Hello everyone,
I have recieved a Rivarossi Big Boy U.P. 4011 Digita 54418 for Christmas…A precious gift from my wife. My research tells me that this is one of the last Italian made engines. This has an Arnold (decoder ?) installed inside with two spare wires for a reverse light on the tender.
I am looking for the best way to overhaul and pimp this ride. I would like to add sound, firebox flicker, cab lights, trailing lights and even smoke, if it is similar to the mth proto smoke.
I’m looking for the best possible decoder for this train. I may be reaching to far.
With some sweat and prayer, I was able to remove the back of the tender without breaking it. It was glued tight.
Should I use the tender for sound or pack everything into the engine.
I haven’t made up my mind on which dcc system to use yet, however I am leaning toward the NCE Pro Cab wireless 5amp.
Its been 20 years since my last layout, so I am a little out of the loop.
All the bells and whistles.
I put a Tsunami in mine, in the boiler to keep from running too many wires to the tender. Also, I added pickup on all the drivers. You may need to add a function only decoder, I use TCS. This will allow you to add more than the 4 functions on the Tsunami.
I also kept the tender lens in place and added a light behind it within a styrene tube.
Richard
Thanks Richard,
Did you also keep the speaker in the engine?, if so, should I remove one of the weights to make room?
Shawn
While I cannot tell you how many light functions it has, I love my Loksound 3.5 decoder in my PCM Big Boy. Ulrich Model’s sells the decoder for the big boy and a dual speaker and speaker boxes at a fair prices. He custom loads the sounds for the Big Boy.
And Welcome to the site.
Cuda Ken
I installed a sound system in my Rivarossi Challenger and plan to do the same with my Big Boy. I put the speaker in the tender front panel, the one you have already removed. This is the same tender as the Big Boy so I know it will work. My decoder is a Digitrax which I am not very happy with, but it is installed in the boiler just in front of the cab. I had to cut some of the weight and front of the cab ribbing (internal ribs) to fit the decoder and capacitor in. I made small connectors from IC sockets and also installed a rear light (12v LED) which worked out very nice. Overall I was pleased with the install, just not so happy with the sound. I will replace the decoder with a Tsunami as I can affortd one. You just to have to open her up and plan your installation. I attached a photo of one of the connectors but don’t have a pic of the finished model.
Thanks Bob,
Great photos and I hope everything works out well for you. I guess I should have uploaded some photos as well…Good luck with the tsunami decoder…great info[Y]
Shawn
I would be careful with the smoke unit. They can draw quite a bit of current. I would think it would be easy to overload a “function” on a normal decoder. As a prior posted noted you might need a funciton only decoder for that or a 2nd decoder using the motor output for the smoke unit.
I have not seen one of the newer Rivarossi units but they are so large I think I would try to get a speaker up front somewhere. A speaker in the tender might sound a long way from the cylinders and smoke box where the sound is supposed to originate. The last Rivarossi Steam sound conversion I did was a heavy 2-8-2 with a vanderbuilt speaker. I put the speaker top firing through the “coal” load. It was OK but it was a small loco.
Shawn,
I put a 1.06 HB in the smoke stacks and a 1.22 HB in the tender. I modified the weights and made enclosures. The tender enclosure is really the tender body sealed. The High Bass(HB) are the ones that sound the best but are large due to strong magnets. I had to cut down the 1.06 HB and file down the inside of the boiler for it to fit. When I did this, I also added marker and number board light wires for future upgrades on those lights. Obviously this approach doesn’t allow for a smoke unit. Since the Big Boy is so long, having a speaker at each end really helps add to realism. I also added lots of weight in the nose of the firebox and that has helped with lots of things.
But since these two large speakers are in parallel, the sound is incredible. And since I have it set for asynchronous engine running, the sound is really neat when the two engines go in and out of phase. One thing I don’t like is much rod noise on the Tsunami, so I turned that down to almost off.
I also modified the cab area internal brackets to make room for 1000mF Cap. Which after I added the electrical pick up, perhaps I don’t need. This loco only has 4 and 4 wheel pickup for the drivers. Doubling that has really helped–now it will slow crawl through turnouts. I would do this extra power pickup work first as sound decoders are sensitive to interrupted power.
Richard