THE FAVORITE SPOT Spectrum loco

[richg]

I just received my HO spectrum 4-6-0 with Tsunami sound. It was shipped 1-20-2011. Packed very well.
I did something no too many of the Male species do. I read the manual, FIRST. I cheated.
Pictures below of how the loco is packed. A bag of coal, a foot board loco pilot, a pair of tender truck frames and a little bag labeled DC Adapter. The adapter consist of two three pin plugs. A CD with the manuals is included, plus some paper instructions and diagram of the loco and tender.
The loco was programed for address 3 and not the loco number. That is up to me to program the loco.

Runs pretty good with my NCE Power Cab on the 128 step mode and starts moving about 1.5 mph. I will have to break it in.
Very nice sound, whistle and bell.

The loco and tender not connected when I removed them from the box. I will have to removed the two plastic sleeves that are around the wires between the loco and tender. Those sleeves make the wires a little stiffer.
First thing to do is replace the ugly couplers on the loco and tender with better looking Kadee's.

I will have to open up the tender and see what the installation is like. No doubt the PC board still in there because of the jumpers that come with the set.






Rich

[richg]

The only negative is the lame loco headlight. I could live with the couplers but not this haedlight.
The LED is down inside the smoke box and a plastic light tube brings the light up to the headlight lens. This will not be easy to replace. I bought a DC ready 4-6-0 about two years ago and I know what it is like to open up the loco and how difficult it is to put back together. Not something I want to do again.
The tender light looks ok as it  is probably an LED in the fixture.

Using a DC supply with filtered DC, no pulse power, the sound starts at five volts DC which is pretty much normal for logic circuits.
The loco starts to move at about 9.8 volts DC and fairly fast, definitely not a switching speed.
It would keep children happy though.

The loco is not quite right for the series that had the similar numbers but this I model railroading.

Rich

[jonathan]

Rich,

The headlight configuration has always given me pause on the Spectrum Locos.  I know why they were built this way:  makes shell removal pretty straight forward.

On over half of my Spectrums, I have taken the LED out of the frame, clipped the wires, and placed the LED inside the headlight.  This involves some drilling and soldering, but overall not too difficult.  The positive result is a brighter headlight.  The negative result is the extra care needed to attach/remove the shell, if needed.  Also, the wires will be visible, going from the headlight to the smokebox.  You have to look close, so I can live with it.

You probably know this stuff already.  Just thought it was worth mentioning.

Regards,

Jonathan

[richg]

The issue I had was putting the shell back in place. The pipes seem to catch on everything. I bent a couple and had a time trying to make them look good.

Below is what the Tsunami sound install is like. Some here have asked.
From what I can see in the diagrams page, all the sound locos have the PC board and the Tsunami plugs into the PC board. NO, you cannot buy this decoder form Bachmann or SoundTraxx.
I removed the two capacitors that are for the motor. Might not have to but the tender was open so why not.
There are five capacitors on the board. SMT type capacitors.

Disconnecting the tender for those who are ham handed.



Tender screw. There are two tabs at the back of the tender so don't yank on the shell.



Tsunami and PC board.



PC board.



Rich

[richg]

If you cannot see everything, right click on the photo and save the photo your PC and enlarge the photo. I use a free photo editing application called GIMP for over six years.
You can download it for free for Windows or Linux and they don't come asking for money or bother you with adversing. It is something like Photo Shop and it works for me.

http://www.gimp.org/windows/

Rich