Taking apart the Forney

[davefaulkner]

I want to add sound to my DCC only Forney. How do I go about doing so?What screws do I undo, etc?

[amdaylight]

Dave,

There is a good article in the latest On30 Annual that just came out on how to dissemble the Forney and explained just what had to be done.

Andre

[Hobojohn]

Hello Dave,
There are not too many replies on your question yet. Let me help you out
The tender shell is fastened by 4 little bolts, one on each corner of the shell.
Unscrew them and save them in a little container so the do not get lost.
You can take the body from the frame now.
What you see next is the circuitryboard on which the eight pin decoder is fastened. Take the decoder out by prying with a tooth pick a little on each side of the plug. Remember where the orange pin goes in.

Next unscrew the bolts that fasten the circuitryboard to the frame.
Now push it a little up and away from you. You see a round hole where your speaker should go. Any 28mm speaker should do. 8 Ohm is the most common. Unless you have an ESU sounddecoder which requires a 100Ohm speaker.

Now the tricky part. After you have attached the speaker you can put the circuitryboard back on. Make sure there is no contact at all with that board in whatever way! Mind you, the solderingwork on the bottom of it is coarse. Some piece of metal may stick too far out and touch the metal back of your speaker. A short circuit will be the result damaging your decoder.
Take those ends all off with a pair of small pliers. Take care and enough time for that.
Just to make sure there will be no contact, next  attach a piece of isolating tape on the back of the magnet of the speaker. Put the circuitryboard back on the way it came off.
Take the 8 pin plug of your sounddecoder and stick it in the 8 pin socket in such a way that the orange goes in the spot mentioned above.

You have to tuck the wires away and find a place for the decoder. If you have a 'naked' decoder always use a piece of isolatingtape and make sure, once again, no metal parts can come in contact with the decoder. I have been unlucky in that a few times already. 
After you have put the shell back on and fastened the screws you are done.

Good sounddecoder are the (minI) Tsunami light steam, Uhlenbrock etc.
ESU decoder are (way too) expensive. Uhlenbrock is a good  quality at a fair price. I do not know whether they are available in the US of a.

Have a look at the sound at www.uhlenbrock.de or at: www.d-i-e-t-z.de
Mr Dietz makes the sound for Uhlenbrcok. Their service and support is (in Europe) outstanding. Soundtraxx, however is top of the bill at the moment. The greatest in (steam) sound.
Good speakers are to be found in your local hobbyshop, AHM for instance
I hope you can go ahead now.
The Forney is a great little machine of which the overall qualities are enhanced by the use of a good sounddecoder.

Man, I have got three of them....................
Sincerely

John Baron
The Netherlands.

[David(UK)]

John,
Shame the site is all in german and Babelfish doesn't recognise the Homepage URL.

[Hobojohn]

David,

I know and it might be a problem for all of you who do not speak the german language.
One advantage though: digital (steam) sound speaks a universal language.
Hurray!
Therefore:
On the Uhlenbrock website choose:
'produkte' ;
next 'digital'
next 'sound'
next 'Probehören"
Take your choice ( click "hören")  and away you go.
When you are interested: I am sure they correspond in the english language.

John Baron
Netherlands.