speaker sound update

Classic Toy Trains Forum
1

plan 1-get new mega bass speaker and install in tender[:(!]. no way no how no space. the mega bass speaker is almost twice as tall as the factory speaker.

plan 2-fabricate enclosure and install in rolling stock[;)]. plan 2 went great, I made an enclosure for the new speaker out of 1/4 ply glued together with polyurethane glue. ran a thin bead of rtv around the cover and let it dry to make a gasket. cut a hole in the bottom for a bass port and installed it in a die cast hopper with opening bottom hatches.
I must say the sound is spectacular. rich deep bass, sounds real. I can’t beleive how tinny the origional speaker in the tender sounded. I did the connection temporarily with a headphone jack so I could compare sounds with just the push of the jack. tender speaker dissconnects when aux speaker is connected. here are some pics.

2

jmsiv - why did you do this? simply to improve the sound? what engine did you ‘upgrade’? can you post some step-by-step pics of the mods to the tender and the hopper?

3

I did this because the sound from my weaver L1A seemed tinny sounding. the engine came equiped with TMCC and railsounds, so the tender was completely full with boards and the OEM speaker. the hopper car I used is cast iron (plastic will resonate) in scale size with no modifications except for removing some interior ornamental bracing. I just made the speaker enclosure so it would fit snugly into the hopper. eventually I will make a connecting tether that looks like an air line. not counting the glue drying time the whole thing took about an hour. I think it sounds better than the new lionel with 2 fatboy speakers. well worth the $9[:D]

4

You gave some good illustrations. Thanks for the ideas.

5

Looks great. But what are you going to do to hide the speaker? Wouldn’t a coal load muffler the sound? Drill holes in the load?

Jim

6

coal load over black screen. I will precisely glue each individual piece of coal on the screen to achieve the best acoustic result[(-D]