Alcos in action - video clip

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I have been busy over the weekend installing three new Soundtraxx decoders into a couple of P1K RS2s and an Atlas RS3 (by far the harder one to do.

Here’s a link to the video footage on YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uslTeRxNzoE

I also have a request - a couple of the RS units should have a steam generator. Does anyone know who does the generator exhaust detail part and where to get them.

Thanks,

Jon

2

Yep!

If it sounds like a Harley Davidson bike on steroids…it’s an Alco!

Thanks for sharing.[:D][tup]

3

Jon - Great job on the sound installs. You gotta love the
sound of an ALCO engine. It’s by far my favorite engine.
I have several Atlas RS-3’s and a couple of Kato RS2’s. I
want to put sound in them but with the small amount of room I never
took it on. Maybe you can explain briefly where you mounted the
speaker, size etc. I would appreciate it and thanks for sharing.

Terry

4

Thanks Terry,

I’ll get some photos for you tomorrow evening of the locos with their shells off to show placement of the decoder and speaker.

Jon

5

Tks Jon looking forward to it.
Terry

6

Here’s how I fitted the decoders.

The RS3 installation used a DSD101LC decoder and 1.5" oval speaker as the basis for the exercise.

  1. I removed the rear weight and the portion of the hood that would sit in the cab, down to a level that was in-line with the bottom of the cab windows. This left sufficient plastic in place to keep the long and short hoods as a single piece (I had grand designs of using the whole of the cab interior as the speaker baffle)

  2. I saved the 2 bolts that held the weight, made a couple of spacers from square-section plastic tube, drilled out 2 of the 4 speaker holes to accept the bolts and fitted the lot together.

  3. the speaker baffle was fabricated from 4 bits of plastic sheet and fitted around the speaker, any gaps being filled with squadron putty.

  4. The decoder was slung over the motor and hard-wired after removing the Atlas circuit board (there isn’t enough room to fit it if you leave the board in place)

  5. I then wired the lot up with the rear LED passing through the speaker baffle and through a pre-drilled hole.

  1. Instead of covering the speaker baffle with plastic sheet, I used electricians’ insulation tape instead - it’s thinner and just as effective, giving more room in the baffle box.

With the tape being black, you cant see anything through the windows.

Jon

7

The Proto 1000 RS2 was somewhat easier to soundchip, as there is more room inside the shell.

The project follows much the same steps as the Atlas version, except that the speaker - this time a 1" oval speaker sits on a small ledge cut into the chassis weight just behind where the cab fits

There’s plenty of room to fit the decoder above the front truck and pass the wires to the front LED beneath it.

Jon

8

Jon Tks for the pics. After pulling my RS3 out of the box I
realized it was an Athearn Genisis RS3. It makes such a racket
that putting sound in it would be a waste of time. I don’t know
if that is normal for Athearn but this one is pretty
rough. I have had it for a year but have only ran it
for about 30 minutes all told. I might just tackle one of my KATO
RS2’s. Tks for sharing your talents.

Terry

9

Jon

You can get steam generator parts by Custom Finishing from Walthers. Part nos. are:

247 - 151 Shrouded stack

247 - 206 Intake vents

247 - 207 Stack

Hope this helps.

Jim

10

Certainly does, Jim.

Thanks,

Jon[tup]

11

What model of RS unit is the Belt Railway of Chicago loco supposed to be? The picture quality is blurry and I can’t quite make it out. It looks like an RS-2 with an RS-1 cab on it.

12

You’re not far off with that. BRC welded a sun visor to their RS2’s, making the cab look somewhat like an RS1.

http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/brc/brc453ads.jpg

Jon