Fitting Sound to Hornby Raven Q6

[zr2498]

This is the first of two sound installations to Hornby's Q6. Mike Wild did an installation, Hornby Magazine September 2020, and I have used most of the technique he described. This would be my first working loco lamp install.

I have taken the scope just a little further, by adding a stay alive in the tender. A tender which offers little space, so this was something of a challenge.

 

The first job I had to do was replace the motor (X7148), as the original was getting well over heated under DC. Hornby technical team obliged with a replacement FOC 🙂

 

This is the kit:

 

 

First, the cutting out of the coal bunker to give enough space. To fit the stay alive, extra clearance was needed in the vertical, on one side of the tender.

It takes a while, and this is the kit I now use to get to a more speedy result.

 

 

 

This is the speaker and stay alive in place.

 

 

To minimise the height of the installed stay alive, parts of the tender moulding have been removed on one side.

 

 

2 X 2mm diameter holes are drilled either side of the draw bar. Wires for the firebox flicker and front loco lamp.

 

 

Stay alive connections to the decoder pads 5 (GND) -ve, and 6 (VS) +ve.

 

 

Blue wires, +ve to firebox flicker LED, and to +ve loco lamp. Both connected to U+ on the PC board.

 

 

Black wire -ve loco lamp to FL (front light) on PC board.

 

 

Black wire to AUX 3 firebox flicker on the decoder.

 

 

The decoder end of the harness was wrapped in 'hot' tape, and attached to the end of the stay alive with black tack. Another small piece of black tack secured the other end to the speaker.

 

 

PC board, plug and wires tidied.

 

 

 

Next will be installation on the loco.

 

Edited November 3, 2023 by zr2498
The 'hot tape' wrapping of the decoder was removed and it was fastened by the alternative method described above. This may avoid possible over-heating of the decoder.

[zr2498]

Now to the locomotive.

Firebox flicker LED / resistor preparation.

 

 

Fitted to the hole in the smokebox, which had been drilled out to 3mm diameter. Fixed with black tack.

Note the routing of the wires, which have been glued into a routing channel.

 

 

Loco lamp painting and installation. I had tried to get a DCC Concepts white LNER lamp, but nothing available. I spoke with DCC Concepts, and hadn't realised that they were trying to source a new supplier for loco lamps. Perhaps towards the end of the year?

 

 

Lamp wire preparation.

 

 

Wires fixed with insulation tape, and the 2 pin plug / wires fixed with glue in the routing channel.

 

 

Back to the tender. Tender body fitted.

 

 

A black styrene piece fitted into the coal space, sealed around the edges with neat PVA.

 

 

Real coal added.

 

 

Commissioned.

 

 

Excellent sound from Locoman coupled with the Rail Exclusive speaker. Firebox flicker and loco lamp both working via DCC functions. The lamp needs some yellow tint, which unfortunately was not supplied in the early packs from DCC Concepts.

 

[Albie the plumber]

Some excellent guides on fitting sound into various locos here .

Well done for taking the trouble to show others the fruits of your labour 

👍

Edited November 2, 2023 by Albie the plumber

[zr2498]

Another Hornby Raven Q6. This time it was sound fitting to a locomotive that had been finely weathered, plus crew and real coal by TMC.

A particularly nice job of the coal load, which partly shows the relief of the coal bunker. So, I wanted to do the sound without the cut and carve job on the bunker, and at this time, leave the locomotive as is.

 

 

A different combination of kit was used to enable a sound decoder fitting, a reasonable speaker, and a stay alive into a very restricted space.

 

This is the kit used:

 

 

Parts dismantled from the tender chassis.

 

 

The speaker is similar to the Rail Exclusive 'Boom Box', but has 1mm less height making it possible to fit, providing chassis parts were trimmed off as below. The weight was glued in, and a little corner post left in place to locate the rear of the tender body.

 

 

The Zen 3-wire stay alive harness wires were soldered to the ESU V5 decoder.

 

 

 

Now to fit the components into the tender body. The ESU decoder is wide than the D & H previously used, but it will 'just' fit with the parts trimmed from the chassis. The 'small' Zen capacitor was the most that could be fitted.

 

 

Speaker wires soldered, and both the speaker and PC board / 8 pin pug were fixed to the chassis with black tack.

 

 

Tender body on ..... just!

Stay alive enabled with CV113 set to 250.

 

 

 

Good sound again from Locoman. I will have to do a direct comparison of speakers. First impressions of the whistles are rather piercing, so those volume levels for those sound slots might be reduced as the overall volume is fine.