single screw right at the end of each side, and sliding the bogie out.

Turn the loco upside down, ideally place into a protective foam cradle to it doesn't get damaged while you work on it. Remove the capacitor that bridges between the screw and the copper strip. The screw and copper strip are essentially the left and right rail power pickups.

Solder a red wire to the solder point on the copper strip where you removed one of the capacitor legs from. Solder a black wire to either of the two screws, or alternatively make a loop of wire and trap it underneath the screw head. If you do it the latter way, adding some solder to the twisted bare wire can help.

Step 4 - Isolate Motor Connections From Chassis

Push the metal retaining clip to the side, and prise out the brass sleeve. Be careful that the spring and brush doesn't fly out. Replace the brass sleeve with an insulating one, and replace the brush.

Solder a wire to the top of the spring. Put a piece of heat shrink tubing over the retaining clip. Put the spring back inside the sleeve, and while holding it down with a small flat screwdriver, push the now insulated clip back over the top to hold it in place again.

Repeat for the other side. If you want to follow the standard colour coding, one of the spring wires should be orange and the other should be grey.

Step 5 - Test

At this point, you should have four wires - red/black going to the wheels and orange/grey going to the motor. Using a multimeter, check there is no continuity between any of the four wires. To be sure everything is good, also check that the red wire has continuity with the wheels on one side of the loco (only), and the black wire likewise with the wheels on the other side.

You can also apply power to the orange/grey wires, and the motor should spin.

Step 6 - Fit Decoder

You will have three wires coming from the underside of the chassis, and one coming from the top. Pass the three wires along the corner where the underframe detailing is, using thin tape to fix them in place. When placed in this way, they will not be visible when the body is re-fitted. An alternative way to get the wires to the inside of the body, is to use a very fine drill to make a hole through the bottom of the plastic, so the wires can pass behind the underfloor detailing out of sight.

The decoder will fit at the back of the loco. If small enough, you can stick the decoder vertially just over the bogie retainer screw. Solder the four wires to your decoder as appropriate.

Step 6 - Test

At this point, test that your loco responds to DCC commands.

Step 7 - Re-fit Body

Clip the body back on, and the conversion is complete.

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