Sound in Athearn BB FB Units

[mreagant]

Is it possible to install a sound-only decoder in an Athearn BB dummy B unit without having to hard wire to the already decoder equipped A unit?  If so, I'd like a high level explaination of what needs to be done.

Mike

[Texas Zepher]

mreagant

Is it possible to install a sound-only decoder in an Athearn BB dummy B unit without having to hard wire to the already decoder equipped A unit?

yes.

If so, I'd like a high level explaination of what needs to be done.

The hardest part is getting the unit to pick up power from the track.  Depending on the vintage of the dummy unit this can be even more variations of hard.   So 1. Does the unit already have metal wheels?  If not that will be the first thing to do.

2.  Does the unit have the thin metal pick-ups on the trucks?  If not they will have to be purchased and added, or some other wheel or axle wiper pick up must be devised - at least on one truck.  From the factory a powered unit will use the frame for one of the wires.

3.  Figure out how the speaker will be installed and install it.

4.  Connect the newly built up track power to the power side of a the sound only decoder (like Soundtraxx DSX).

5.  Connect the audio output to the speaker.

Here is one that the Athearn B unit body is used for the speaker enclosure.  Unfortunately, in this one the decoder is NOT in the B unit.

Here is a custom made speaker enclosure on the dummy b-unit (stewart in this case) with the decoder tucked in in-front (the white blob).  In this case the power is picked up independently from the track - but also shares track power with units in front and behind it.