Bachmann Standard 5MT disassembly / DCC fitting

Whilst I like this model enormously and it is equipped with a DCC socket - it is very tricky to carry out the fitting without damaging the plethora of delicate features on the model.


This is made unnecessarily worse by the lack of any good disassembly instructions....I hope this blog post will help others as some instructions turn a tricky prospect into a relatively simple one...it will also help me recall what to do when I have to it again.



To separate the body from the chassis requires three screws to be removed


Firstly the piece of the puzzle that I wish I had known was to remove the screw connecting the con rod to the rear driving wheel. This allows the connector from the con rod to the body - presumably this was the speedo connection on the protoype?...if you don't remove this then you end up like this....

The second screw to release is the countersunk screw at the front of the loco, indicated by the arrow in the picture below...










The last screw to remove is the hardest to find / get at , as it is hidden below what presumably are the brake actuating mechanism...but again my knowledge of the prototype is so limited that I am only guessing...In the picture below then I have labelled four components -


(1) brake rod running down the centre of the loco, is just clipped in place, can either remove completely or just unclip from the component marked '3' below and bent gently to one side

(2) can't be unclipped just have to bend out of the way.

(3) a 'nodding donkey' shape of component which is easily lost - clips each side and then has a locating lug holding it in place in the chassis.

(4) the screw we are trying to get at. Can't be seen on the next photo, look at the one below that.











OK now you can separate the two halves of the loco, let's turn to the DCC decoder, I have used a LENZ silver 8 pin with plug. The only thing to note is that to fit in the nicely designed slot for it to go in, you should trim any heatshrink back tight to the edge of the little circuit board as here:-





And here is a picture of the controller fitted into the loco - as you can see the controller is stood vertically in a slot designed for it mounted in the smokebox area.

When reassembling the loco there is a plate that fits under the cab that will have come out when you separated the body from chassis. Here it is below...

The plate fits back with the semicircular bit pointing to the front of the loco and the hole in that fitting over the lug highlighted in the next photo...