Has anyone attempted to install a sound decoder in the Lifelike Proto2000 SW9-1200 switcher?
If so please let me know how you did it. I have included pictures of my engine. I have not installed a decoder yet, but I only see room available in the cab interior itself. I have also included a paragraph from “Tonys Train Exchange” as well for you to peruse.
"There is no sound decoder made for this loco, and it’s unlikely you’ll ever get sound into it - unless your modeling skills are VERY good. One might be able to gut the cab interior and get Throttle Up’s micro sound decoder in with a small speaker. If you have to call us up to ask how to do that, your modeling skills are not good enough to do it, so don’t bother.
Alternatively, you could mount a DSX sound decoder in a small freight car to pull behind it (some hostlers actually preferred to keep a freight car there when switching, as a cushion). If you don’t want the freight car there when coupling, simply uncouple it somewhere close by and leave it MUed so the sounds will still mimic the actions of the switcher while switching. If you want to do this, go to the DSX sound decoder section and select an EMD unit with the horn you want."
I would respect Tony’s experience and expertise in the matter. However, if you’d like a 2nd opinion, e-mail Bruce Petrarca @ Litchfield Station or Tim Smith @ Empire Northern Models. They both know their stuff and have plenty of experience with installing DCC decoders - both motor and sound.
LifeLike have sound installed in their SW600/SW8/SW900, why not buy one and just swap the bodies? The chassis should be the same as far as body mounting goes. You can put the SW8 body on your existing non-sound chassis and run it as a second MUed loco or sell it on E-bay to recoup some money.
Check out Litchfield Station’s web site. Bruce did install sound in one, and has pictures of the install on his site.
Or consider the body swap. I wonder if it is a direct fit? It seems the GP-7 bodies will fit on the GP-9 sound chassis, so maybe the switchers will too. My goal is to look for an oddball roadname sound GP on ebay and give it a try, unless they release Reading GP-7’s with sound.
Bruce has redone the Litchfield Station site so a lot of the installs that he had listed before aren’t there anymore. I think it’s still a work in progress so they may make it back on eventually.
Oh bummer, I haven’t beent here for a while, just took a look. All the tricky ones seem to have been removed for now. Of course it was a Soundtraxx DSD which is no longer available, the only choice for now would be to try and fit in a Loksound. And the problem there is, IIRC, Bruce used an oval speaker in the cab of the SW, and finding a 100 ohm speaker that size for the Loksound decoder might be a problem.
Swapping shells is looking better all the time.
They do? I wasn’t aware of that. I’m going to have to look further into that. I would love to have sound in one loco and MU the other. I’ve got some athearn SW shells I could try and make work too.
Just about everyone has the sound units. MB Klein should have a good price on them.
On DC, the sound and non-sound units won’t MU very well, the sound units don’t even start moving untilt he pwoer is about halfway up, it needs to activate the sound circuitry first. By half throttle, the non-sound units are moving at a good clip. On DCC you don’t have that problem. The non-sound one is not terribly difficult to convert to DCC. NCE makes a decoder specifically for it. You need that decoder plus a golden-white LED (resistor for the LED is on the decoder already). Takes a little soldering but it’s not an imposisble task.
There are traction tires on the sound equipped loco. Yuk… Hmmmm maybe I’ll just buy NCE’s SW9 decoder module and perhaps add a DSX sound module later with both sound decoder and speaker stuffed in the cab like a sardine.[:)]
Sorry about that, Driline. [D)] I got momentarily goofed up and was thinking that you were looking for just the shell. I understand now that you want the Proto 2000 SW600/SW8/SW900 (with sound!) to try and fit on your SW9-1200 shell to, as recommended by Russ and Randy. (Sometimes I can be a real maroon…[:)])
It can be replaced with a regular wheel. I don’t liek traction tires either. Byt the thing is, to fit that all in the loco, plus kepe the cab interior, they had to take out almost allt he weight. Not a big deal if you ony work short cuts of cars (properly weighter with metal wheels - maybe 10 without the traction tire, on the level).
Not much chance fitting the NCE decoder PLUS a DSX PLUS a speaker in there, and not grind off some of the weight. If you really want to do that consider hard-wiring a smaller decoder in place for the motor control. SOme of the N and Z scale size decoders can handle the current load of the P2K, and they are TINY.
Loksound decoders are very small for the sound and features they pack. They also make an N scale decoder but it has been hit or miss with powering an HO loco from one. I’m not sure if Loksound has the sound files that loco, but if not they have something close.
The regualr Loksound should be small enough to fit. The Loksound Micro would for sure but I don’t think it has enough current capacity. I still think some weight needs to be shaved or the cab interior gutted to fit the speaker. They do have a sound file that would be appropriate for that model loco.
Replacing that traction tyred wheel is a good idea, Randy. I might try one of these locos too (I have some LL SW9/1200s with dynamic brakes for my logging RR) as I have some LL wheelsets I can use.
Hi, Traction tires are not a problem. No need to not buy the loco. All you need to do is swap out the axle. 4 little clips on the truck baseplate and the axles drop out. change the wheelsets for non traction tired ones, reassemble and bobs yer uncle!
