I recently picked up an old Life Like Proto 2000 0-8-0 steam locomotive. I have a spare steam Wow sound decoder that I would like to install in this locomotive. I have not opened the tender yet to see what I am dealing with. My experience with older Life Like P2K diesel locos has been to remove all circuit boards and hardware in a decoder and upgrade to Led's also, should I expect this steam loco to be a similar install?
Any advice before I get started on this project would be appreciate. thank you.
While this link shows an installation of a non-sound TCS LL8 decoder, it will still help you know what to expect:
https://tcsdcc.com/installation/ho-scale/1412
I outfitted my Proto 0-8-0 with a Wow101-Steam decoder and a T1 1" harness. That allowed me to remove the stock lightboard and plug the Wow decoder right into the 8-pin socket. The decoder also came with a small KeepAlive cap - good enough for slight interuptions in track current. The Wow101 doesn't have screw holes so I ended up using Scotch double-sided foam tape to adhere the decoder to the base plate of the tender.
I replaced the stock incandescent bulbs in both the tender and locomotive with Minitronic "yeloglo" LEDs. The LED sits atop the bulb pedestal in the tender. I made sure to insulate the LED leads with heat shrink so that they would not accidentally short to the tender frame.
Wish I had taken some photos to post for you. The link above, however, has all the necessary information you need.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
I recently installed the WOWsound L-L kit in my 0-8-0. It made for a convenient installation as their "motherboard" was a direct replacement and their 21 pin decoder plugged right into that.
L-L_0-8-0b by Edmund, on Flickr
I decided to dispense with their supplied speaker and used an ESU cube speaker.
If you hardwire a sound decoder rather than use their board it can be done. In either case you will have to drill multiple holes into the coal load in order to let the sound out as the "baseplate" of the tender is a solid die-cast piece.
I had previously installed a motor decoder in this loco and had removed the original Life-Like board that had the 8 pin socket so I wound up hardwiring the TCS board using the solder pads directly on the board.
L-L_0-8-0 by Edmund, on Flickr
Good Luck, Ed
Ed,
Believe it or not - I didn't drill any holes in my coal load and it sounds fine. I guess the sound is sneaking through the wiring port at the front of the tender.
Thank you for the replies and photos. I will plan on changing the harness with my wow sound. Thanks again.
basementdwellerI will plan on changing the harness with my wow sound. Thanks again.
This loco uses a unique power connector as the drawbar. There is a short length of wire coming into the tender from this plug. Plenty to work with but you have to be careful as it is very close to the end of the shell. You can see part of it in my first photo.
The shell must resonate pretty well, Tom . I just went ahead and drilled about 36-40 small holes, maybe a no. 60 size. I may dust a little coal over that and fix it with some light photo adhesive.
Great little engine Ed
The first run (or runs?) of LL Proto 0-8-0s didn't have any track power pickup on the tender trucks. If it turns out that's what you have, you may want to either change the tender to have the trucks pick up power, or add a "Keep Alive" to the decoder. Without tender pick up, they can stall out pretty easily.