# Aristo Revo in a Bachmann 2-6-0



## Robby D (Oct 15, 2009)

Has anyone installed a Aristo Craft Revolution in a Bachmann 2-6-0? I'd like to get anyones input before I go tearing into this project.

Thank You
Robby


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## East Broad Top (Dec 29, 2007)

Assuming you're talking about the 1870s mogul, not the small mining mogul, yes--or at least I'm in the process of installing it right now. My install is pretty much a "cut and gut" install, so I'll be wiring everything direct to the board. 

Later, 

K


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## harvey (Dec 30, 2008)

Hello Robby, 
I'm in the process of doing this together with a Pheonix sound system and an Aristocraft lithium battery, all in the tender. It's getting quite tight in there. I've had a little set back with the lights and smoke generator. I have to install some resistors to get the voltage down from 22 to 16 for these two systems. Everything else seems to work alright. 
The original wiring system has been completely gutted including the firebox lighting. I would have liked to keep that, but I'm just running out of room for more wires between the loco and tender. 
When I get it outside I'll post a couple of photographs of what it looks like, inside and out! 
Cheers, 
Harvey.


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## harvey (Dec 30, 2008)

This is the Bachmann Mogul that I've made a few changes to. I'm still in the process but I had it out today for its first run and I have to say I'm very pleased so far.
I've posted a couple of photographs to show the systems installed in the tender as previously noted.










































I still have quite a lot to do on both the locomotive and tender. I've started numbering but of course run out of decals!
I didn't change the tender much except to add hungry boards, which gave me more room for the add-ins. Also increased the size of the water filler to allow for the control switches. The Kadee coupler is only fitted temporarily. 
On the locomotive I dropped the pilot by 0.100" to bring it closer to the track, switched the location of the sand dome and the bell and painted the whole thing again. I'm delighted with the boiler paint as it is silver and not the blue in the photograph, the blue is a reflection of the sky, as it should be for Russian Iron. I painted the boiler with ATSF Silver with about a teaspoon full of engine black added. Really technical measurements I know, but I just kept fiddling until it looked right.
As I move on I'll post some more photographs.
Cheers.


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## East Broad Top (Dec 29, 2007)

Harvey, that's pretty sweet! (The install and the locomotive!). I'm currently trying to cram a QSI/G-wire set-up into the same tender, and hoping (against hope) to do it with a 14.8/4.4mAh battery without having to add the higher coal bunker as you did. So far, it's proving to be the proverbial 10 pounds of **** into a 5-pound bag. I really don't want to go to a 2.6mAh battery because it's a dedicated install, and unless I can get to the battery to change it, I'd like as much longevity as I can squeeze in. I'm thinking I may be out of luck, but your install certainly gives me food for thought. 

Can't wait to see the loco finished. The basic black look sharp! 

Later, 

K


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## harvey (Dec 30, 2008)

This is a little update on the Mogul.
I figured out the headlight, operator problem, (learnings are don't get your wires crossed when working with LED's). It works fine now.
Decals are done and a bell cord is still to be installed.
I've decided against the Bachmann smoke system and will try to install an Aristocraft system when I get one. Hopefully at the Calgary show this weekend.
So here we are just about done.




























Cheers.


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## harvey (Dec 30, 2008)

This is the Mogul out for its first revenue operation with three coaches noted in the 'Model Making' forum.










Cheers.


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## Robby D (Oct 15, 2009)

Wow Fantastic! Great Job! I'll keep notes on this. 

Thank you


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## Stan Cedarleaf (Jan 2, 2008)

Harvey, that is a very sweet installation. Well done. 

Love the weathering you've done on the locomotive. It looks fantastic.


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## takevin (Apr 25, 2010)

Just picked up one these spectrum 2-6-0's, love the detail on it. Going the qsi route, would this just be a pretty much plug and play route to go without taking everything apart? Type of battery to recommend i assume doesn't come with the qsi decoder?


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## East Broad Top (Dec 29, 2007)

Not plug and play, no. You'll have to go into the loco and gut the on-board electronics, which really isn't that big of a deal. If you can live without the firebox flicker, you can use the same 6 wires (and plugs) that run between the stock loco and tender. You'll have the two wires on the one side for the chuff trigger, then the four wires on the other side--two for the power to the motor, two for the power to the headlight. If you wanted to retain the firebox flicker, change the plugs to a pair of 4-pin Dean's connectors, and run the straight battery power forward for the firebox flicker. You'd attach this to where the track voltage gets input to the firebox flicker circuit. (I don't remember where, exactly, that is, but if you trace the wires coming up from the drivers and attach the battery power to that, you'll be in good shape. 

Wiring the QSI board is actually very similar (nearly identical) to wiring the Revolution at that point. You'll have battery power going into the board, motor power out, and the power to the headlights coming off the Magnum adapter board. If you decided to run straight battery power forward to the locomotive, you can tap that off of the battery power input to the QSI board. 

Everything will fit in the tender, but you'll want to use a fairly low-profile speaker. I've got a 3" speaker that's a bit less than 1" deep placed in the center of the tender, in the conveniently-molded-in speaker cradle. The QSI board fits to the rear of that, along with the magnetic volume switch right alongside the corner of the tender. The G-wire receiver goes in front of the speaker, and I've got a 3-amp fuse in a fuse holder up front, too. (The QSI board has circuit protection built in, but I'd still much rather fry a $0.99 fuse than risk damage to a $150 board.) The power switch is up front as well, through the tender floor just above the front truck. 

For batteries, I'm using 14.8 Li-Ion batteries--the 2600 mAh packs that are 4 cells arranged flat. It sits nicely on top of the speaker. I cut out the top of the tender and put in a removable coal load so that I can swap out the batteries when they run down. (I get them from http://www.all-battery.com or http://www.batteryspace.com ) 

As an alternative, you can use a very low profile speaker (They make flat speakers around 3/16" tall), and put a 14.8, 4400mAh battery pack (essentially two 4-cell packs in parallel, giving you 8 cells). This will give you probably 6 to 7 hours run time on a single charge, so you wouldn't necessarily have to make things removable. You will still have to do some trimming to trimming along the top of the tender so that it fits down around everything. You wouldn't have to if you were to use the 2600 mAh pack and a low-profile speaker; that should fit in the available space without cutting. You do cut your run time down to about 3 - 4 hours, though. 

If you're not going to make the batteries removable, you'll have to add some kind of charging jack somewhere in the tender. The toolboxes make nice hidden locations, and can work for that. Also, look at Harvey's installation above. He's using a 22.2 volt, 6-cell Li-Ion pack. I really don't think you need that much voltage. With 14.8 volts, I seldom get above 75% throttle before things start running too fast for my tastes. 

Later, 

K


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