Adding Upgraded sound to Williams Steam Engine

[New ChooChoo]

Hi to everyone!
   I have been out of the loop for awhile and am getting back into my trains. Here is what I have:

Williams Southern Crescent Semi- Scale Hudson Engine & Tender Set, Cab# 1401. This has the True Blast II Digital Whistle & bell. I want to upgrade it to the Electric Railroad's sound kit with Railsounds. Question is: Will I have any problems with the reverse board that is in the tender. Does the engine get its power from the coupler between the engine & tender? I plan to take out the True Blast II module & speaker & replace it with the Electric Railroads components.
    I see there is some talk about the True Blast II Plus. Enlighten me on that as well. Thanks for any info anyone can share.

[phillyreading]

Does your tender have a center rail pick-up? If not you will have to find the input power source to hook up to.
If you do not hook up to or take away any wires to the circuit board it should not affect any operation.

Before I can say anything about the new WBB sound system I would say to go to a hobby store or a person who has the new system in one of their engines and see how it works and what kind of sound it has, then make an informed decision for yourself.
The new system is selling for around $110.00 on the website here by Bachmann.

Lee F.

[New ChooChoo]

Thanks for the reply. I took the body off the tender and it was not what I expected. The only thing inside the tender is the True Blast II sound module and the speaker. Two wires go from the speaker to the sound module. Each truck has a center rail  roller AND a wire from the top of each truck. The black wire from the sound module & the black wire from the top of the front truck and the black wire from the center rail roller all go together with a wire nut. The black wire from the top of the rear truck and the black wire from the center rail roller and the RED wire from the sound module all go together with another wire nut. There are no wires between the engine and the tender. So is the reversing board inside the engine? If so I guess I can just swap the speakers and sound modules in the tender and add the magnet and the reed switch and connect the two wires  to the new sound module.
   The NEW True Blast Plus. Is that available for steam engines also? Bachmann seems to have deleted a lot of things from their online catalog or they just have not updated anything in a long long time. I did a search for the new Plus module and all I found was the old one with just the bell and  whistle.

[New ChooChoo]

  So here is an update on improving the sound in a Williams tender:

I removed the True Blast II sound module and replaced it with one from ERR, adding a chuff sound to the bell & whistle with no problems. Both modules are about the same size. Next was the speaker. The Williams speaker is 2" in dia...8ohm 5w. The new speaker from ERR is 1-1/2" dia...8 ohm 2w. I tried both and they both seem to have good sound, hard to tell any difference. I wish the tender frame had holes in it for placement of the speaker facing downward, but it doesn't. The body of the tender is die cast & the coal load is made pretty heavy. I have the volume turned up all the way and it sounds good. Adding the reed sw was a bit of a problem. The backs of the wheels are not flat, they have a little bit of a concave to them. I had to place the magnet right next to the axle to get it to lay flat. The reed sw mtg was a problem as there isn't too much to choose from as far as a good mt, but I figured it out. The new sound module comes with the optional 9v battery plugin which I am using also. Now just to shorten wires and finalize things and give it one more test run before putting the body back on.
    If anyone has any additional comments for tweeking anything, please feel free to let me know! Your help is greatly appreciated.