I have been trying out my first couple of QSI Revolution sound decoders.
Bruce at Litchfield programmed them both as Alco 539 6-cylinder turbo engines with Wabco single-chime horns, so I have been having fun shoe-horning them into a couple of Proto 2000 S1s.
Unusually, this time the problem wasn’t finding space for the speaker, but trying to fit the capacitor into the loco. I’ll show how I fitted the decoder, speaker and capacitor later, once I take some photos.
For now, here is a video clip of the CNW Alco S1 in action
The decoder could only be fitted into the loco after the weight above the motor had been removed and all the electrics had been stripped down for hard wiring
The decoder has some stiff wire to the capacitor and speaker as delivered although it was easy to replace with spare offcuts from other decoders.
I made a saddle out of plastic strip over the worm gear in the front truck to seat the capacitor. The LED wires were also bent around the capacitor.
The speaker was mounted in the cab after the internal details were removed. All the holes in the cab were plugged so that the unterior of the cab became the speaker baffle - important for a half-decent sound
Finally the crew were cut down and glued to the top of the speaker which was painted black to hide it from view in the cab.
All in all, this was a quite complicated decoder fit, but well worth it.
I’ve been very curious about the QSI Revolution and seeing how it compared to other decoders. This is definately a good comparison. Great scenery as well!!!
BTW: Did you read or hear that Atlas will be releasing an ALCO HH600/HH660 (Dec 2008) in the Master Line? That would make for another nice addition to your switcher fleet. And the extra room under the hood will also be nice for adding a speaker/sound decoder. (A bit easier than an S1, that’s for sure.)
