So far I have done 3 of these locos they are a nice running well detailed loco. One might even ask why a install sheet on them, they are DCC ready. Well there are a few things about these locos you might want to know before you install a decoder.

The full stall current of the motor comes in at a dead 800 mA. I selected the Digitrax DH140 for these. If you do not need the full features of the DH140P a DH120P [the P is the NMRA plug]  will work just fine. The decoder will sit on the rear section of the frame with no problem. It fits either on the front section of the stock PCB or on the frame just behind of the front lamp, assuming long hood forward.

There is no reason to go into detail on how to remove the hood, it you already have one, you know it comes with the hood already removed for you. One of Life-Like's better ideas. But there are a few cravats about this loco that you should know before you find yourself asking questions about it. The following is in know way meant to criticize or anything else negative about Life-Like, they are presented here just to help you figure out what is going on.

If you decide to put this loco on a DCC layout with out a decoder to break it in, or just see how it runs, you will find a few odd things happen..   It will run a very s  l  o   w speed. And the directional lights will all be on in both directions, but very very dim. Do not think there is anything wrong with the loco, it will work fine on regular DC. It is just the way Life-Like designed their PCB for this loco.
The next thing you will find is they still do not mark pin one of the NMRA socket on the board. Fear not, if you happen to plug a decoder in to a NMRA plug backwards, there is no smoke, just the lights do not work.. But just to help you out, if you look at the PCB with the motor connections to your left, pin #1 is on the bottom left of the socket.

Now all that is left is plug the decoder in. Well may be not. Before you plug anything in to the NMRA socket, make sure there are no pins shorting to any other pin on the socket. These shorts can come from several areas, such as a solder bridge on the bottom of the PCB, a stray wire connecting to the PCB, mis-wired socket, ect. These should be checked on any loco not just the Life-Like.  Use a Ohm meter, continuity tester, what ever. You are looking for dead shorts, you might find resistance from diodes, resistors, ect. they are not a problem, it is the dead short that will cause a problem for you. After you have done this then go ahead and plug in the decoder.
Plug it in, and as usual put it on a current limited program track such as the PR-1 or service mode track. Make sure you can read the CVs. If so you know there are no shorts and still have a working decoder. Now you can either go ahead and program up the decoder, or put it on the layout and see how it runs default.
Here is the next thing you will more then likely find, the front and rear lights work as they should, but are so dim you will have to turn the room lights out to even see they are lit. This is an easy fix, once you figure out which PCB is in the loco. I do not know how many different PCBs that Life-Like uses on this particular loco, but I have found 2 so far and they all have dim lights on DCC and the lights are fine on DC. One is green in color  the other is white in color both have only 1 resistor.  Any all you have to do is solder a resistor across the top of the existing resistor to bring the lights up to where they should be. If you decide to use one of the decoders that do not have directional lighting, then the boards will have to be modified. I will not get in to that here. If you have a copy of Model Railroading magazine, Dec 1995 Larry Puckett's DCC Update has it all in there, thanks to Loy Spurlock of Loy's Toys.

For couplers again there are a few choices here. And your choice might depend on how you handled the little tabs to hold the shell on. One way is to remove the stock mounts and mount KaDee  #37s. The other is to keep the stock mount and pocket and use McHenery MCH-13s. I know some of you do not like the plastic couplers, but all I can say is so far they have worked fine for me. Any way if you use the stock pockets, and have cut off the tabs on the shell, the pilots when attached will hold the shell on just fine.

One more little hint. The light bar under the fans in the front, you will find this lights up the rear fan/s. While you have the shell off you might just want to pop it out, it is the front light and light boards. You can paint the top of the bar with a black or silver paint, or if you have a piece of shiny tape, such as mylar, stick it on top to help reflect the light, then paint the top of the tape a flat black so it does not show though the fans.

After you are all done, you will have a very nice running, quite,  well detailed SD7. Oh did I say they look GREAT!!!
 
 

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