Fitting Sound to Bachmann WD Austerity

[zr2498]

Both of the WD Austerities that I will fit sound to, have superb weathering by TMC. Also coal and crew fitted, so on this occasion I wanted to limit the amount of handling, and just fitted sound. A stay alive (3 wire) was also fitted, especially as the tender wheels are without pick-ups. The locos had DCC on board, so the function decoders were replaced by Loksound V5s.

 

This is the kit:

 

 

This is the tender opened up.

 

 

The thin weight was removed revealing the moulding for a standard speaker.

 

 

To get the required height for speaker clearance, the speaker moulding was completely removed.

 

 

And the rear lug for tender body fixing cut off. I tested the tightness of the body with just the two front screws beforehand, and found the rear screw wasn't needed.

 

 

The only option for this sound decoder was 8 pin, but the loco has a 21 pin socket, hence the 21 to 8 pin adaptor.

Speaker fitted using black tack, and the decoder fixed to the side of the speaker, with the harness routed around it.

 

 

Next the stay alive capacitors and control chip installed, again using black tack.

 

 

First, wiring connections for the stay alive. The decoder came with the 3 stay alive wires already attached (red, white, black), connected to corresponding Zen wires (blue, white, black)

 

 

 

 

Speaker wires connected.

 

 

Tidy up wiring.

 

 

 

Commissioned. The stay alive had to be switched on via CV settings.

CV 31=16,CV32=0, CV339=31. Timer set CV113 to 150.

 

 

Great sound project, and good range from the Rail Exclusive speaker. I was surprised at the slow running speed, but then the WD did not go above 40mph I believe, so protypical.

 

 

Edited November 3, 2023 by zr2498
Extra info added

[zr2498]

The second WD decoder and stay alive installed.

 

 

 

Now there are two 🙂

 

 

 

Crew man behind shouts ...... 'my weathering is heavier than yours!'

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

16 hours ago, zr2498 said:

...especially as the tender wheels are without pick-ups...

Unnecessary as the mechanism is one of the best available in RTR OO. The 2nd and 4th coupled axles are sprung so rail contact is very good. I have had the keeper plates off mine to make slight recesses in the keeper plate sides and to stretch the springs on the saddles, following upweighting.

 

(And the ballast casting in the boiler has an extension into the smokebox which looks like it was designed to take a smoke unit, which TTBOMK Bachmann have never used. Discovered this when replacing the cast ballast with 9oz of lead. With the very good choice of gear ratio it then plods up my 1 in 80 ruling gradient with 60 on the hook. Mine have been doing this for just approaching 24 years now, so anyone with concern about the longevity of mechanisms with driven axles in mazak locations can rest easy.)

[tyl59]

I put a slightly modified 20x20x7 in the smokebox and then wired another 4 wires to the tender utilising the other 2 wires for a firebox flicker too, with an additional 8ohm speaker in the tender it sounds fantastic.