Decoder Installation Info

[owen&noah]

I am just now starting an HO layout after a 30 year absence from the hobby.  However, I have been purchasing some things along the way.  I have two locos that I purchased in the mid-90's that I am looking for instructions on how to install decoders with sound.  They are:

         Life-Like Proto 2000  GP-18  (High Nose)                                                                   

        Bachmann Plus Class J  4-8-4 Item No. 11315

Thanks for any help!

 

 

[WSOR 3801]

For the GP18, does it have special value to you?  If not, I suggest a newer GP from Proto 2000/Walthers, with the sound already installed.  By the time you get the frame cut down to get a decoder and a speaker in, plus the price of the decoder, the combined time and money would buy a sound-DCC engine, and the newer ones mount the couplers better.

For the Class J I would get one of these:

http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/products.php?act=viewProd&productId=1093

The one you have is not easily suited to DCC.  It has a split frame, and the motor is wedged between the frame halves.  Would need to insulate the motor good, and and feeds to it, and run wires to the tender for the decoder and speakers.

Or with sound installed: http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/products.php?act=viewProd&productId=1888

Many times the factory sound will sound better than what you can do on your own.

[Stevert]

WSOR 3801

For the GP18, does it have special value to you?  If not, I suggest a newer GP from Proto 2000/Walthers, with the sound already installed.  By the time you get the frame cut down to get a decoder and a speaker in, plus the price of the decoder, the combined time and money would buy a sound-DCC engine, and the newer ones mount the couplers better.

 

  And if it does have special value, look for a sale on one of those newer, sound-equipped GP's and just swap the chassis between the two.  I've seen them going for not much more than the price of a good sound decoder and speaker.  You may have to shorten the light bar(s) in the older GP18, but otherwise it's a drop-in replacement.  Ask me how I know...

Steve 

EDIT:  My March issue of MR showed up yesterday afternoon, and guess what?  I'm not the only person who has upgraded a "favored" loco to sound by swapping the chassis.  Take a look at the fourth paragraph ("My first dual-mode sound locomotives...") in the "Making the transition from DC to DCC" sidebar on page 63.    

  Unlike that author, however, my layout had already been converted to DCC.  This was just a quick, easy, and relatively economical way to add a great sound system to a loco already on the roster.  Plus, the old chassis and the new but un-needed shell have been combined into a loco I can sell to recoup some of my cost.  A win-win situation all the way around!

[BRVRR]

Unless the locomotives in question have significant sentimental value the simplest solution would be to buy current "DCC Equipped" versions of them. The J-Class is available for about $100. All that is needed for conversion to sound is to replace the existing decoder with a sound version and install a speaker. Both would go into the tender.

I don't have a PK2 GP-18, but I do have a GP-7 and installing sound in it is going to be a bear. There is very little room inside the shell for a sound system, particularly the speaker. One of the 'model specific' sound decoders from any one of several manufacturers might make the job easier. I don't know.

I have a Bachmann "Niagara" that is a virtual mechanical twin of your J Class 4-8-4 that I installed a sound decoder in. The split frame made it tedious, but not difficult. Both the sound decoder and the speaker went into the tender, connected to the loco with extended wires. The Niagara had a speaker grille in the bottom of the tender and a slide-in tray for mounting the speaker and decoder. I bundled the wires and routed them through a hole in the front of the tender to the engine.

You may not have to 'isolate' the motor in your model. My grandson has a SP Daylight that is a mechanical twin of both, the Niagara and the J Class 4-8-4. The motor contacts are a type of spring clip that contact each side of the split frame. The motor is 'clamped' into place by the two halves of the frame. Since the end-bells of the motor are made of plastic, the motor in his Daylight does not come in contact with the frame, just the motor terminal clips do.

If you isolate the motor contacts from the frame, you can install a decoder without disassembling the frame. Just check for continuity between the frame halves after insulating or reforming the motor pickup tabs.

Check it out. You may be surprised.

 

Good luck.