Decoder fitting to roco H0/e

[Pete Williams]

In anticipation of delivery of a roco Hoe starter set from kent garden railways, i have bought a 33208 diesel and a 33242 steam engine, both to be converted to DCC.
My question is, as well as removing the capacitor across the motor terminals, is it advisable to remove the two resistors that are also fitted? I will be  using the lenz silver mini + decoder.
I have not yet 'opened' the steam loco and assume the chasis layout is the same.

[petersmith1942]

Pete, I am quite experienced in decoder installation and have done a Roco 33242. They are not the easiest for me and you may want to read other responses before proceeding. I used a TCS Z2 decoder and removed everything so that I could solder grey/orange direct to the motor terminals and black/red directly to the pick ups on either side (just inside the plastic outer chassis frame pieces). The loco performs well but has an inherent weakness in that the pick-ups only collect from the outer wheelsets This I have found to be very frustrating and I have been unable to get the standard of running I demand from my DCC locos. Adding pick-ups to the centre wheelset is not easy and a stay alive decoder is too big for this loco. At present the chassis stands on my shelf. Because of this I have not installed lights but this should not be a problem. I have used the silver mini successfully but again have found some of its features frustrating. I am not familiar with the other loco or the starter set and don't know whether they have plugs
In my view some of these Roco products are outdated and overrated; I know this is reflected in the price but that remains my view
Peter Smith

[Hugh Norwood]

I think you'll find they are not resistors but small chokes (inductances) - part of the suppression circuitry along with the capacitor.

[B.Meldon]

Hugh is correct.
They are inductors so basically a coil of wire, not a resistor.
I think I have added extra pickips on to the Roco BR80 chassis in the past that is basicaly the same as used in the newer Roco H0e steam locos.
I will have to have a look to see how I did it.

Brian Meldon

[Allscales]

kevin at coastal DCC managed to get a decoder with keepalive into an old Eggerbahn works contracter loco I have, yes it's visible and there's no room left in the cab for anything else but the motor takes up most the space anyway!

This 33242 loco, is it based around an updated chassis? The old 0-6-0 chassis as used in Lina was quite dreadful...