prr l1 conversion on a bli mikado would it work?

[cgw]

Would a ghq l1 kit or the shapeways l1 shell fit on the bli Mikado?    Does the bli light and heavy mikado use the same tender?  has any tried this or are contemplating this modification   any hints and tips.   
I have a couple of ghq kits that I am ready to build.      Just trying to figure out which mechanism to use.   Kato's or BLi ?

[dougnelson]

I wondered the same thing, however, with the added weight of the metal GHQ boiler and tender body (on the older kits), nothing runs smoother than the Kato Mike.  Anyone converted the Kato Mike to DCC?

[Dave V]

Anyone converted the Kato Mike to DCC?

I paid someone to do mine.  Dave at House of Trains in Omaha.

[jdcolombo]

I wondered the same thing, however, with the added weight of the metal GHQ boiler and tender body (on the older kits), nothing runs smoother than the Kato Mike.  Anyone converted the Kato Mike to DCC?

There are lots of ways to convert the Kato Mike to DCC.  If you take the boiler shell off, you'll see a small circuit board with the headlight.  You can mill the weight that sits over that board and put in a small decoder there.  Or you can run wires back to the tender, and feed a decoder there (that's obviously the way to do it if you want to put in sound).  The wires-back-to-the-tender system also preserves all the weight in the boiler, which is critical to the Mike's pulling power.  If you look at Spookshow's review of the Kato Mike, he has a photo of one with the shell off that has a decoder sitting behind the front light board.  Rick Brodzinsky used wires back to the tender to convert several Kato Mike's to sound:

https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=44020.0

And if you search the web for "Kato Mike DCC" you'll find other installation how-to's.  It's not plug & play, but it's not that hard, either.

John C.

[mike_lawyer]

If you do a GHQ conversion kit with a Kato Mikado, the easiest way to do the DCC install is to install a decoder at the very front of the boiler.  Use two pieces of brass stock, put them into the holders where the LED circuit board used to be.  Then solder the left and right power wires to those brass pieces, then route the motor wires to the motor.  You can fit a small Zimo or other decoder in there, then place the boiler over top of it.

I did this with my L-1 conversion and it works great.

[greenwizard88]

If you don't already have the shells or the mechanism, my suggesting would be to wait for BLI to make them. They seem to be working their way through the entire lineup, slowly, that they have in HO scale. I'd be shocked if they don't make an L1 and K4 sooner or later.

[mmagliaro]

One big spotting feature that the GHQ L1s kit misses is that it leaves the original Kato (USRA) "alligator" crosshead guide intact.  While that is correct for very early PRR l1s engines, by the late 1920s... I think.... they were all sporting the "Laird" style crosshead guides (the single guide above the piston rod instead of two guides for the crosshead to slide in between).

On the BLI side, that engine has solid non-see-through drivers.

To me, given that both the Kato and BLI engines are good runners, the important distinction I would make when deciding which to convert would be which one is going to look more correct, rather than worrying about the DCC conversion.  Enough folks have already posted in here that adding DCC to a Kato Mikado is not as horrific as some people think it is.  So worry about performance and looks.

I think the drivers give a clear advantage to the Kato engine, and since neither gets the crosshead right, I would either convert another Kato or wait to see if BLI is going to do a PRR version of their own (which would hopefully have the Laird crosshead guide).  Converting the USRA BLI engine would not be in the running, at least for me.

[cgw]

 Doug     ive done almost 30 kato's over to DCC and about 9 of them to sound.  that part is easy peasy.   on some conversions the decoder is in the tender the others in the boiler with the weight modified.   Where to put the decoder depends on its size.

Max  please teach me more about the cross head guides.    I did not realize there was a difference.  Im gonna have to dig out my old pensy steam power book and study the pictures to see if I understand it.         

[mmagliaro]

Doug     ive done almost 30 kato's over to DCC and about 9 of them to sound.  that part is easy peasy.   on some conversions the decoder is in the tender the others in the boiler with the weight modified.   Where to put the decoder depends on its size.

Max  please teach me more about the cross head guides.    I did not realize there was a difference.  Im gonna have to dig out my old pensy steam power book and study the pictures to see if I understand it.       

Sure...

The USRA engines, and the early PRR L1s, had an "alligator" crosshead guide, so called because there are two guides that hold the crosshead, kind of like between the "jaws" of an alligator, like this:




But the PRR L1s changed to the Laird style crosshead guide pretty early on, like in the mid 1920s, so unless you are modeling that era, the Laird style is much more correct, as in:



EDIT: And of course, you can completely ignore this and just leave it.  I don't think I've ever seen a GHQ Mikado conversion done where somebody changed the crosshead guides.