I think I might be nuts to even try this... BUT, one of the guys at the local club has a mikado with sound and all that in it, and it sounds pretty darned good. He got it already done up though, so he sort of cheated. Has anyone else given this a try? Looking for any pointers anyone might have. Looks like its going to be pretty fun trying to cram everything into the tender. Still not too keen on having wires going from the tender to then loco, but no real way I can think of to get around that. I *think* I can do it without destroying anything. Going to order the bits and pieces on payday and see how things work out.
One of my club members wrote an article about installing a wired decoder: http://www.trainweb.org/nrmrc/dccconv/ka282.html That looked hard enough without sound! Harold
I read that one when I first went to DCC. Then I found a write up on another site that had a boiler install to do, since I'm not a big fan of all those wires. (Sure wish I could escape it for the sound decoder, but thats not happening). The boiler one was a bit tricky, not a lot of real estate. But for my first ever non plug-and-play decoder install, it went without a hitch. This should in essence be easier, since I don't have to cut apart the weight in the boiler and such, but who knows.
Todd: Five years ago I used a Soundtraxx DSD-90 decoder in a Kato Mikado with a speaker as well. The sound from the DSD-90 decoder is poor and the motor functions of this decoder aren't particularlly good. In all my N scale Kato Mikado's I use a Lenz 1025JST (with harness). The decoder is placed in the tender. The harness allows you to dis-connect the wiring from the loco if the decoder fails. The Lenz 1025JST is an HO decoder and fits nicely in the tender. I wouldn't use a Soundtraxx DSD-90 decoder in the Mikado as the overall quality of the sound and motor functions is below par. Stay cool and run steam..... [ April 25, 2005, 09:14 PM: Message edited by: Powersteamguy1790 ]
powersteamguy: thanks for the info about the sound decoder, and for saving me a LOT of money.. hehe.. think i'll just stick to plain DCC, and give that harness decoder a try in the tender. Happen to have a photo kicking around showing the connection between the tender and the loco?
Todd: I haven't taken any photo's of the harness connections. You can always use Soundtraxx DSX sound only decoders hooked up to speakers under the benchwork. That's what I've used for the past 5 + years. The DSX sound only decoder can be hooked up to a four inch Radio Shack speaker mounted under the benchwork. The sound fills my entire train room with this method. (garage) Stay cool and run steam.....
Power steam that sounds like a cool idea. Especially for us N scalers. Anyone tried having cheater sound box cars on their trains? I saw one of these at my LHS and I wonder if you could perhaps get more base by cutting the sound slits on the end of the car rather then below it. This way it might have some of the properties of one of those canon speakers and give you slightly more bass end. (of course it's N scale so who am I kidding. )
