I examined the board with a micro and did not see any signs of consumer rework on the printed board ( removal of caps, replacement of resistors resoldering terminals). I am going to use double sided foam tape to prevent the board touching anything conductive on the railcar ( 2-10-2 vanderbilt tender ).

My first Decapod had a 8 pin socket and I had the LENZ decoder with a 9 pin JST connector harness with a 8 pin connector, leaving one lonely black wire . Nothing worked until i soldered the extra wire to the ground pad , associated with the black wire to the track pickup ( labeled left power  in the colorfull diagram ) . Then everything worked.

Gotta ask. the "packaged by the factory" MRC # 1629 sound decoder is no clothes on. The printed board is not protected by shrinkwrap, as i had expected. Do I need to do this, for it seems obvious to me, I should but .....the factory didn't ? Does it get very hot during operations ?

The tender shown in the pictures is a very large tender, almost as long as the locomotive itself. the tender on mine is less than half as long as the locomotive. Even removing the board and soldering the decoder directly to the pickup is still a challenge. My goal was to not modify/cut up the tender that came with the locomotive. I am headin' out to radio Shack later on and see if they have small piezzo speakers

oops didn't work
initial setup

just got hit with a thought. A flat car with a load covered by a taro, perhaps a 30 footer, would fit almost any period.

Absolutely, an MRC # 1629. And if I could be taught how to get images on the answers, that would be appreciated.

Tender too small to house a steam sound decoder so i need a flat car with junk loaded on it to hide the decoder printed board itself. the speaker wire is long enough to go back to the locomotive. So i have a three vehicle installation and I bet a case of beer I am gonna get flamed by the club 

i just went ahead and sent a letter to Bachmann service for new power pickups. The tabs are so thin it is impossible to bend them back to original configuration. I just finished making atoolto compress all driving wheels to the frame and screw down the copper plate assembly.

what are the consequences of cutting off the offending tab other than not picking up power on that particular wheel. From the locomotive inspection, looks like Bachmann designed power pick-up from both the tender and the locomotive to make sure no dead spots from the track.

what I thought was a programming error ( my problem ) turns out to be what I consider the Achiles heel of this locomotive.  Part numb H816X-MT018 is a pad with two copper rails and fingers that contact the driving wheels. Somehopw, if these fingers are not precisely located on the wheel surface, the spokes grab and mangle the finger. Bummer and I hope bachmann industries still has that part number in stock

With the advent of superglue, wooden structures can be made much faster ( and more realistic ) Of course, for the same reason, you can make mistakes that much faster. Matter of preference, plastic or wood.

thanks for the tip. It is a nice running machine and i happen to find it aesthetis to boot. I am right now playing with a GS4 and that was giving me trouble also until i switched tracks and reprogrammed it while running. Guess these things have a mistery inside their boilers.  Nesxt project is to cram a sound decoder into the tender of a 4-6-0 and that is a tight fit.

This is the only locomotive stuck (?) on address 3. I have another loco, a 4-6-0 that is still boxed up. Maybe i should also operate the beast and see. All my others I have been able to program unique addresses.

I added one to a BACHMANN 2-10-0 Decapod ( Susquehanna RR ) works great and a Mantua 2-6-6-2  ( not working very good on-off frequency like a turn signal in a car ). I think with the LENZ decoder i need a bigger computer than an MRC Prodigy Advance 2.. The start v, acc voltage, dec voltage and top voltage use different values.