I have a several year old Rivarossi (pre Hornby Red Box = non DCC ready) Big Boy and am about to embark on a sound installation of a Heavy Steam Tsunami. I have already discovered that getting the centipede tender apart is a challenge in itself. Other than that any other tips I should be aware of? I can't imagine that I am the first to pass down this path so expect that there may be some advice out there that would assist in this project.
Thanks
Simon Modelling CB&Q and Wabash See my slowly evolving layout on my picturetrail site http://www.picturetrail.com/simontrains and our videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/MrCrispybake?feature=mhum
Great tip David! I happen to have a suitable TCS T1 surplus to immidiate requirements and it will do nicely.
Here are some instructions I wrote up for the Genesis Challenger. Take a look, some of the instructions should work well for the Rivarossi. Consider using two high base speakers.
http://cs.trains.com/trccs/forums/p/64941/798400.aspx#798400
Good luck. Let me know if I can help answer questions. I have put a sound decoder in a Riv Challenger, but it was so long ago, I don't remember much except getting the tender open.
simon1966I have a several year old Rivarossi (pre Hornby Red Box = non DCC ready) Big Boy and am about to embark on a sound installation of a Heavy Steam Tsunami. Other than that any other tips I should be aware of?
I had two of those old Rivarossi Big Boys. Installing a TCS T-1 or similar decoder into the boiler was easy to accomplish, but putting a sound decoder into the tender is going to be a major project because the tender has no electrical pickup; therefore, as David wrote, you'll have to add a six wire umbilical cord between the loco and tender with some sort of plug so the wires can be easily disconnected if necessary (and it will inevitably be necessary at some time).
Thanks for the input.
Current draw is not an issue. This one is fortunately not that old and has a can-motor that seems to be of a modern vintage. I have reached the conclusion that everything has to go in the tender, there simply is not room for the hulking great Tsunami decoder in the boiler. I have just ordered a nice small 6 pin connector that will be used as I do want the ability to disconnect the loco from the tender for storage. A quick test with the multimeter indicates that the motor is isolated. So apart from the issue of running long wires back to the tender, it looks like this is going to be relatively straight forward.
The installation is complete and works great. This is my first Tsunami and I have to say that I am really impressed. With virtually no tweaking with CV's the Big Boy moves very slowly on speed step 1 on my Digitrax DT400 throttle. Incidentally, using Decoder Pro via the program track of my Zephyr command station I have had no problems reading or writing CV's. The Tsunami manual suggested that a program track booster would be needed? In all I had to run 6 wires from the tender to the loco using a micro 6 pin plug and socket. Following advice from Bruce Petraca at www.litchfieldstation.com I did not bring a Blue common wire into the loco and ran the common feed to one of the track pick ups. With 1K resistors my LED head light and firebox LED work fine. The hardest part of this installation was getting the tender apart to install the speaker and the decoder. The Rivarossi tender is unlike any other I have come across. You have to pop the ends out! Fortunately Google led me to a page on the www.wiringfordcc.com web site that gave some hints on how to do it. All in all I am very satisfied with the sound and performance of this Tsunami Big boy combination.