Hi - new to this so please bear with me!
Resurrecting/rebuilding my fathers 009/h0e layout and not sure wether to go DC or DCC.
Can the older engines be converted to DCC (see picture of locos)?
Has anyone converted any of these?
Is there a company/shop/individual who could do the conversion (fit chip -Zimo?) ?
Thoughts and help much appreciated!!
All of these will need you to hard wire the chip between the pick up and the motor using the rule "red and black to the track, orange and grey the other way", so it should be possible to convert. Some will be easier than others, and that will probably come down to the available space for the chip - I suspect the Joueff Decauville will be the hardest as the body is full of motor.
However, I wonder why one would...
All of these are a fair few years old, and you haven't said anything about how well, or not, they currently run. A DCC chip isn't going to make a 'duffer' run any better, and at £20 - 30 per chip plus the cost of fitting - probably a couple of hours per loco, so another £20 - 30 on top - it's not going to work out cheap to convert all the locos that will still only limp along with lots of prodding with the fingers, and I suspect that's not the sort of 'digital' operation you are after.
In that respect I wonder if you may be better off sticking with an analogue controller. The other thought if the locos do not have a sentimental value would be to move these six locos on (009 Sales or even eBay) and using the funds raised to help finance the purchase of a couple of more modern locos - like the Bachman WD Baldwins - that can be fitted with a plug in decoder (and even sound if you want to push the boat out).
Hope that helps with your decision...
Depending on what you have already, i.e. if you also inherited an old controller and have no other, it may be worth investing in a modern DC controller to see what difference that makes. Something like a Gaugemaster hand-held would be a good starting point. Even if you plan to convert to DCC at some point it is still worth having a DC controller of known decent performance before deciding to convert a chassis.
As already said DCC will not make a poor runner good. It may bring out the best in a good runner and certainly offer 'extras' such as the possibility of lights, sound along with the ease of controlling multiple locomotives but it can't put back what there isn't there in the first place.
I have converted the Jouef, but the decoder was visible in the cab. It never ran very well although a complete strip down service helped quite a bit. The DCC certainly worked well, but the decoder sat in the cab and annoyed me so I moved it to another loco.
They had the nickname "Coffee Grinder" due to the noise that they make and I am planning an upgrade at some point https://tramfabriek.nl/products/drives.html#jouef so will revisit the whole DCC project.
It would be fun to see people at exhibitions see it coming and make a comment and then do some slow silent shunting with it :-)
The ones labelled Eggerbahn and Roco both work with DCC too. My Egger #4 was missing its "toolbox" so my plan is to make a new one, possibly as a battery box, and hide the decoder in there.
I would send photos, but everything is packed up ready for a move.
Thanks for the comments - much appreciated.
The DC controllers I have are all H and M, a Duette, an Executive and an RC1 (the oldest).
All seem to work well, and once cleaned and lightly oiled the locos all seem to run surprisingly well after 35+ years in storage!
Are the newer dc controllers better, and if so which model/make is considered the best?
Those older controllers will be fine for the locos you have, and if the locos run well then it may be worth considering fitting DCC, but I suspect the cheaper option will be a new analogue controller, especially as some of the newer 009 (and N) locos with their coreless / brushless motors may not like what the old H&M controllers will put out.
I've got on well with Gaugemaster (which have a very good lifetime guarantee), though having something without feedback (or that the feedback can be switched of) may be useful as feedback is something that the modern motors (like that used in the Bachmann Baldwin) do not like and can cause them to overheat.
There may be better controllers out there though, but from memory the Fidelity job (made in New Zealand?) isn't produced any more. Equally one can build one's own, but I'm afraid that kind of elastic jiggery-pokery is beyond my ken (or Barbie for that matter!).
I'm sure there has been some discussion on (analogue) controllers on this forum - https://www.009society.com/forum/index.php?topic=4146.0 for example - that might be worth a look, though it may take a bit of a search to hunt them out.
There is a decent article from Gaugemaster here:
https://www.gaugemasterretail.com/magento/rightlines-article/choosing-your-next-controller.html (https://www.gaugemasterretail.com/magento/rightlines-article/choosing-your-next-controller.html)
The output of the Gaugemaster Combi and the Kato controller look very similar using electronic test equipment and similar in performance too. I would have got the non-feedback Gaugemaster handheld rather than the Combi but was not sure if the less expensive wall-wart power supply used with the Combi would work with GMC-W (no feedback, no 'simulation') handheld.
Would you believe it, it looks like they have updated the web page to say it does! (It was quite some time ago since I bought mine.)
Edit: looking again I think the electronics in the Kato controller may have changed since I bought my one.
When I returned to 009 in 2018 I used my trusty H&M PowerMaster, which curiously had be purchased for my original 009 layout 50 or so years ago. At the start of 2020 I replaced it with a Gaugemaster Handheld Model W and the difference between the two was amazing, the locos, all with Kato chassis, ran so much better.
I still have the H&M unit, I use its 16v AC output to power the Gaugemaster.
I tend to agree with the above comments about the Egger and Jouef items.
I am an avid Egger collector and even I accept that their running quality is not good, in addition you will find that they were out quite quickly with use.
I only use my Egger locos occasionally and I have an extensive pool of spare parts when they do ware out.
It may well be better for you to sell these locos and purchase two or three new ready to run locos in their place and a modern controller. Some of these new locos are DCC ready or even DCC fitter and they will all run far better than the old locos you have.
As a matter of interest the Egger locos you have are all from the 1968-1972 period and were all made by Jouef in France after the Egger-bahn in Germany was broken up and its assets sold.
These versions of the Egger locos are in general the ones that run the least well and they also ware out the quickest, they also have less body detail than other earlier Egger-bahn products. They are however the most numerous that are still around today.
The Jouef loco is also from the 1968-1972 production. Although these sound like a coffee grinder when running they actually last quite well, the chassis construction makes it very difficult to convert these for DCC without replacing the motor.
The Roco diesel looks like it is quite new, however as the chassis design goes back to 1980 these are also not easy to convert to DCC.
The Liliput 0-6-0 locos run well and last well, however they do tend to suffer from broken valve gear and broken contact plates, sadly these parts are no longer obtainable, and repairs are not at all easy as most glues do not work on the plastics used.