Thank you very much for the info, but I´ll stick with that model. It is possible to install everything what I want, I just need to open the loco, trust me. Smoke units can be isolated. The Bachmann steamers are too ugly in my eyes, and the smoke stack is way to thin for any kind of smoke unit. The IHC smoke stack is also slightly too thin, but it´s still possible to fit a smoke unit in it. Plus, the IHC 4-4-0 is based on a Southern Pacific prototype from 1899, and this is exactly the engine that I want to have, since it is supposed to pull a SP luxury train from that era.
Forget about smoke in an old IHC model with a plastic boiler, unless you like the smell of melting plastic.
The decoder must be in the tender because there's no other place it will possibly fit. Then you run into a problem of connecting it to the motor, headlight, and smoke unit by needing at least six and possibly as many as eight wires between the locomotive and tender (two from the locomotive's wheels to feed power to the decoder; two to connect the decoder's output to the motor; two for the headlight; two for the smoke unit).
To open up this engine, there should be a screw under the front truck. Remove that truck and then look for a screw in the center of the cylinders. That screw holds the boiler in place. BE AWARE that the screw goes into a threaded weight in the boiler which, once removed, is extremely difficult to get back in alignment. There may or may not be two additional screws under the back corners of the cab.
You will also have to cut away or modify the weight to make room for a smoke unit, which is another reason to not attempt this.
You'd be much better off purchasing a new Bachmann Spectrum 4-4-0 that already has factory installed Tsunami sound. Micro-Mark has them priced at $154.95, which is practically giving the locomotive away considering the price of an after-market Tsunami decoder.
http://www.micromarktrains.com
Hello everybody,
I have a problem opening up this 4-4-0:
I want to install a smoke unit, cab light and a DCC sound-decoder. Maybe the DCC sound-decoder will be placed in the tender, but the smoke unit, cab light and of course the wiring must be placed into the engine. But I simply cannot open it in order to remove the boiler and cab from the chassis! I´m afraid to break something, so it would be very great if anyone out there could help me and tell me how to proceed and open up the engine. Thanks.