Has anyone of you putting sound in the Bachmann's 4-6-0, I am planning to put a Soundtrax Tsunami's small steam with a 0.63" oval speaker in the tender, seems like a easy install by connecting the leads to the cooresponding holes in the main board. Not sure if 0.63" speaker is too big consider the size of tender. Do any of you know if the prototype has the backup light, I am planning to drill a hole to accomendate a yellow 3v bulb.
After spending yesterday evening rearranging the tender on mine, I think the only way you are going to get the decoder, speaker, and stay alive cap in there is to remove any trace of the factory lightboard/decoder. You can hardwire the 6 wires from the loco directly to the decoder to save space. Just remember to put 1k ohm resistor on the headlight lead. The Digitrax decoder may be a smaller option. I have a spare that I thought about sticking in mine but I am going to the smaller tender and I don't think even with the smaller decoder, there is room.
I'm going to forfeit sound for the option of a smaller tender better suited to the engine but a mini tsunami should fit.
ditto. Although after getting sound in my GS4, witch is on life support right now, I am already looking at sound as an option on all my bigger locos.
I looked at both the short and the slope back tenders last night. The slope back, no chance of anything. The overall inside length is shorter than the Digitrax and equal to the Tsunami. There is not enough volume for either. If you replace the shell with the MP short from the American, it just might be possible but you would have no room for a speaker enclosure which is going to result in some pretty bad sound. The short USRA has a chance. The short tender is not only shorter in length but much shorter in height too. The problem with it is the factory light board has to go along with some serious milling of the metal floor of the tender to remove a cast in weight. The wiper pickup system consumes a lot of room also. It may be best just to drill out the floor where the weight is and use it as the speaker mount for a bottom firing speaker. It might be easier to gut the trucks and drawbar from the the Spectrum and use the frame and body from a Standard line shorty (from the 0-6-0/2-6-2). It has much more room inside and you can then make your own lower profile pickup system to gain more space for the decoder.
I agree with SkipGear on this. The older Small tenders offer more space inside to allow room for all the gimmicks. The only negative to the equation, all the wires from the loco with the exception of the motor+ lead are black and makes wiring a bear if you completely remove the internal lightboard. The S.
QUOTE=Sizemore;757939]I agree with SkipGear on this. The older Small tenders offer more space inside to allow room for all the gimmicks. The only negative to the equation, all the wires from the loco with the exception of the motor+ lead are black and makes wiring a bear if you completely remove the internal lightboard. The S.[/QUOTE] So the answer to this is to cut one wire at the time, solder the cooresponding lead as marked on the light board. I am going to use the orginal tender that come with the loco and if it it would accomendate 2x 0.5" speakers instead of the 0.63" oval one. George at Tsunami said that 0.63" would sound better and louder than the 0.5" because of the physics, and he also said since the tender itself would act as a baffle so no need to construct another one, is that true?
I would rather have some sort of enclosure if at all possible. The last two installs I have done, a GS-4 and a 2-10-0 with scratch built tender, both have enclosures. I tried the GS-4 with a baffle at first and was not at all happy with the sound. I built an enclosure and the sound easily doubled. With A Tsunami, I have all the volumes except the whistle down around 1/2 volume to get a good ballace now. The only loco I have heard that I find acceptable without an sealed enclosure is the Walthers Y-3. It makes up for the lack of sealed enclosure with dual speakers using the tender shell as the enclosure. The two speakers can move enough air that the efficiency isn't as important. You can see the enclosure for the 2-10-0 here. It fits into the coal bunker and the digitrax decoder resides underneath. The speaker is fires down and the sound comes out of the front of the tender, aiming toward the loco to enhance the effect.
sound These guys made it work. But they charge an arm and two legs to do it. Video on there of it as well. TopHobbyTrains.com - N Scale Trains & Model Railroads
You really think $190 is an arm and two legs? A $70 install charge for work that some might not be able to do doesn't seem to bad to me. Remember that $190 includes a $120 decoder.
