Joe,
3003, will need a 60903, 60923, 60943 conversion set.
3021, will need a 60904, 60924, 60944 conversion set.
3309, will need a 60901, 60921, 60941 conversion set.

or you buy ESU permanent magnets suitable for the coil magnets on your current locos and you leave the rest the way it is, with other words just change the magnet to a permanent magnet.

I would recommend ESU decoders either lokpilot or sound decoders.

John

I went on the Lokshop site- seems the 60943(60903), 60944(60904), and 60941(60901) will be available Q3 2011.
Cost around 26 Euro each.
Joe

Dale,

I've found the Marklin conversion kit suitable with a 5 pole armature, brush plate, and perm. magnet at around Euro 35.00, I than buy ESU lopilot or sound decoders and program them with a lokp rogrammer.
Your second option is buying perm.magnets from ESU and replacing your coil magnet. everything else stays the same.
I've made over 200 conversions (my own collection) and I do conversions for members at times.
small & large flat armatures and the brushes are fed in from the side.
Not all locos can be converted with the first option but the ones which aren't listed there is a way around of converting them.
When converting locos and installing a sound decoder, you don't want to ruin your sound decoder so be careful or let someone else do the job who knows how to, just a suggestion.
If you do your conversion yourself you could be up to as much as A$ 90.00 for each loco (first option) or about A$ 65.00 with the second option.
If you ask me to do it, send me an email

John

....wish I stayed just a little bit closer to Perth!!.....

Hi all,

I have in my stock a 60902 decoder and I want to upgrade an old analog loco to digital. Is it enough to change only the decoder or I have to replace the motor also?

Hi Ranjit, don't mind me jumping in here but while I understand where you are coming from, I'm not sure I would agree.

Depending on the actual loco's, you should be able to convert most if not all while still retaining the ability to revert back to original condition if desired, the only tell-tale indication would be where the wires have been re-soldered and this could require doing in normal maintenance anyway.

Anyone (mainly collectors) wanting to keep their loco's in top condition for the sake of resale value would probably not be running them anyway due to wear on the wheels, marks and fingerprints from handling (no matter how carefully) and so on. The only alternative would be to purchase another of the same model for running and keep the other for displaying but that could be a very expensive option for some.

If you have an item that you want to use as normal, but which is and remains in good condition, just keep the removed parts ready to swap back if it's decided to sell it.

As for character, well you can breathe new life into a favoured old model by fitting a suitable decoder and improving the slow running, maintaining consistent speeds on inclines, better control of accessories etc.

I'm certainly not knocking what you say in anyway, but I would personally not hesitate to convert any loco I owned no matter how old or rare it might be if I wanted to run it regularly, otherwise I might as well not own it?

So long as the parts are kept to return it to analog should it be required then I see no problem - go for it Joe and enjoy.

Cheers

Cookee
Melbourne

tnx for your post. What is the coil magnet? The permanent magnet is part of MAR60943 ?

Thanks very John of the offer,very much appreciated. I will search for the marklin concersion kit( I assume comes with instructions?)

Ok so I wish to upgrade my fav loco 3085 to digital. So Marklin kit for conversion is there a guide to use?. Will this still run the smoke units if fitted?

ESU Lokpilot Version 3 or version 4 ?

cheers

Dale,

You usually find the conversion kits on ebay.de and just enter the spare part number, e.g. 60901, 69201.
A lokpilot 4 would be my recommendations as lokpilot 3 is now an older version.
You have mainly 2 options, with an 8 pin wire harness or a 21 pin PCB which gives you the F 3 & F4 as an option to program them.
All depends how many locos you've got and how many you would like to convert a lok programmer could be a handy thing to have, it makes it much more easier to program your decoders.

the conversion kits do not come with any instructions, they include: 1 five pole armature, 1 motor shield, 1 perm. magnet, 2 chokes, 2 brushes, 2 longer screws

Adrian,

Yes I have converted 2 Red Arrows and 1 blue Arrow (sold).
Although these rail cars were a bit noisy, a lokpilot did take some of the noise away, later versions of the Red Arrow had a different and quieter motor but didn't fit into the first productions (3125, 3126, 3127)
I think it was worthwhile converting them and by gaining functions, the interior light was separately activated by Aux 1.


John

The conversion kits, I'm referring to are not of the shelf marklin items.
marklin doesn't sell them as such, they are a conversion kit without the decoder, hence no instructions.

John