2019_05_17 Continued W Class sound

2019_05_17  Fitting sound to the W Class and modding a B Class install

Trainbuilder CLASS W

 To remove body from chassis I removed four screws from air tanks inside steps each end. Seemed obvious, however it did not loosen body.  Bruce seemed to agree that it should work.

 Directly in front of wheels at each end are located 4 screws. These are the ones that do loosen the body. You can just make out the top one in this pic.

Body will slip off easily, but you MUST loosen handrails and be careful they dont scratch body as you remove them. Notice the cat walk stays attached to chassis. The electrics are wrapped in insulating tape and secured into corners out of way.

 Bruce suggests you hard wire the 8 pin decoder into locomotive. This eliminates a lot of wire that needs to be secured away inside body to prevent fouling mechanism.

 Here you can see the tape and with decoder nearby, the mass of wiring to secure away.
Also look at the size of the standard loksound 16 x 25 rectangular speaker which almost fits above gearbox. I will not use this one, and have ordered a special sugar cube array, which I will show when it arrives.

 Much improved build when compared to the F Class of some years ago, when Trainbuilder first entered the market. The locomotive performed well when running on DC.

Auscision B Class (original build)

I used two Loksound sugar cube speakers (50326) in the fuel tank when I converted this loco to sound a few years back for Al.

 It seemed very quiet and Al asked me to replace it with a 50333, which he thought would be louder.

 Al's B Class will not run around 22 inch set track, and run through one Peco No 6 universal point. It runs around my layout here ok. But look at the pattern on the underfloor of the No2 end cab. I suspect that the gearbox permanently slides on the floor, preventing the bogie from rocking up and down to cope with track height variations. The fix used by others, I believe, is to cut a hole larger than this pattern to allow free movement? Why does this not happen with all B Class models?

Back to fitting the speaker. I removed the sugar cubes and decided to use the Loksound sound baffle inside the fuel tank. Here I am filing the sides away to make it fit. The sides are thin, however they are glued to inside of tank when fitted, sealing off any thin spots.

ok fill the holes after placing speaker and wires through. I used BlueTak to do this.

 Looks ok, just need to file the top off a smidge!

That looks good. Glue it in and fill spaces around it with putty or like I did, bluetac.

Lot quicker than cutting out a lid to mount speaker and seal the tank. I sealed speaker into enclosure with Krystal Klear glazing fluid. I think white glue would be ok if you are careful not to get it on mylar cone.

The Auscision wiring left in place (for switch) was used to connect speaker to sound decoder. (Or you could use it to pull through the speaker wiring (Just solder together and gently pull it through)

 If you used existing wiring, cut it away from board and solder it to sound decoder (Brown wires)
 When I fixed the decoder in place it stopped the body from fitting down snugly. What I did was removed the sound suppression devices (blue green) and joined the solder tabs with wire to complete the circuit, and cut free C1 as well, Not needed with DCC.
This allowed the decoder to be shifted to the rear and dropped closer to surface of board. Roof fits correctly now...  Wonder if this will allow bogie to sit better?
I used a normal size V4.0 decoder. A micro decoder would have fitted better.
Al took it home with my B74 to see if it sounds and runs any better. Time will tell. Interesting to see if B74 derails as well?

Cheers
Rod