Easy upgrade. I put a relatively expensive Tsunami 1000 with a 3/4 inch speaker in this disposable engine. It seems to run just fine. The sound could be louder but it is a 3/4" speaker cavity that was already there so I drilled out the bottem of the plastic fuel tank and used that. After sealing the small hole left where the casting provisions were made for the terminal board for speaker fitment, the sound volume increased a bit. Of course sealing the front from the rear of the speaker is one of the primary concerns as far as sound installations. (I usually spend lots of time milling the weights, and making provisions for a fairly large oval speaker with a lead enclosure). The only modification I had to make to the engine was to nip off the mounting lug that provided a mounting point for the original decoder. Of course It isn't an early Atlas with one of their fine drives, but it was an easy path to a good(not excellent) running engine. Now we will see how long it lasts. The worst case senario is that the $56 engine will crap out, and I will upgrade one of my good engines to the Tsunami.
Overall this was a simple upgrade to a inexpensive engine. I think I will get another and MU them togeather. I am sure it could be done for less with a less expensive sound decoder, or possibly use the Bachmann decoder that came with the engine and get an add on sound decoder, but this was a good excuse to try a Tsunami, just to see how I like them. Perhaps programing in a speed chart will improve its operations, I havn't had the time to do that yet. This took several weeks longer than it otherwise would have, but I had a family emergency that lasted for about 3 weeks.
Paul
Dayton and Mad River RR
Takes some pictrues and get an account with Photo Bucket. Post the pictures here which will help others who might want to do this install.
Rich
If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.