DCC in John Bull and Laffayette

[Cheese]

Hello,

On my railroad I wanted to have a small shortline railroad. It is set back in the Smokies and runs using ancient equipment. The locomotives I have chosen for this are Bachmann's John Bull and Laffayette. I plan on making modifications and re-painting them, and I would like to add DCC. Possibly a micro-sound decoder if possible. Could I do it myself (I highly dought I could) or would this be best left to an expert?

Cheese

[tstage]

Cheese, 

I would be very surprised if you could even fit (and/or hide) a speaker somewhere in one.  A Z-scale decoder might fit.  However, my guess is that hiding the wires is going to be a huge challenge for you...or anyone.

Tom

[UpNorth]

It all depends how bad you want it.  Nothing says you can't put the speaker and decoder in a box car or passenger car just behind the JB and run 2 wires to the motor.  Heck I recall a rail truck  project in MR were they put a flea drive mech, motor, decoder and still had a driver figure in it.   

If they got a motor and decoder into this, your's should be a no brainer.

[Anonymous]

What a bull.

If you figure it out, send a pic or post a video. Love to hear it run sometime.

I dont think such a thing is possible... is it?

[UpNorth]

I do not see why not, anything is possible.

Put the decoder and speaker in the first passenger wagon behind the Bull, power pickup on the passenger car trucks  is the simplest way. Just 2 wires to the isolated motor.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Nothing is impossible. A year ago the 'experts' said it that it would always be impossible for Z scale decoders to run HO locomotives, yet right at this moment I have four HO scale Athearns, all with Z scale decoders, running on my layout. So that just goes to show that nothing is impossible, but it may be really hard to pull off with such tiny locos. I've seen a HO scale John Bull and it is very small. A Digitrax DZ123 would probably fit in the tender car but what to do with those pesky wires.

[Cheese]

Thanks All,

Sound is not a must, so I will be fine with DCC alone.

Cheese