Introduction

The Norwegian NSB Di6 was never a great success. The order was delivered late and the locomotives always had problems. In the end the locomotives went back to their builder (Siemens). The 12 locomotives have only been in Norway for a few years and most of the time they were standing still because of various reasons. So with that in mind it is interesting that Hobbytrade decided to make a HO model of the NSB Di6.

Installing a decoder in a Hobbytrade Di6

The Hobbytrade Di6 was the first locomotive in my collection with the MTC21 DCC interface. I bought a ESU LokPilot for this locomotive. This is a multi-protocol decoder which has many great DCC features.

With the shell removed you can see the printed circuit board. The 21 pole connector is on the left. Hobbytrade also offers the locomotive with a sound decoder, in that version the speakers are mounted in the round openings to the left and right.

The dummy plug is removed from the 21 pole connector. Be careful when removing the plug because it is quite easy to bend the connector.

The ESU LokPilot decoder has been mounted. The installation was simple. The locmotive runs great with this decoder. The light provisions are also interesting. Only the headlights are directional (using F0). F1 enables the red lights in cab2 and F2 enables them in cab1.