Update, after I installed the Tsunami decoder the loco ran for 15 minutes before the motor blew.  Acrid smoke started to pour out of the loco.  I guess I will need to use the Spectrum life time replacement warranty on this one.

I plugged the now Tsunami sound equipped tender into another one of my Decapod locos.  Thus far, it is running fine.  We'll see if it makes it longer than 15 minutes.

Tom

I have several early release Bachmann 2-10-0 Russian decapods that I am finally preparing for use on my layout.  I'm installing Tsunami sound in them.  However, as I attempted to test run each on DC prior to upgrading to DCC they would not run.  Each gave an indication of a dead short.  After testing the tenders and determining the problem did not reside there, I turned my attention to the locos themselves.

Using a test meter, I was able to identify the problem was with the left rail (fireman's side) electrical pickup.  After removing the base plate from the loco, I found that the copper contact strip used to pick up/transmit power from the left rail had a bow in it.  The bow appeared to be a result of how the strip was riveted to the base plate.  The bow caused the strip to come into contact with the metal frame.  The frame itself is energized by the right rail through the drive axles, thus the short.

After I identified the problem, the fix was extremely simple.  I used a pair of cuticle scissors to cut the strip between the second and third axles.  Once cut, the strip dropped back down into the recess in the base plate and the two pieces overlapped slightly.  I was then able to apply a little dab of solder the reconnect the two parts of the strip.  After this was done, the shorting problem was gone on the locos.

Situations such as this are why I always test locos on DC prior to installing DCC.  Otherwise, you risk damaging decoders or going down many wrong paths of possible corrective actions.

Regards,

Tom

Here is how I renumber my steam locos (all are black in my case).  I purchased a sheet of black decal paper from MicroScale.  I trim a piece of the sheet just big enough to cover the existing road number.  Afther the black sheet is applied and dried, I apply the new road number decals over the black.   Once dry, I seal the new decals with either an application of gloss or dull coat.

I used to the various other methods described here.  I found it both laborous and time consuming.  Whats worse, the results were somewhat dubious depending on how thick the number printing was sometimes resulting in the need to repaint the entire cab side. 

Good luck,

Tom

There are two small screws in the front corners of the tender floor.  You will have to turn the front truck from side to side to expose them.  After both of the front screws are removed, rotate the front of the tender upwards.  This will allow the two plastic finders that engage the rear of the tender floor to come loose.

Before you do this, however, it is a good thing to remove the ladder that goes up the back of the tender.  It is a pressure fit into the tender frame and shell.  Also, be very careful about how you handle the tender.  The 4 corner steps are very delicate and prone to breaking in you bend them.  The truck chains are also very delicate where they attach to the frame.

I've installed sound in 5 of these little jewels so far.  I used a Tsunami 750 light steam in them.  I also installed a backup light on the tender.  To do this, I used Cal Scale brass castings for them.
 
Good luck,

Tom

Steve,

The Bachmann Spectrum 2-8-0 picks up both sides of track current.  As such, you should be able to power the LED by tapping into the loco power pickup wiring.  Because the LED is limited to 3v, you will need to install a current limiting resistor on one leg of the feed to the LED.  A value between 1K and 2.2K will work.  The biggest issue you will face is finding room for the LED.

Good luck,

Tom

Geared Steam,

No misinformation about the motor.  You cannot purchase it separately.  Why would you think I'd pay $55 to get a replacement motor?  For example, you can get a replacement K4 motor for $18.  If the $18 motor option was available for the Shay, that's what I would have done.  $55 is a steep price to pay for a replacement motor identical to the one that just failed.  By the way, I had already replaced the Shay gears twice due to splitting, so I decided just to cut my losses with the loco and move on.

Tom

Make a telephone call to the Service depatment.  They will tell you what the replacement will be if repair is not possible.  When the motor and drive gears in my Shay broke, the replacement was a 3-truck Climax.  (If only the gears had failed, I would have replaced them with NWSL parts.  However, when the motor failed and it is not sold as a separate replacment part, that sealed the deal for me to return it for warranty replacement.)

Tom

I disn't touch the board in the loco.  From the factory, the board in the water tank tender has an 8 pin NMRA plug allowing for Plug and play installation of a decoder.  However, it takes up too much room so it needs to go to make room for the Tsunami 750.

The wiring color key is included with the Tsunami instructions.  However, here is a brief explanation:

Red - right track + rail
Black - left track - rail
Orange - positive motor terminal
Gray - negative motro terminal
Blue - lighting common
White - headlight
Yellow - backup light

To hardware the decoder, you want to match the Tsunami wires to the wire formerly on the tender PC board as follows:

Red to R+
Black to R-
Orange to M+
Gray to M-
Blue to H+
White to H-
Blue to B+
Yellow to B-

Since the PC board in the tender has resistors for the headlight and backup light, you will need to also install 1 K ohm reistor between the yellow and B- and white H- connections.  If you don't the factory LEDs will go "poof."

Good luck,

Tom

The speaker and sound decoder both go into the rear water tank tender.  The one I have was sound ready, so it already had a speaker port in the floor.  I believe I used a round .75" speaker.  I did it a while ago, so it would be best if you measured before selecting a speaker size.  You need to remove the existing factory PC board to make room for the Tsunami 750.  Before you remove the factory board, you need to identify the power pickup wires, motor feed wires, and headlight wires.  Bachmann does a good job of having these connection points identified on the board (R+/R-, M+/M-, H+/H-, etc).  However, they do not follow the NMRA color convention for the actual wires.  To avoid problems, I solder the Bachmann wire to the appropriate Tsunami wire immediately after I remove it from the PC board.  All solder connections need to be covered with small shrink tubing.  When you wire the headlight and tender backup light, you need to drop in a 1K ohm resistor on the white and yellow wires.  If you don't, the LEDs will go "poof."

The tank tender shell is cast metal.  It is an ideal heat sink.  I mounted the flat side of the Tsunami to the inside of the tender top using Radio Shack heat sink adhesive.

It is a very tight fit.  You will need to offset the decoder to one side of the shell to clear the speaker cone.  You also have to allow room for the two resistors in the lighting circuits.

If I ever do another one, I would put the decoder in the water tank tender.   I would then mount either a small or mini oval speaker and enclosure in the fuel bunker.  I used this approach when I added sound to a non-sound ready Bachmann 80 ton 3-truck Shay.  While I had to run 2 wires from the water tank to the fuel bunker,  it wasn't such a tight squeeze trying to get it all into the water tank.

Tom

I have done this for a couple of my DCC installation clients.  I installed a TCS FL2 function only decoder in the tender to control the lighting effects.  You program one of the two function outputs to "flicker" mode and I mapped it to be controlled by F5.  I used tiny 0602 SMD LEDs.  They only come in either golden white or sunny white, so I had to tint them to get the red and yellow fire glow.  This was done using Tamiya translucent paint.  One of each color was installed at the base of the firebox door in the cab and two under the cab to represent the ash pan flicker.   You also have to install a supplemental 2-wire wiring harness from the tender to the loco to pass the power to the LEDs.  The affect is not very visible in bright light conditions, but in dim light or night operation it is very impressive.

If you really wanted to get creative, you could program both FL2 functions to flicker.  You could then map one to F5 for firebox door and F6 to ash pan.  That would allow you to control and use the functions independently and/or both at the same time.  If you used this approach, you would have to use a 3-wire wiring harness.

Good luck,

Tom

When I work on any Bachmann Spectrum loco in my fleet, the first thing I do is remove the Bachmann PC board.  Depending on the loco, I often need the extra room to fit a speaker and enclosure along with either a TSU-750- or TSU-1000 decoder.  I then either hardware the decoder to the appropriate wires from the Bachmann harness, or wire in an 8-pin socket to the harness wiring.   I also replace the factory LEDs with 0602 SMD LEDs mounted in the actual headlight or tender light casting.  This eliminates the dim light condition associated with the light tube used in some locos and/or the overly orange light cast of the headlight in some of their locos.   The space gained by removing the factory PC board is also necessary if I want to add in a supplemental function only decoder to support additional features.  For example, in some locos I've added firebox flicker, a cab light, and classification lights on both the loco and tender.

Removing the board also ensures there are no conflicts between its components and those in the Tsunami.  I have found a 1K ohm resistor is good for the SMD LEDs.  They also work well with the factory LEDs if you want to reuse them.  While lesser values will work, I find the lights to be overly bright, almost like a laser.

Tom

For the LED, depending on the brightness level you want to achieve, you will want to use a resistor with a value of 1K ohm to 2.2K ohm.  The lower the value the brighter it will be.  If you are using a standard Tsunami decoder, the lighting output is just a bit above 12 volts.  An LED will go "poof" in a matter of seconds at that voltage.

The resistor is generally placed on the (-) leg of the LED circuit.  For a headlight, that would be the white wire.  While you are going through all this effort, I suggest you convert the tender light over to an LED as well.  The LED will last a thousand times longer than a bulb and will not generate the heat that a bulb will.

Tom

If you have a Spectrum Modern American 4-4-0 with factory installed full Tsunami Sound, there is a hidden lighting feature you might want to take advantage of.  I have several of these locos and it always bothered me that they do not come with a working backup light on the tender.  In my efforts to install one, I found that the custom Tsunami sound decoder installed in the loco supports the backup light function, but the Bachmann PC board the decoder plugs into does not. 

When you examine the PC board located at the front of the tender frame, you will find connections on the right side marked R+/R-, M+/M-, and a third set marked with just +/-.  The ones marked with R are for the track power pickup and those with M are the motor connections.  The pads marked with just + and – are the headlight connections (blue and white wires, respectively).  However, there is no negative connection pad for the yellow backup light wire.  To take advantage of the Tsunami decoder's backup light function, I simply cut the yellow wire running from the decoder to the 8-pin plug.  The yellow wire was then soldered to a 1K ohm resistor which in turn was attached to the negative lead of an 0602 SMD LED I had installed in a brass backup light casting mounted to the tender deck.  I then took a short length of blue wire and attached it to the LED's positive lead.  The other end of the blue wire was soldered to the lighting function common (+) pad on the Bachmann PC board.

Using this procedure, my locos now have a fully functional backup light.

Tom

Try a factory resent on the decoder.  Look at the manual to confirm, but I believe you need to set CV8 to 8.  Then cycle the power to the loco.  Check the address, the 2 digit address should be 3.  Try running it on address 3.  If it continues to runaway after that, the motor control chip is toast.  I am not sure what Bachmann's warranty is on this.

Tom

I have done a couple of these for clients.  I used the Tsunami AT1000 model with the EMD second generation sound set.  I soldered the track pickup and motor connection wires to the appropriate pads on the decoder board.  I insulated the decoder from the metal weight by using a layer of Paton tape.  Depending on whether the loco has bulbs or Leeds, you may need to also install current limiting resistors.

The biggest issue was finding space for the speaker.  I had to machine away a portion of the weight at the rear of the loco.  This was not a trivial task.  I used a small oval speaker and enclosure.

Good luck,

Tom