Just curious what your thoughts are regards new sound installation. I’d rather drill or cut holes in the tender floor if at all possible. Advance Thanks. Have fun!
This so much depends on the model. You do what fits, then if you have a choice you go with your preferences. Get a speaker that has an enclosure either way, if you can.
I put all of my tender speakers on the floor facing the tracks. My theory is the sound will be forced out of the bottom of the tender and bounce off of the track going in several directions. I figure that will give a larger sound signature rather than straight up as in the coal load speaker. Sounds good on paper and all of my loco’s sound very good particularly the Tsunami. But as SpaceMouse says it depends on the configuration of the tender. But for my money if possible I will always put the speaker on the floor rather than the coal load. And you also don’t have tell tale holes showing in your coal load.
Terry
My preference is through the floor of the tender. If you tender shell is well sealed there is no reason that it can not be the enclosure. The IHC tender shells for example make excellent speaker enclosures.
I had two installations, one a Sountraxx DSD 100LC and the other a Tsunami, that were after-market installations. The first fired upward through the coal in a USRA 0-6-0 tnder and was very anemic. The Tsunami in the IHC tender is superb and gratifyingly loud. Funnily, I had the 100 LC removed and found the Tsunami in the 0-6-0 to also be somewhat disappointing. So, I have felt cheated, if I could use that term, twice with an upwards firing speaker.
All the rest, BLI’s, a Trix, and a Lionel, have speakers oriented every which way. My Niagara has it firing on its side, lying on the frame, facing the front of the tender. The Lionel Challenger has two speakers lying at 45 deg facing downard in tubes that meet the frame floor. They all sound great, just not the little 0-6-0. It may be the orientation, it may be the speaker enclosure, or lack thereof, of the tender itself. Dunno.
i’ll jump on the tender floor bandwagon
here’s a link to my thread on installing a tsunami in a bachmann spectrum 4-6-0 , in a rather small tender . sounds real nice to me
http://www.trains.com/TRC/CS/forums/738146/ShowPost.aspx
as i mention in the thread it didn’t sound very good until i got the tender reassembled . i used the tender itself as a speaker enclosure (speakers work best in a sealed enclosure that stops sound from the front of the cone mixing with and cancelling the sound from the back of the cone) rather than build an enclosure inside the tender
Go to the below site and see what Harold did with a 4-4-0 and a 2-8-0.
http://www.pacificcoastairlinerr.com/
Harold is usually in the General Discussions Model Railroader forum.
Also try searching the 'Net using "steam engine dcc Ho install " words or variation of. I know you will come up with quite a few answers and suggestions. No doubt you will see answers from other forums.
I recently bought a Spectrum HO 4-4-0 that has only DCC power. The tender floor had holes for a speaker so I installed a SoundTraxx DSD-100LC generic steam DCC/sound decoder ($39.95) and one inch speaker facing down. I like the response of the decoder. Cost was the important issue for me. The Tsunami is too pricey for me.
Rich
Rich
I personally like the sound coming out the bottom of the tender to facing up through the coal pile. It seems to give more depth to the sound. It really depends a lot on how much room is available in the tender. I’ve had to make new tender floors/frames for some tenders to get the required room for speakers & decoders. I just put a Tsunami in a PFM A&LM 4-6-0 and that was a tight fit requiring all the tender bunker walls removed and the tender body mounts to be relocated and modified.
Vanderbilt tenders pose a problem as they don’t allow the speaker to aim downward. I’ve installed them facing forward through the front wall of the coal or oil bunker and also upward through the coal pile with good results.
Usually the largest speaker gives the best sounds but some of the smaller speakers are very good.
Roger