Last Updated: 11 July 2024
Graham Farish Duchess Class 'Duchess of Hamilton' 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.
This conversion follows the Graham Farish insulating bush (Digihat) method to isolate the lower motor connection from the chassis. The best place to fit the decoder is in the tender. The tender also has track pickups, via a single black wire and the brass connecting bar between the tender and the loco. Be careful to make sure the metal parts inside the tender are isolated and cannot contact any part of the decoder, or any exposed bare wire ends.
Models covered by this guide include:
- Duchess Class 46229 'Duchess of Hamilton' in BR maroon (1816, 372-178)
- Duchess Class 46245 'City of London' in BR lined green (370-100)
- Class 8P Coronation 6234 'Duchess of Abercorn' in BR lined green (372-176)
In this conversion, the customer required the decoder to be easily removable, hence the use of a 6-pin harness in the tender instead of the hard wired decoders normally used.
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Tender Pickup Modification
There is an additional modification that can be made to this model, which improves the pickup reliability and therefore DCC performance. This requires replacing the plastic part in the tender that the rearmost screw goes into with a metal nut. This will provide a good power connection to the other rail - the one which is connected electrically to the loco via the drawbar. From the factory, the tender only has easy access to one track pickup via the centre screw, this is the one that ordinarily connects to the loco via a black wire. You may find it easier to replace the screw at the same time, if the correctly-sized nut cannot be sourced.
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