Sound decoder in a Gondola.

[Limey]

I have an 0-6-0 Midwest Quarry loco with DCC. am I right in assuming that if I were to put a sound module in a gondola behind it and program it to the same ID # that it would work O.K.
    I realise of course that I would have to have power pickups from the gondola trucks and also that this would have to be a fairly permanent hookup btn, the 0-6-0 and the gondola but it would seem to be the only way to get sound for this tiny loco.
     BTW does anyone know of a typical sound unit for this 0-6-0.

Thanks. Limey.

[MilwaukeeRoadfan261]

You could try mounting the speaker in the coal bunker. get a small speaker and mount it so the speaker would face up through the coal load in the bunker. As for the wires that go to the speaker, run them along the floor of the cab.

[bobwrgt]

You could tap into the power leads from the engine and run them to the gondola. Less drag without power pickup.
Or you could change the decoder in the engine to a sound decoder and just mount the speaker in the gondola under a false load.

Bob

[Doneldon]

Limey-

I know a fellow who replaced the factory decoder with a sound decoder and managed to mount his speaker upside down in the cab roof. It didn't have much volume behind it but it worked okay. If you go ahead with putting your sound system in a gon or other freight car, use one truck for each rail and include a capacitor so the sound won't reset every time you cross a switch or insulated rail gap.
                                                                                                                                     -- D

[richg]

A Tsunami Micro and speaker can be put in this loco. I think someone here has done it. I have a PDF document that shows an installation but cannot post it here.
If you want a decoder in the car, put all wheel pickups with metal wheels on the car and use some weight. You will need a 100 ohm, ½ watt resistor on the orange and gray motor leads to simulate a motor load for programming. It is not perfect but does work. Any Tsunami you put in anything needs a DCC controller to activate the DC sound option. No idea on other brands of sound decoders.

Rich

[blwfish]

I'm just curious as to why the selection of a gondola for the location of the decoder.  Other than perhaps a flat car or a log car(!), a gondola seems to be one of the least hospitable types of rolling stock to hide a decoder and speaker... wouldn't some kind of a box car or even hopper car make a better platform?

[Tom M.]

I have added sound to several of these locos.  A Micro Tsunami TSU750 will fit across the back of the cab in the same place as the factory BachMann decoder.  The Tsunami is "taller" than the Bachmann decoder, so you will need to carefully paint the visible portions of the purple wrap black to make it less noticeable.

A speaker can be affixed to the cab roof, but first you need to remove the boiler casting that fills most of the cab interior.  You have to carefully cut it away.

As for a speaker itself, I use the mini oval and mini oval enclosure sold by Tony's Train Exchange.  The trick here is to cut off the bottom portion of the enclosure.  You then need to contour the bottom sides/ends of the enclosure to match the curve of the roof.  The roof then becomes the back of the enclosure.  I mounted the speaker enclosure to the roof with a bead of Pacer canopy cement.  (You need to cut off the bottom of the enclosure to lessen its depth so it clears the main drive gear that.)

Do a search of the HO forum postings.  I provided much more detailed instructions here in the past and don't want to bore folks again.

Tom

[Limey]

Many thanks to all for the informative replies.
I guess I should have added a bit more to my original post.
My little 0-6-0 saddle tank Midwest Quarry loco was a DCC ready to which I installed a Digitrax DZ121.  Needless to say this was a tight fit, so when I thought about a sound install I really didn't relish the thought of wrestling it into so small a loco.
As I have never seen a prototypical 0-6-0, and seeing that the model has a built in coal bunker I thought that a regular tender would look out of place and besides how would the fireman get the coal from the tender to the loco. So then I thought that these locos would probably be doing just short hauls of gondolas full of quarried material within the quarry itself. I have a few gondolas with removable coal loads so I thought of installing the sound works in a gondola and then repainting the coal load to resemble quarried stone.  The removable load would cover the sound works but still be removable to access them should the need arise in future.
      I think the changes to the trucks,wheels and installation of wiring would be an easier job than trying to put a larger decoder and speaker in a tiny engine.
Being a bit older and arthritic my fingers are not as nimble as they should be so fine motor skills are limited but I still try.
     Once again, many thanks to all.

Regards, Limey.

[Doneldon]

Limey-

Tank locomotives were used for a lot more than just hauling things around
industrial sites. They could also switch small yards, work local freight runs
and serve as shop engines.
                                           -- D

[Terry Toenges]

With so many things being downsized as technology evolves, do anyone think we'll see speakers the size of computer chips or just real small that still sound like full blown speakers? I don't know enough about speakers to know if it will ever be possible.

[Doneldon]

Terry-

The physics of sound and sound reproduction make it unlikely that speakers will get a whole lot smaller any time soon. Speakers have to be physically large enough to move air so we can hear the sound. Tiny speakers, like you find in ear buds, only have to move a very small amount of air because our eardrums are just a fraction of a inch from those tiny speakers. But the amount of air which must be moved increases as the cube of the distance from the speaker to our ears. Earbud-size speakers would be inaudible from more than a few inches away. And even at that distance the volume would have to be turned up so high that the sound would be grossly distorted. Electrostatic speakers may be an option but their technology isn't able to produce big sound from small speakers yet.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                               -- D

[blwfish]

I had an idea on this... since your loco already has DCC, just leave it alone. Put the sound decoder in the gondola under the load, with the speaker. And don't bother wiring it up to the loco. Then consist the gondola and the loco together, and run the two of them as a single unit.  Back EMF wouldn't work, but the standalone decoder would be responding to the throttle just as if it were in a loco, except that it has no motor to actually drive.  Admittedly I don't know for sure that a sound decoder is able to work without a motor, but I'm pretty sure that it can be faked out even if it does require an electrical load.

[ryeguyisme]

the sound decoder will react without a motor, kinda found this out when a motor brush in my 2-6-6-2 went on me

[Limey]

blwfish and ryeguyisme

Thanks guys THAT is exactly what I wanted to find out, I thought the sound decoder should work as a stand alone but wasn't quite sure.

regards, Limey

[blwfish]

The key is to run the pair (0-6-0 + supporting car) as a DCC consist. If I were doing this, I'd actually go so far as to set the consist's address to the road number of the locomotive, with the locomotive itself being something else. In fact, I think I may just do this for one of my older brass models, which is generally dedicated to a couple of trains, all of which are plausible with the same baggage car on the front...