I have been busy over the weekend installing three new Soundtraxx decoders into a couple of P1K RS2s and an Atlas RS3 (by far the harder one to do. Here's a link to the video footage on YouTube [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uslTeRxNzoE"]YouTube - Alcos in Action[/ame] I also have a request - a couple of the RS units should have a steam generator. Does anyone know who does the generator exhaust detail part and where to get them. Thanks, Jon
Here's how I fitted the decoders. The RS3 installation used a DSD101LC decoder and 1.5" oval speaker as the basis for the exercise. 1) I removed the rear weight and the portion of the hood that would sit in the cab, down to a level that was in-line with the bottom of the cab windows. This left sufficient plastic in place to keep the long and short hoods as a single piece (I had grand designs of using the whole of the cab interior as the speaker baffle) 2) I saved the 2 bolts that held the weight, made a couple of spacers from square-section plastic tube, drilled out 2 of the 4 speaker holes to accept the bolts and fitted the lot together. 3) the speaker baffle was fabricated from 4 bits of plastic sheet and fitted around the speaker, any gaps being filled with squadron putty. 4) The decoder was slung over the motor and hard-wired after removing the Atlas circuit board (there isn't enough room to fit it if you leave the board in place) 5) I then wired the lot up with the rear LED passing through the speaker baffle and through a pre-drilled hole. 6) Instead of covering the speaker baffle with plastic sheet, I used electricians' insulation tape instead - it's thinner and just as effective, giving more room in the baffle box. With the tape being black, you cant see anything through the windows. Jon
The Proto 1000 RS2 was somewhat easier to soundchip, as there is more room inside the shell. The project follows much the same steps as the Atlas version, except that the speaker - this time a 1" oval speaker sits on a small ledge cut into the chassis weight just behind where the cab fits There's plenty of room to fit the decoder above the front truck and pass the wires to the front LED beneath it. Jon
