Mehano 2-10-2

Scale:
HO Scale


This installation uses the following decoder:

T1



Installing T1 decoder in Mehano 2-10-2 - by Jean Lacroix.

This locomotive was factory painted and lettered for CNR. First, remove the screws at the bottom of the chimney and on both sides under the cab.
The light clip locate in the front of the boiler will be discarded because we are not going to use it after. You can run both the blue and white wires from the decoder harness inside the boiler room, from the motor towards the front end of the locomotive. These wires will power the LED used for the headlight.
Using a connector, you can link the yellow wire and the blue one to the rear of the tender to light the backup LED.
Disconnect both wires that are connected to the motor. The grey and orange wires from the harness of the T1 should be soldered to the two connecting clips of the motor.
The black wire from the decoder goes on the blue wire that picks up current on the driving wheels. The red wire goes on the other side of those wheels. There is no need to remove the retaining plate that covers the driving wheels! You can cut back the green and violet wire and cover their end with heat shrink tubing or liquid tape. Please note that covering all soldered joints with heat shrink tubing or liquid tape is a must to avoid short circuit. You are almost done! Just put back the body. The locomotive is now ready to go on the track.

Important Soldering Tip

Please do not use any flux either liquid or paste on the mother board. Over time, the acidic properties of liquid or paste flux will begin eating away at the fiberglass PCB and will damage it. Use only Rosin-core solder or no-clean flux approved for electronics use.

TCS recommends the use of Kester "44" Sn63 Pb37, .015" diameter Rosin-core solder. Kester part number 24-6337-0007.

You can order this solder from the following retailers:
Digikey - PN:KE1110-ND
Techni-Tool - PN:488SO6775

Other solder tips

When stripping wire, only strip a tiny little bit of the insulation. Strip no more than a 1/32 of an inch. When the wire gets tinned with solder, the insulation will shrink back more. Try to not expose any more wire than half the length of the solder pad at most. In no case should solder or exposed wire wire ever be outside the boundary of the the solder pad you are attaching a wire to.
Click here for important information on properly Stripping and Tinning wire