Spectrum 2-6-6-2 H4 how to add sound

[Anthen27]

This is my first post and I am sharing what I learned about adding sound to my spectrum 2-6-6-2 H4 C&O, so I bought this engine about a week ago from Trainland, It runs very nice and pulled a large 20 car boxcar freight up a 2% grade around a u curve without hesitation or slipping. A local club was nice enough to have me and my dad come check out their layout and I tested my new locomotive with the 20 car train......the club layout had over 50 engines on it with sound and I decided that I loved my new 2-6-6-2 but I really wanted sound for it, I happen to try and call Bachmann the other day and really could not get any info from them on how to add sound or even open the V-12 vanderbuilt tender, they pointed me to soundtraxx who produces the sound for Bachmann locos and upon contacting them they do not have a sound only module to add to my DCC equipped loco, and do not know how to open the V-12 tender, this is what they suggested to add sound to my loco:

The decoder we suggest is the TSU-1000 for Heavy Steam (826103) with a 1"
round speaker (810054). The first option would be to remove the factory DCC
board and the lighting board and hard wire the Tsunami's connections
directly. This is the preferred method if you are comfortable soldering and
using drop-in resistors. The second option would be to solder the Tsunami's
wires to the 8-pin plug (810123). Lastly you can purchase a 9-pin to 8-pin
wiring harness (810135) that will plug into the 9-pin on the Tsunami and
then to the 8-pin in the model.

This to me seemed like a lot of work to add sound to a loco that bachman also sells with soundtraxx sound? there is no pug in solution? I also spoke to a local club member that just added tsunami sound to his H4 and he explained to me how to open the tender which was great.....There are 2 Phillips screws on the bottom of the tender under the trucks that you remove and that will release the shell however you have to rotate the shell 90 degrees after lifting off enough to clear the insides....this rotation is to clear the LED leads for the backup light......so after explaining how to remove the tender shell he explained how he wired the sound, he used an oval soundtraxx? speaker that fit into the factory location in the bottom of the tender, he used a TSU 1000 decoder but said he bought a wire harness to adapt from the TSU1000 to the 8 pin input on the tender PCB, he said he had to cut the shrink wrap on the tsunami decoder to remove the factory plug and replace it with the adapter harness and he also had to trim the mounting posts for the original PCB mount to clear the new tsunami decoder solder the speaker and he was done...no baffle on the speaker and the volume is a bit low but overall he was very happy, very little cutting/trimming and 2 solder joints for the speaker about $135.....Now I am confused which way to get sound into my loco and kicking myself for not buying the loco with sound for and extra $100 and no headaches choosing hardware and installing......Now I go to Trainland the other day and they tell me ESU sound is having a rep come in on Saturday to demo products and answer questions.....So I go to ESU's website to see what they offer and the website left me even more confused? Anyway I go into Trainland today to check out whjat ESU has to offer and I was very impressed, They make some very nice DCC products, anyway the rep explained what he would choose for sound in my loco and then we opened up my tender and plugged in one of his DCC control/sound modules ....It was as simple as removing the Bachman DCC board and adapter and plugging in the ESU board using the 21pin connector and soldering a speaker, ESU also makes and oval speaker that fits very nicely in the OEM location that I mounted with double sided tape to the bottom of the original PCB, so No adapter harness! The sound rivals anything I have ever heard from any manufacturer, You can download different sound files to the sound board, The motor control section of the board is 1.1 amps and has a very nice glass smooth operation, Cost was less than $100......I would recommend taking a look at ESU sound for adding DCC control and sound to your Bachmann locos anyway I hope my long run on post helps someone add sound to their H4....any questions e-mail me I would be glad to help add sound to your H4.........Anthony    

[richg]

Yes, that has been posted here before but some never search the forums first for answers.

Rich