Omaha53It sounds like the FEF you used was an older version. The new version that I have has a weight the goes to the very top of the boiler except for a notch about 1.25 inches long under the sand box. Did you cut down the weight in the front and back to make room for everything you added?
MY FEF is one of the last Rivarossi's made so should be identical. Yes, I cut the weight. But it also seems that I could have used the area in the fire grate under the cab too. I used the soundtraxx decoder with the purple tape. I don't think I had to cut much for the speaker under the stacks. It was a tight fit, but there is plenty of room. I also think I had to cut some plastic out of the way toward the back of the boiler. It's been about 4 to 5 years since I've done this work--lol. I also added weight, maybe under the dome?
If you want you could perhaps cut the weight under the dome. But, I think the reason I reworked the back vs that area was to use the area under the cab too for the capacitors and to more easily route the wires. Again, I am pretty sure I had to remove some plastic too.
Richard
I put a medium oval under the stacks facing up, a 1.22 HB in the tender facing down and the decoder in the boiler. As I recall I had to modify the weights a little and put the Soundtraxx decoder in front of the cab, toward the back of the boiler. I also used the miniatronics wire with the built in connector for the tender/loco connection. I also added extra high capacity capacitors.
I will add a synchro pickup later on the inside of one of the drivers. But, I've got the chuffs pretty well dialed in.
I have an HO scale Rivarossi FEF (Northern) locomotive that I am considering as a candidate for a DCC sound decoder. It is one of the last ones that Rivarossi produced before they went bankrupt a few years ago. It has an 8 pin DCC plug under the sand dome. It is a very good runner in DC. The space under and in the sand dome is only big enough for a motor only decoder so any sounder decoder and speaker would need to go in the tender.
Has anyone added a sound decoder to this version of the FEF? If so, how did you do it?
Because of all of the wires that would need to run between the locomotive and tender, I am wondering has anyone ever installed a motor decoder under the sandbox and a seperate sound decoder with speaker in the tender?
To install a sound decoder and speaker in the tender that large weight in the tender would need to be removed and maybe modified. How is that weight attached to the tender?
Any other comments and suggestions would be appreciated.