I have several of the older Life - Like Diesels , A Gp - 7 , an E 8 [ 2 engines ] , an E 6 [ 2 engines ] . My question how expensive and difficult is it to add sound and a DCC electronics to these engines ?
Yours for more and better model railroading , Bob Hays
I got sound in an old brass C&O 2-6-6-2. It was moderatly difficult and the engine does not run all that well yet. My conclusion is that to get great sound and a nice engine at a good price, buy a new one. If you want to run an old favorite with sound, I did it, so you certainly can, but it takes time, money and patience as well as a lowering of standards. It sure looks sweet however. Good luck.
I hope those are all Proto-2000s and not the stock life-like toy ones. If they are not Proto-2000s don’t even consider it.
The expense question is always, answered by how much to do you want to spend and what quality do you want? DCC decoders run from $13 to $65, Sound units run from $40 to over $300 with and without DCC included. And then there is the speaker and other parts…
Adding DCC alone is fairly easy. Much easier in the Es than the GP, just because of space. But one can probably get a drop in replacement for any of those internal circuit boards.
The hard part of sound is always the speaker(s). The smaller the space to work with the harder the installation. I’ve heard some great sounding Proto-2000 GP7s with the Soundtrax LC decoder/sound unit. There should be some easy pickens inside those monster E shells.
If you can use a screwdriver you can install SoundTraxx Plug and Play DCC/ Sound decoder.Thats how easy it is.[:D] Its just as easy to install a speaker.
Texas Zepher wrote:
Actually, with the motor sittin’ on top of the front truck, the old “toy” Life-Likes have plenty
of room for decoders, speakers and a parachute to slow 'em down[:D] Dave
Ahh yes, but they have a lot of weight added to them, that takes up space
Alexander
I’ve retrofitted a number of old diesels from the 1950’s and 60’s (that’s how old the models are, not the prototypes!) with standard non-sound decoders. A few worked, but most were not really worth the effort. They do, in general, have lots of room inside the shell.
The newer locomotives I’ve bought (P1K and P2K, mostly) have very little space inside. They can accept a standard-size decoder, but finding room for a speaker might be a problem. As Alex mentioned, they do have some weight added that can be machined out to make some room, but then you will sacrifice traction for sound.