Putting sound into the medium vanderbilt tender and running it with the 4-6-0

[NevinW]

Since the Nevada mining railroads that I model used the standard Baldwin pre-WW1 with Vanderbilt tenders it is time to start the process of converting the Bachmann oil tender so it will run with the 63 inch driver 4-6-0.  I have read and copied to files the discussions about doing this conversion but I have not seen anyone discuss installing a sound decoder like a Tsunami into the Vanderbilt tender and mating it to the 4-6-0.  Are there other sound decoders that are better fits?  What size speaker did you use and where did you put the speaker?  Did you gut all of the electronics and hard wire it?  Where did you drill holes for the sound?  All opinions and discussion welcome before I begin this process.  Thanks, Nevin

[simkon]

The Vanderbilt tender does not work with a 4-6-0 if I recall correctly, so you would have to swap the board with the board from the original tender, which may be difficult or may be easy depending on how it compares to the other board.

[richg]

I put a SoundTraxx LC decoder into an standard HO Vanderbilt loco. I used a 14mm x 25mm speaker. I followed the wiring instructions on the card that comes with the decoder.
Look at the Vanderbilt tender in the Diagrams page for what Bachmann does with the factory install for the speaker.
A Micro Tsunami would work really nice. I use the Micro for the 4-4-0 and 4-6-0.

Rich

[Atlantic Central]

I don't use sound or DCC, but here is some info that might help you with your tender swap - I orgianlly posted this several years ago:

Tender Swap – Bachmann medium Vanderbilt oil tender (Item #89905) with 63" driver 10 wheeler (Item #82307)

Initial test using jumpers provided with the tender – dead short, no operation.

Original plan – move 10 wheeler circuit board into new tender. This proved unworkable for several reasons, 10 wheeler circuit board too large and wires too short to fit into Vanderbilt tender without major modifications to both the tender and the circuit board.

New plan – can existing circuit board from Vanderbilt tender be rewired to work with 10 wheeler. A simple examination of both circuit boards revealed that while different, they both have the same basic connections, so the problem must lie in pin assignments in the connectors.

Tracing wires and a few simple checks revealed that the two wire connector simply brings the loco pickups to the circuit board. Reversing the wires on one end of the two wire jumper corrected this. Now the loco runs but in the wrong direction.

Two of the wires on the four wire plug are the motor leads. Reversing them gave us correct operational direction.

This only left the front headlight. The circuit board in the Vanderbilt tender is for the 2-8-0 which has 12 volt lamps for lighting. The 10 wheeler uses LED's, this is the main reason the circuit board is different. Rather than trying to modify the circuit, I simply replaced the loco headlight LED with a 12 volt lamp.

Additionally I added weight to the Vanderbilt tender bringing it weight to about 5 oz. and replaced all couplers with genuine Kadee #148 on both the loco front and tender.

Result – loco now converted, runs well with original 10 wheeler draw bar and looks great. 

This issue seems to be tied to what tender cam with what loco in the first place. I do not have all of the Bachmann spectrum locos, but from what I have seen, read and experienced, the following may be a good beginning of a compatibility chart:

Light Mountain & Consolidation will work with all of the "medium" tenders.

Heavy Mountain and 2-6-6-2 will work with the long coal tender, hicken tender and long vandy tender

Russian shares same tender with some 10 wheelers, so I am guessing they share the same circuit board.

The 10 wheeler is really a wild card here because it comes with three different tenders, depending on roadname. Some have the low, small "pre 1900" looking tender, some have the small tender from the Russian and one has the same tender as the consolidation, but obviously with a different circuit board.

But again, I think most of these differences are just the pin assignments and the type of headlight.

Sheldon

[richg]

If you are good with a soldering iron, swap the six leads. I did that and it was not difficult. Left the PC board in place. Just added a resistor for the LED.

Rich

[Atlantic Central]

If you are good with a soldering iron, swap the six leads. I did that and it was not difficult. Left the PC board in place. Just added a resistor for the LED.

Rich

True enough, but why even do that when all you have to do is use a straight pin and release the wires from the plugs and reinstall them in the correct locations, then fix the headlight issue either way.

Sheldon

[richg]

If you are good with a soldering iron, swap the six leads. I did that and it was not difficult. Left the PC board in place. Just added a resistor for the LED.

Rich

True enough, but why even do that when all you have to do is use a straight pin and release the wires from the plugs and reinstall them in the correct locations, then fix the headlight issue either way.

Sheldon

Because it works for me.
I do not suggesting to others to mess with the connectors. I know how delicate that operation can be as I did a lot of similar connector installations over the years when wiring helicopters.
Some cannot unplug the two connectors correctly and end up yanking out one of the wires.

Rich

[NevinW]

True enough, but why even do that when all you have to do is use a straight pin and release the wires from the plugs and reinstall them in the correct locations, then fix the headlight issue either way.

Sheldon

Is it that easy to get the wires removed from the plug and reinstall them?  Is there a trick to it?  Can you keep the reinstalled wires from coming loose?  If that is relatively straight forward then that would be the best approach.  Then the issue is fitting the sound decoder and the speakers into Vanderbilt tender.  instructions about swapping tenders was copied by me a long time ago and kept for future reference.  Thank you.   -  Nevin

[rayt]

[Some cannot unplug the two connectors correctly and end up yanking out one of the wires.]

Is there a procedure to unplug the two connector correctly and not damaging it?

Thanks.

[richg]

[Some cannot unplug the two connectors correctly and end up yanking out one of the wires.]

Is there a procedure to unplug the two connector correctly and not damaging it?

Thanks.

Yes, pry gently with a jewelers flat blade screwdriver. Many places sell the jewelers screwdriver sets with different sizes. Local hardware store, Walmart, Lowe's, LHS. Not expensive at all.
The issue is usually lack of patience, in a hurry, I can do this, etc.

Rich

[rayt]

Thanks Rich,

I am intending to remove the capacitors from the dcc board, and feel a little scary to unplug the connector from the engine.

Normally, this kind of plug has a lock in the plug itself, and is quite difficult to unplug it.
I don't want to damage my lovely locomotives.

[jonathan]

Understand and sympathize.  I don't like unplugging the connectors, but sometimes it's necessary to do customizing work.  I actually use two jewellers screwdrivers; one at each end of the plug.  I move painfully slow when gently prying the plug from the receptacle.  I haven't broken one, yet. Still, it's a little nerve racking everytime I need to disconnect a tender.

Regards,

Jonathan