I have heard of people putting sound decoders with the same address as their power decoder hooked to the bus under the layout. I planned to put one under my Climax A in Rock Ridge figuring that it will never leave the mine area.
But when I fired up my Alco S1, my autistic pointed out, “It’s Quiet.” Meaning in this case that it really doesn’t fit in with his sounded 2-8-0 or my Broadway E-7. Unfortunately, SoundTrax just discontinued a decoder that would have worked in the S1 (it’s really small). So my thought was to get a larger decoder and put it under the layout.
The difference is, unlike the Climax and its narrow range of operation. The S1 will have to traverse 13 feet from one end of the layout to the other while the operator is fixed in the interlocking tower.
A lot of folks that don’t have room for decoders will run a dummy unit equipped with the sound decoder in it and address it to the locomotive that actually runs. I have an Atlas MP15DC which is about the same size as the S-1 and know for a fact that there is no way i’ll get a sound decoder in it unless I use an N scale decoder . (I had to almost jump up and down on the stack hatch to get a regular decoder in it and the lid closed.) It may be that you’ll have to run a dummy unit with the sound consisted to the S-1 to get it to work.
Or, you can do what i do. I have an MRC sound system under the layout. 5 minutes of railroading sounds is about all i can take before shutting it off. Love trains- hate lots of repetitous sound…chuck
Chip, that’s what I do. I have a Soundtraxx diesel decoder mounted under my layout that shares an address with a pair of Atlas GP9s. I also have an MRC sychro steam sound system (DC/DCC) that shares an address with an H10sb 2-8-0.
Neither sound system is great, but on my little layout the fact that the sound doesn’t move is not as apparent than if it were an around-the-walls layout.
I don’t feel a dummy is a good option as this engine will live an die switching this branch terminal. The dummy just wouldn’t be appropriate to drag around.
Open up the locomotive…do you see a light board? If you do, then this decoder will fit. In terms of a speaker you have 2 options. 1) Use a 16mm prebaffled 32 ohm speaker (which I have) 2) Put the stock speaker with a black-painted baffel in the cab.
The only thing that makes an N scale decoder an N scale decoder is that it is smaller, they stamp and N on it, and charge more! If you look at thte current capacities, tou’ll see that they are generally the same (and when not the same, usually sufficient). Most wired N scale installations are with Z scale decoders. In fact, in many cases, these will work fine in HO, too. Now in the sound decoder world things are not quite so clear to me, mostly because I have not researched it. As N scale sound grows, that may change.
The light board comes equipped with a plug and I currently run an N-scale decoder with it. Are you suggesting removing the light board and replacing it with the decoder or plugging it into the socket. The N decoder is already pretty tight.
I’ll also look at the cab. To get a speaker in, I might have to cut some weight. There’s also the fact that the light mounts on the weight. Not unsolvable, but a factor.
I hope this will show you what you need to see. My batteries were low and the auto focus just couldn’t zero in. If you need/want better, I’ll pick up some new batteries tomorrow.
The light board actually comes off and leaving the socket. The N scale decoder then fits on top of the socket. Here it is–the first is nose to nose with his twin (the one that already has a decoder.) I was hoping you could see the available room.
The SFX decoder is no thicker…hence, plenty of room. If you ship me the unit and a SFX combo decoder (SDH104K1x+FN04K1…any of the motor/sound/light decoders) ill hook you up with good, correct sounds for your Alco (a service I usually have to charge 75 bucks for). Then you can reverse engineer it…just a thought.
Another option would be to see if you can put a decoder in a boxcar or something (inside a load of logs on a flatcar (?)) and always have that car behind the loco. That might look more normal than a mu’d loco. Just another idea.
