Old Arnold ES88 railcar DCC conversion

A very old Arnold N model that used to be on the frontpage of some ’90s catalog deserves a small update…

The original

The ET88 was an old EMU produced in the 1920’s for the Deutsche Reichsbahn and retired after WWII. More details (Wikipedia in German) here.

Model

This is not really a legendary train in general, but it is for me. I’m sure many of us saw trains in our youth many times and always wanted them. The Arnold ET88 (and the motorless driving car ES88 converted here) used to be on Arnold old catalogs. I needed to have it, so I went to Ebay as usual.

 

I will be trying to convert the main (motor) car with sound someday, but I don’t have time or even often access to my layout these days. So here is a quick complete revamp and DCC conversion of the ES88 driving car, Arnold part no. 2931.

Conversion details

The car already had headlights and therefore power feeders. I only needed to completely change the lighting (replace front lights with LEDs) and add interior lighting. I went for these options:

• Doehler & Haass FH05A function decoder
• Added capacitor to avoid flickering (330uF)
• Use of an existing LED board that I had liying around for interior lighting
• Custom mini LED board for the front LEDs (white and red)

Conclusion

Now after a quick decoder programming, voilà: 20 year old driving car now with DCC and LED interior lighting and headlights! See the final result:

I’m thinking about the ET88 motor car and how to convert it. Maybe a Zimo sound decoder for a change? We’ll see!