Conventional to Dummy

Typically it should be pretty easy.  The big thing is to remove the motors but retain the motor mount to keep the trucks on.  Obviously, all the electronics are no longer used.

The exact model and manufacturer would be useful for better details.

i did it with a williams nw2. simple. removed the 2 motors and the pick up rollers.  left all the brains in it. makes it a 10 minute job to swap back to a powered unit.

Depends.  If you have something with a pullmor motor i suppose you could pull the armature and be done.  I guess with dc can motors the same can be true.  I dont think the dc truck mounted ones would be as simple unless you removed the gears.  That may be a one way conversion. 

If you want lights, don't remove the pickup rollers.

Then again you could add TMCC to this loco and have the additional pulling power.  That is not any more difficult than gutting the motors and electronics already there.          j

@JohnActon posted:

Then again you could add TMCC to this loco and have the additional pulling power.  That is not any more difficult than gutting the motors and electronics already there.          j

Almost true, if not quite, but still a good point, especially if it's a modern can-motor unit.

The dummy-up procedure does have the advantage of being free.

I did a Lionel Railsounds SD60M diesel from runner to dummy by removing the armature from the motors. Only problem when used on TMCC layout the motor rpm's crank up due to 18 volt power supply for the TMCC. Otherwise it's easy to do.

@D500 posted:

Almost true, if not quite, but still a good point, especially if it's a modern can-motor unit.

The dummy-up procedure does have the advantage of being free.

I just cannot make myself gut a perfectly good locomotive I watch out for someone selling TMCC boards and buy new or used boards as I find them.  I have added TMCC to about forty of my conventional locos and managed to find new boards on about a third of those so far.  I have no doubt that TrainBub will be happy as a tornado in a trailer park after he completes his first TMCC conversion.  I don't look at the process of pulling motors and electronics from a locomotive as free since you have greatly diminished the value of the victim, I mean locomotive. j

This gives me an idea,  I wonder if I could do this with my dead Lionel dockside switcher ?    Then I could run it in the middle of a log train.

Thanks for all the replies !!!!   I’m going to pick up a conventional and give it a try.

@JohnActon posted:

I just cannot make myself gut a perfectly good locomotive I watch out for someone selling TMCC boards and buy new or used boards as I find them.  I have added TMCC to about forty of my conventional locos and managed to find new boards on about a third of those so far.  I have no doubt that TrainBub will be happy as a tornado in a trailer park after he completes his first TMCC conversion.  I don't look at the process of pulling motors and electronics from a locomotive as free since you have greatly diminished the value of the victim, I mean locomotive. j

I have that issue myself, to a degree. PS1 I can pretty much just take out and replace with ERR with no regret, but a PS2/3 that I can run with my little DCS Remote Commander...mostly I don't gut these, but I have.

As far as diminishing the value of a loco by making it a dummy is concerned, that is certainly correct from an accounting point of view, but I never buy anything with the idea of selling it. Unfortunately.

TrainBub will indeed enjoy a TMCC conversion - at least the results.

I have a Great Northern  MPC EP-5 that wobbled when  it ran. This disturbed me so I just removed the motor and left the running gear. I left the rest of the stuff. This worked out well because I just used it with my MTH EP-5 as a dummy.  However, the MPC had the postwar graphics, and I liked them over the probably more accurate MTH.   So, since I kept the lights in it I run it ahead of the MTH.
Alan