Previous tenders have always had the board at the plug marked . Look at the board ans see if you see M+ M- L and R markings , I think the other wire will be the light + wire ......Mike

It will do 9 and 3/4 .

The second release will have wires running between loco and tender. I have a first release that I am willing to let go , It pullls well , I have shimmed the TT driver . It also has an Econamie decoder with sugar cube speaker.......Mike

Yes just tear out the decoder .

Info is here .   http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/images/44913_Decoder_IS.pdf

They may , the board in the tender should be marked beside the harness . If both tender boards are marked the same then no problem . If their different you could always cut the wires and hard wire to the tender pick-ups bypassing the tender board , or hardwire a decoder in if you are doing DCC .....Mike

Hmm, that's odd , I have both and never had any problems with the light mtn . My last layout had 11" curves in places , but my newest layout has 15 1/2 " min curves .

No need to leave any of the old board . It can all go , there won't be room for the new sound decoder otherwise . I would suggest the newest Tsunami 2 decoder though over the SDXN decoder though .

Probably not a snow balls chance ...........

`For steam , the Tsunami 2 is the best . But Dieseasles , the ESU Loksound full throttle decoder seams to be the best .

A couple months ago a retailer had the J on sale fro 99.99 with aux tender . It did cost me another 200.00 to get a Tsunami 2 decoder installed though . Sounds great !  I found a Heavy Mtn. on that auction site also earlier this year for 150.00 and jumped on it ! They are really good runners .

I've got 2 of them James . It's definately a bind in the ones I have . Changing the BEMF settings compansaits for the mechinical bind . It's not the decoder , as I've changed to econami decoders with much better speakers in both of my 2-8-4's . There is a lot of slop in the drivetrain and some locos may be slightly out of quarter . There is a thread over on TheRailwire that documents this problem and the different fixes that were tried .

Try changing these CV's .
cv 209 to 230
cv 210 to 30
cv 212 to 150
cv 213 to 2
cv 214 to 3

That may help if it's a bind .

I send all of my sound installs to a man in Arizona . He does a great job , but it's going to cost around 200 bucks per loco . I can give you his info if you are interested .

duke2448 if you're refering to the slight bind at slow speeds , it can be fixed by adjusting the BEMF settings in the decoder . But you will need a DCC system to do it .