Question for the Group:
1) Does anyone know how to take the shell off of the Spectrum medium-length coal Vanderbilt Tender in order to install a decoder? I'm not sure if there are hidden tabs and I don't want to break anything by prying in the wrong locations.
2) I believe that there are previous posts as to what engines this tender works with and which ones it doesn't. But, does anyone know off hand if this tender is compatable with the Spectrum 2-8-0 without any wire reversing or other monkeying around? And how about the Spectrum decapod?
Thanks in advance for any help on this.
Bradley Hendershot
Perkiomen Valley Railroad
Bradley;
The Bachmann Vanderbilt tenders are an extremely tight fit, and yes, there are "tabs". FYI, the rear of the tender is removable, and that is the better choice as far as I am concerned; but idon't use the block so it comes out, thus I have more room in the tender. I hard-wire my electricals anyway. I have found that the less garbage you have between heah and thayah, the better off you are. This also eliminates concern over capacitors to cut, etc.
Rich
Once you remove the screw in the bottom recessed hole, there are several tabs holding the round tank to the front box, takes some wiggling and a few choice words thrown in.
I switched all the electronics from 3 Vandys over to medium standard USRA tenders. Lots more room to work with. In fact I shortened 3 of the standard boxes and chassis for Lanny's Paducah shorty tender setup and the boards still fit ok.
I had to renumber my UP 618s since that particular loco only has the vandy, currently owned by the Heber Vallley Railroad (HVRR). I planned to model their excursion line until they refused to answer my inquiries about details.
I scrapped the Vandys into my parts bins.
Bob
I purchased a 2-8-0 with dcc and then used a medium SP vandy behind it. I switched the boards between the tenders and added wires for the rear headlight. All works fine.
As Yampa Bob stated, there are two screws hoding each half of the tender to the frame. Be very careful with the tabs. Wiring may need to be unsoldered, I did mine wire by wire and it worked fine. DCC works as specified.. This oil tender behind a Bachmann 2-8-0 gives a very SP look while the loco is not an exact model. Most observers think it's a good match.
Both the front and rear of the Vandy tender are removable.
The "medium" Vandy tender works fine behind my Spectrum 2-8-0s.
Gene
My latest 2-8-0 had DCC installed, hence the switch of the DCC board to the vandy tender. The older, non DCC is a straight plug in as Gene pointed out