Adding DCC & Sound to the Thomas the Train Locomotives

[dpffitz]

I've converted my Grandson's Thomas the Train Locomotives to DCC.
I would like to add sound.  Does anyone have any idea what sound to add?
Sure would be nice if Bachmann developed voice sound for each of the individual
trains.  The sound would probably have to go in the tender because of space constraints
in the locomotives. Thanks   

[JD417]

well the tank engines are pretty much out of space and if im correcrt u can get a blank sound decoder and then what i would do is put thomas' whistle and whatnot on it sorry i dont know how to do this because i never plan on doing it

[dpffitz]

Appreciate your comments.  I'm going to look into putting a sound unit in the tender. I'll post later after I try.

[jgaynor]

dpffitz
I have converted all of my Thomas engins to DCC for my son's layout, I have found that only the engines with tenders will have enough room for sound because of the size of the speakers. I use the MRC decoders. I don't know if any other manufacturer or size of decoder would work
good luck

[J70]

I have found that only the engines with tenders will have enough room for sound because of the size of the speakers.

It's worth looking around. I'm sure the Loksound micro 3.5 decoder could easily be fitted to Thomas and Percy, having a speaker that measures 25mm x 15mm. I have seen it fitted into much smaller OO gauge locomotives:









...

J70

[soomodels]

Hello Dennis

Well I just finished doing it. I fitted a QSI, Q2 decoder in my Thomas  Deluxe set. I needed a bit of help from Annie and Clarabel.
First as this little 0-6-0 is kind of short and in order to eliminate dead spots which would reset the decoder, I put electrical pick up on all wheels of the ''convoy''.
I removed the small PC board  and the capacitor in Thomas and ran the track power back to Annie which holds the QSI decoder
I put the oval Soundtraxx speaker in Clarabel (last car).
Drilled enough holes at the back ot the engine and under the floors of both cars
to run all wires back and forth.
I used old printer cable wire which is soft enough for this purpose
Put lots of lead in Thomas' empty spaces to increase traction.
My Thomas runs great, goes through switches at top speed, never derails and climbs 2.5% and steeper grades at the club.
I programmed in an 0-6-0 sound from the QSI sound files
What would we not do for our grandsons
Pierre