Install sound in the 0-4-0 Side Rod Gas Mechanical Locomotive

[Dannyboy]

Greetings!
Is it possible to add sound to one of these little DCC engines? I know its short on space, so I thought perhaps I could mount it in the gas tanker that I'm building to tow behind it....Help?

[Mr. F.]

I too would like to know if this is possible and what sound decoder to use?

[the Bach-man]

Dear All,
I just installed a Tsunami mini decoder with Goose sounds in my railbus. It would be pretty tough to fit in the Davenport, but I'll never say never...
Have fun!
the Bach-man

[daveb]

It is possible.
See this New Zealand site http://www.datamasta.com/emags/how_to/d_2004_dec_01.asp

Dave

[Chris G]

Hello all,
I mounted a Loksound micro 52891 using extension lead off circuit board out into cab. Put doors on cab, installed engineer, made rear windows awning type so sound gets out and fixed decoder to back wall. Ran wires to speaker up back wall and mounted speaker in enclosure on roof pointing down. I figure the enclosure is an a/c unit. All looks good. Didnt seem possible to fit all in engine compartment unless hardwiring. This way I can easily remove if I want to fit in another loco etc.
Hope this helps,
Ta Chris

[El Loco]

I installed a soundtraxx n scale goose / rail bus decoder and speaker under the hood of my gas mechanical.  Brass wire mesh made a new grill in order to open the front up for the 1/2" speaker.
It came great but , I wouldn't care to do it again.. very tight quarters under the hood but it is possible. I had to hard wire the DSD as it didnt like the stock board  that created conflicts with the Soundtraxx  DSD.
The sound was miserably faint (1/2" speaker)  it is now a  2nd place contest winning shelf queen.

[Steve Magee]

I have installed an ESU Micro with the speaker that came with it in my Davenport. Like ElLoco I cut out the plastic grill and inserted a brass mesh one, with the speaker against it held in place and sealed by BluTac. It is a tight fit, but you leave the cab open for crew, details etc. I downloaded the Catepillar sound files for it. Now I know the Cat is for the 44 tonner, but it sounds good, though there is a another file that looks interesting - klein(little)diesel or summat - that I might try next.

I also added a pair of sliders (0-4-0 pick up is definitely NOT the be-all and end-all) and replaced the rather odd-coloured yellow LED with a sunny daylight LED. Nice little unit now.

Steve Magee
Newcastle NSW Aust

[El Loco]

I think the Cat would sound better then the gasoline DSD by far! After all the gasoline motor would be very small and low HP barely to move a model T ford. Nice touch Steve!

[JohnR]

El Loco -

A 1/2" speaker is small but you should be able to get some good volume out of it.  Be sure that the speaker is sealed so that the front is isolated from the back.  Also, since you used Tsunami, you should be able to boost the volume via the individual volume settings and via the equalizer.  The Tsu manuals describe the various volume CVs as well as how to use the equalizer. 

-John

[El Loco]

John, The DSD is one of soundtraxx' early units before the tsunami. Its the old yellow shrink wrapped dsd 100 I do believe. I do have the speaker covered on the back side . I have sent it back once before due to low sound quality even with the cv turned all the way up. I re installed it after servicing and it did the same  thing as well as the only sound it will produce is the starting up feature and recycles to the same sound over & over.  I believe my next step will be to "trade it in" for the newer tsunami goose railbus unit.  After this fiasco it really burned me out on the Gas mechanical all together.  Thanks for the tip though!

[USNavyChiefRet]

Hello all,
I mounted a Loksound micro 52891 using extension lead off circuit board out into cab. Put doors on cab, installed engineer, made rear windows awning type so sound gets out and fixed decoder to back wall. Ran wires to speaker up back wall and mounted speaker in enclosure on roof pointing down. I figure the enclosure is an a/c unit. All looks good. Didnt seem possible to fit all in engine compartment unless hardwiring. This way I can easily remove if I want to fit in another loco etc.
Hope this helps,
Ta Chris

Chris,
I would like to add sound to my 0-4-0 Siderod (On30 scale). With the Loksound micro 52891 doesn't that come with a 6 pin NEM651 connector on it? How did you install that into your 0-4-0? I have done an install on a 4-4-0 American (Bachmann) On30 scale loco with speaker. Mounting the speaker on top of the cab sounds good to me. You must have fabricated a speaker enclosure for it? I also have a rail car (On30) from Bachmann that I would like to add sound too, not sure if that's possible. I like the Tsunami by Soundtraxx I just haven't done an install of a 8 pin connector to the decoder yet. When I ordered the Tsunami for the 4-4-0 American, Tony's Trains installed the 8 pin connector for me before they shipped it for a nominal fee. Any help would sure be appreciated. Thanks Chris.

[Chris G]

Sorry for the late response here but I thought there was nothing more I could add until I read a bit further.

I basically desoldered the original Bachmann plug and re soldered it to the micro decoder wiring. There are a couple of wires left over so I just taped these off to insulate them. There is room to run wires into cab thru front wall of cab with only minor grinding required to open a small hole that is not visible.
Speaker was stuck hard to roof of cab with a dob of neutral cure silicon so I can get it off easily if required.
A small piece of styrene was run down each side to enclose the speaker to the cab roof again using neutral cure silicon.
The ends of the speaker were caulked to the roof to seal any gaps there and again with neutral cure silicon.
The decoder is under a seat attached to rear wall of cab that driver sits on and wire to speaker runs up rear wall as if its a couple of pipes or similar

Sounds great and am happy with result as it was my first installation other than just a plug n play.
All the best
Chris

[USNavyChiefRet]

I just finished an install of a Tsunami TSU-750 "Galloping goose" in my Bachmann 0-4-0 siderod. The speaker I ordered with it is small .40 (10 mm). I also used the Soundtraxx enclosure for it. I did solder the "Keep alive" capacitor to the decoder. The decoder is in the cab, the capacitor in the engine compartment. I tried to fit them both in the engine compartment but just not enough space, so right now the decoder is on the left side of the cab. The speaker/enclosure I mounted on the roof of the cab. The sound isn't the greatest. You can hear it but with two steam locos on the layout running they tend to drown out the siderod. While I had it apart I glued an engineer on the seat. I just need to do something with the decoder in the cab and then figure out what I'm going to do with the speaker on the roof. I drilled a small hole for the wires to fit through and I drilled a hole in the roof approx the size of the speaker. It runs great, just doesn't have the sound I would have liked.

[NarrowMinded]

I built a "MOW" car to house a goose rail bus decoder it's the larger tsunami decoder tsu1000 I use micro plug connectors to connect it to the loco and it was real easy to install with all the extra space, it sounds great, it was cheaper then the micro decoders , you can use a big speaker, you can add pickups on the cars trucks like I did and I highly recommend on a 0-4-0 with sound and all I have to do is add a microplug  to use it with another unit.

Good luck

NM