Next thing on the books is to put sound and lights onto my two Patriot 4-6-0 class locomotives.

I have Hornby 45528 - R.E.M.E. and 45531 - Sir Frederick Harrison which I will also rename to 45521 - Rhyl and 45532 - Illustrious respectively.



First Thing I do whenever I do an install is to completely disassemble the loco and remove all unwanted wiring as I always hardwire the decoders into my locos to ensure a solid connection. This also removes the change of the PCB failing on me and removes joints that could fail down the line.



I will generally work on the part where the decoder will not be located first as this part is fairly straight forward to do. In this case the tenders are where the speakers are going to be located and so I removed the weight and cut out a section of the coal bunker to allow for a larger speaker and creates a bit more air space for the sound to reverberate.







I will then cut the power wires where they attached the the contacts at the front end of the tender and will drill a hole to allow the wires to be feed through and out the underside of the tender and eventually up and into the locomotive.



Having done the modifications I will add Lead stripes around the internal sides of the tender body shell to replace the weight that was removed and will act as sound absorption stopping the body from rattling when the sound is on. This make the sound clearer and boomier.



Once done I will place the speaker on the chassis and attach black extension wires to it feeding them out of the hole made earlier and I will also do the same with the pick up wires making sure to note which is right and left. I will also now put a piece of card in the coal bunker and glue in place to fill the hole made to fit the speaker. Later I will paint over this and place a coal load on top making it so no one but I shall know any better. Then I re-assemble the tender and that part is done. One thing to note is that removing the factory weight means I loose my locking point for the rear part of the tender body shell. I cut off the internal clip and when I place the shell back on I place a couple drops of plastic cement and this holds the shell on nicely.

Now on to the front part of the locomotive.

Here I am placing working loco lamps from DCCconcepts which I have always used and fine them brilliant. Fiddly yes so if you have unsteady hands get someone who does to do this part for you.
I first make sure to spray the lamps before installing them. I am using black lamps so I spray them a flat black to color them a bit and prevent any light leakage.



I then drill the holes for the lamp wires to go through. I will do this a couple of millimetres from the lamp bracket and them feed the wires through and glue the lamps in place. I also tie the wires off around the buffers to help hold the lamps in position while the glue is drying.



Once set I will now run the wires under the locomotive shell and into the boiler where the decoder will be. I do this by cutting channels with a dremmel and engraving bit. I will then use plastic cement and glue the wires down into the channels bit by bit ensuring to keep tension on the wire until it sets. Running the wires this way will make sure that they do not get crimped or in any way damaged when the shell is placed back on to the chassis. also if you braid the wires they are a lot easier to run and it keeps everything neater.





After all this we locate the decoder on the place where the 8 pin socket was and remove the lugs. Then place the decoder on a piece of double sided foam mounting strip.



Next job now is to run the wires to the motor and connect all the track power wires along with the speaker wires from the tender. The Purple, Yellow and Green wires get isolated and put to one side leaving the Blue and White for the front lights. I put these into one end of a plug along with a 1k resistor on the Blue wire and then attach the wires from the lamps on the other end making sure to match the positive and negative ends correctly. The plug allows me to disconnect the body from the chassis in case I need to get into the locomotive for servicing later on.
Last thing is to tidy of the wiring and get the shell back on and test.





Next step is the renaming and weathering.

But before I weather them I will be adding sound into my newly arrived Duchess!!!