Adding Sound to Bachmann Baldwin 2-8-0 Southern (Green) #722

The Bachmann Baldwin 2-8-0 Southern (Green) #722 steam locomotive comes with DCC On Board. Can a sound decoder be added to the locomotive, and if so how is it done?

 

You can sure add a sound decoder, however, you'll have to solder the connections to the DCC board and remove the old decoder.

 

It would probably be easiest to pull the whole board out of the tender . All you have to do is to then trace where the 6 wires go ( Not to hard ) and then wire up the sound decoder . I don't think you would have room for both the decoder and the speaker with the stock board still in the tender . BTW the TCS sound board is supposed to be smaller than the Soundtraxx board .

 

Th ESU LokSound Select Micro is the smallest DCC sound decoder. That would fit in the tender.

 

If you have not done any soldering in circuits like this, it might be a challenge to hard wire.
Below is a link using a Tsunami decoder. You can use a LokSound also.
SoundTraxx recommends a 1 amp decoder.

http://www.soundtraxx.com/documents/appnotes/bachmann280.pdf

You can cut back the shrink just enough to remove the 9 pin plug and use a nine pin to 8 pin adapter to plug in the decoder.
Example below. Don't shortchange yourself. That guy has lots of DCC info if you are new.
http://mrdccu.com/curriculum/soundtraxx/tsunami.html
On the PC board, cut the caps. They are labelled. The two inductors are a moot point now.

Below is the decoder selector for Bachmann locos.
http://www.soundtraxx.com/choose/step3.php?t=ho&s=Bachmann
This way you only have to solder two wires for the speaker.
Put a thin layer of bath caulk on the speaker rim, not on the cone.
There is plenty of room in this tender.
If you remover the PC board, you need to solder splice the wires and cover with 1/16 inch shrink.

Rich

 

The Soundtraxx with speaker and cap won't fit into that tender. You need something smaller.

 

Thanks for the information. Gatrhumpy, I followed the links above and bookmarked them all. Good stuff. I haven't purchased a locomotive yet, but after digesting the above information, I think I am going to buy the Bachmann 2-8-0 Southern #722 and then add the sound decoder using the 9 to 8 ping converter.

 

You won't be able to do that using the 8 or 9 pin converter. No room. The only option would be to get the ESU LokSound Select Micro, small surface mount cap, and 4 to 8 ohm 13mm speaker. You'll have to solder the connections to the stock board, or remove that all together and figure out the pin connections coming from the locomotive and where they go.

Good luck!