Mating Kato F unit chassis with BLI Paragon 3 sound equipped A’s and dummy B’s

[Cajonpassfan]

I own two ABBA F3 sets by BLI. After a little tinkering, they look, run, and sound great, but with the two dummy (and heavy) B’s in each set, their pulling power is marginal. They’ll pull a twelve car Kato lightweight Superchief up my 2.2% grades, but anything heavier is a problem. One solution is to buy additional powered B units, but at $180 a pop, that gets expensive, especially if one doesn’t want additional sound in each set...two sound units is plenty imo.

That brings me to my question. I have a number of DC only Kato F units, older and new, and with a little filing, the BLI shells can be made to fit, see pic. So I could take the BLI dummy shell and put on a Kato chassis. My question is this: is it reasonable to expect a DCC equipped Kato B unit to play nicely with two BLI Paragon 3 A’s? And if so, what (preferably) drop in decoder might do the trick and be successfully speedmatched to the P3’s?

Thoughts and suggestions appreciated.
Thanks,
Otto K.

[djconway]

My Inter Mountain units play very well with BLI units.  I typically run one sound unit with 2 non-sound. Getting an old Kato unit this weekend but I will follow the same procedure.
The secret is doing a full speed match using all 28 steps, and getting all units to hit the same speed at each step. -- I know it takes a while but it is do-able. 

[Cajonpassfan]

Thanks for that. What decoders do you have in the Intermountains?
Otto

[djconway]

I have a mix of DN163I1A, DN163I1C, and DZ126.  (I have 16 Inter Mountain F3 & F7 A and B units.)

[Cajonpassfan]

Thanks. I’m told the TCS decoders are very good, so I ordered a couple...
Otto

[peteski]

Thanks. I’m told the TCS decoders are very good, so I ordered a couple...
Otto

ESU and ZIMO decoders have superb motor control (much better than any of the American makes), and their price is comparable with TCS.

[Cajonpassfan]

Pete, I have several ESU equipped loco sets, including the new 5 series and love their expanded functionality. But, per my OP, I’m looking for simple drop-ins (too many other projects) and functional compatibility with my somewhat anemic BLI units, hence the original question. The goal is to splice a powered, non-sound Kato B unit mechanism (with a BLI shell on it) between my sound equipped BLI A’s.
Otto

[peteski]

I guess I didn't know there were true drop-in plug-n-play decoders for Kato F units.  I  thought that they only took wired-in decoders (which ESU and ZIMO also make).  I have bunch of those F units, but they are fairly old, so if Kato drastically changed the design, I wasn't aware of it (or had a senior-moment and forgot it).

[reinhardtjh]

Digitrax:
   F3A/B, F7A/B: DN163K0B
          w/sound: SDN144K0A

TCS:
   F3A/F7A: K0D8-B
   F3B/F7B: K0D8-D

Or if you want an easy LokPilot V5 then
Interesting Post on ESU Facebook Group for Kato F units (and F40PH)
plus
ESU: LokPilot 5 DCC Micro #59828

Though that's not the cheapest route but it gets you anESU LokPilot as a "drop in".  Just hurry and get in on the introductory offer from the guy making the boards. And, yeah, you'll need to be  Facebook member to contact him.  Sorry.

[peteski]

Like I mentioned, the Kato F units I own are large solid metal "bricks".  The current version must be using the universal light boards that are easily swapped for decoders. I should have checked Spookshow's site before posting.

[reinhardtjh]

Like I mentioned, the Kato F units I own are large solid metal "bricks".  The current version must be using the universal light boards that are easily swapped for decoders. I should have checked Spookshow's site before posting.

Yes, there's quite a difference between the older pre-DCC and the current DCC friendly chassis.