I have a Kato Mikado in N which has Lok Sound decoder and speaker installed. Very interesting. I have 4 Atlas DCC non-sound SD24’s in a consist to pull my long train and want to have a “sound car” (a box car I suppose) with a speaker and diesel decoder in it. It will need wheel pickups. Any help here as to where to find a car (doesn’t have to be box car, but a freight car of some type) with wheel pickups and room for a speaker and decoder?
I insatlled sound decoder in a Kato passenger car for my neighbor’s Amtrak. I left out the end window glazing so the sound could get out.
You can order trucks from Kato for the Mikado tender. Get two of the rear trucks with couplers, and the pickup strips for inside. I recommend using a stock car, as the open grid of the sides and end would be best for letting the sound out and it would be appropriate for the time frame of your SD24’s. You’ll need to put a resistor across the motor leads of the decoder so it has a load. I believe I used a 25 ohm resistor for my application.
You’ll have a bit of bashing to do to mount the Kato trucks, but it should be do-able.
I can’t think of any other trucks that would look right under a freight car, and friction bearings weren’t outlawed for interchange use till the early 1990’s.
Thanks for the info. Anyone else know of anything usable? I was hoping to find a lighted car. I know that Kato makes a caboose with wheel pickups.
This might be a stupid this-will-not-work suggestion but I will advance it anyway: why don’t you gut one of your SD24s? - either that or get another one - removing the motor, the flywheels, the worm and worm gears and the idler gears from the trucks. When you get done you will, in essence, have created a ‘dummy’ SD24 which will still have all of its electrical capabilities. Mount your decoder and mill out speaker locations - I am not really sure about the physical size of speakers so I can’t address just what will fit but it does seem to me that you could probably fit as many as three speakers inside this unit.
You are really not out a thing in this project because using the parts removed is going to be cheaper than ordering new (power) parts should that be required in the future. Sometimes we just have to remember what Tony, the Italian immigrant said: