Hello all
Has anyone put sound in the 4-4-0 American with tender drive arrangement? With the motor in the tender is there enough room for a decoder and a speaker? Where would you put it. With the motor in the boiler on my 2-6-0 engine I had to run 6 wires to the engine but there was lots of room for a speaker and decoder in the tender. Any input from those that have done this, would be appreciated.
Thanks
Lee
Use a Micro Tsunami light steam decoder and a 14mm x 25mm speaker. A little baffle under the speaker and put a wood load piled up over the speaker. Modify the tender trucks for all wheel pickup.
Fine tune the sound options in the decoder as the speaker is quite small and not much baffle space.
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.
richg1998 Use a Micro Tsunami light steam decoder and a 14mm x 25mm speaker. A little baffle under the speaker and put a wood load piled up over the speaker. Modify the tender trucks for all wheel pickup. Fine tune the sound options in the decoder as the speaker is quite small and not much baffle space. Rich
Thanks for the reply.
I was hoping to find out where the decoder is placed. 1= Is there is room in the tender for the decoder and the speaker?2= I'm guessing there will still be 4 wires going to the engine, 2 for the light and 2 for the pick up.3= I've been told that the drivers are powered by a drive shaft from the motor in the tender?4= Are there no track pick ups on the tender? Having never seen one I'm trying to understand what it will take to convert to DCC and what it will look like afterward.
There is place for the decoder if you replace the motor with a flat can motor. I used the Lenz LE 077XF. Below is a photo of my non sound installs I did about ten years ago. The Bachmann has a flat can motor out of an old CD drive. Same shaft size as most of theses small tender drive locos, 1.5mm OD.
At least you can see what they look like inside.
The General has a upgrade can motor they sold before Mantua was sold. You can possibly lay the decoder along side the motor.
The Bachmann has the metal frame for the General from Mantua.
About ten years ago, I used those locos at our club to show the members what DCC was like. I had a MRC2000 at the time that had five throttles but very little else for features.
Thanks for the photos, It looks like it's possible, I wired my 2-6-0 and that was no easy task finding a place to put 4 extra wires with the motor taking up all the space in the boiler.
Have a good evening.