Locolinc/Phoenix Installation in G-scale 4-4-0

[walrii]

We have a G-scale Bachmann Spectrum 4-4-0 and will install a Locolinc  KLR-102 receiver and a Phoenix P8 sound system.

We plan to run track power with a battery backup.  The receiver, sound and speaker will be in the tender and the battery and charger in a trailing car.  The Locolinc system has separate inputs for track and battery power with a single output to the motor, so the track/battery transitions should be transparent to the locomotive.

1.  How do you open the locomotive to get access to the circuit boards inside the boiler?

2.  Where is the easiest place to disconnect the motor from track power so it can be connected to the Locolinc output?  The motor power leads appear to go to connector block S4 on the main PCB - is that a good spot?

3.  The tender and loco have two plugs that connect them, a two-pin and a four-pin.  The two-pin carries the chuff signal from the contacts on the rear wheels and will go to the sound card.  Two pins in the four-pin connector carry track power from the tender to the loco.  We plan to leave that as is to take track power from the loco to the input side of the receiver in the tender.  Track power can come from any of the tender's eight wheels or any of the loco's four wheels.  Now the question:  The other two pins of the four-pin connector don't appear to connect to anything.  In the owner's manual, they are labeled "for speaker."  Can we use those two pins to carry the receiver output power from the tender to the motor?

N.B.  Our track does not have any reversing loops, just two concentric loops with turnouts connecting them.  We have option of leaving the turnouts dead and letting the battery run the train through them.  This should avoid any polarity problems through the wheels of the tender and loco.

4.  It appears we can disconnect the motor from track power and route it through the Locolinc output while leaving the smoke connected to track power.  The smoke would still need to be turned on and off with the manual switch in the front of the loco.  Since smoke needs to be manually filled and checked at the loco, manually turning the switch on and off doesn't seem like a burden.  Leaving the smoke connected directly to track power will shut down the smoke if track power is lost, so the smoke will not be running when on backup battery; a good thing in our view.  Does this sound like a workable approach to the smoke?

5.  We have a Bachmann caboose with lights that run off either internal AA batteries or track power using separate contacts in the caboose.  We'll leave the AA batteries out and the lights on so the caboose will be a continuous "track power testing unit."  Good idea or no?

6.  What is the easy way to strap the speaker down in the tender?  The speaker mount has screw holes but no parts that we can find to go in the holes to secure the speaker.

Thanks for your help,
John and Kathy McMurray

[Kevin Strong]

1) Four screws in the firebox (two on either side) just above the two drivers; one long screw between the cylinders going up through the steam chest into the smoke box. You'll have to remove the plate that holds the front pilot truck on to get access to this screw. (Two phillips head screws just inside the cylinders.)

2) Right at the motor. You'll want to remove the noise suppression board anyway. To get to both poles of the motor, you'll have to remove the bottom plate so the motor can rotate. 8 screws on the bottom going into the frame; two on either side of each axle bearing.

3) Depending on the loco, they could be for power to the reverse light. You can use them for whatever you deem necessary. Personally, I'd ditch those plugs and go with 4-pin Dean's connectors instead. First, you may find you'll need more than those 6 wires running forward (especially if you're going to have directional lights or somesuch) and second, those plugs are an absolute (.......) to plug in and unplug when transporting the locomotive.

4) Yes, that's how I'd do it if I believed in smoke units.

5) As good as any.

6) Get some brass (aluminum, whatever metal is readily available) tabs and screw them in place. Then bend the ends down to hold the speaker in place.

Personally, I'm not a fan of "hybrid" power. To me, it's the worst of both worlds, especially if you need to include a trail car just to do it. If you're going to find the room for batteries as a back-up, you may as well go whole hog and just cut the track power altogether. I'm using 14.8 volt Li-Ion batteries rated at 2600 mAh in my locos (4-4-0, 2-6-0, and similar). I'm getting 4 - 5 hour run times! The batteries are around 3" x 3" x 3/4". That's pretty darned small. I can cram everything--batteries, R/C, sound, speaker--into the tender of the 4-4-0. I make the coal loads removable so I can just swap out the batteries when they run flat. I can charge a pack in around 1.5 hours, so having charged batteries ready to go is never an issue. If I were you, I'd reconsider using track power in this instance unless there's a very strong reason for sticking with it. Just run with the batteries and be done with it.

Later,

K

[walrii]

Thanks for a very informative reply, Kevin.

1) Four screws in the firebox (two on either side) just above the two drivers; one long screw between the cylinders going up through the steam chest into the smoke box. You'll have to remove the plate that holds the front pilot truck on to get access to this screw. (Two phillips head screws just inside the cylinders.)

I assume the boards are obvious once I get all that off?  I'd seen those screws but wasn't sure that was the way in.

3) Personally, I'd ditch those plugs and go with 4-pin Dean's connectors instead.

Where can I get those?

4) Yes, that's how I'd do it if I believed in smoke units.

Smoke will be a special occasion operation mostly due to the mess.  That's why I wasn't getting fancy on its operation.

Personally, I'm not a fan of "hybrid" power.

We're considering going only battery.  I had to run power to the layout for some structural lights and the like and figured we'd give the dual power a try.  I like the idea of putting the battery in the fuel load.  Our 4-4-0 has a wood load of fuel that doesn't look all that realistic so we were planning to redo it with real wood anyhow.

We really liked your website - the TRR is similar in size and layout to ours.  The website was innovative and informative - nice job!

[Kevin Strong]

1) The boards are fairly obvious. The main control board is in the front of the boiler, which you can get to via the smokebox. (The front pops off with a bit of "friendly persuasion.") There are some smaller boards on the frame. I believe they're mostly for the firebox flicker and I want to say a board for running the track power up to the main board. I don't recall off the top of my head.

3) Try your local R/C car/boat/plane shop, or Tower Hobbies or similar R/C mail order house if you don't have one nearby.

I'd really give the "only battery" thing some real thought. That way you can just cut the wires from the track and not worry about all that nonsense. The dirtier your track gets over time, the more you're going to be relying on your batteries anyway, so why not just rely on them 100% from the start and not worry about cleaning the track?

Thanks for the compliment on the web site. It's quite out of date--the current railroad has expanded well beyond that simple loop. The blog is more up to date. (text below the banner)

Later,

K

[Loco Bill]

You can get Deans connectors and the 2600 mah batteries or packs at
All-battery.com.  They have great batteries at low prices.  My run time experience is about the same as Kevins.