zr2498

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Hi. Perhaps I can help. If all you have done is incorrect weathering, then perhaps it could easily be removed. I can recommend the stuff as shown below. I also note that Tim Shackleton refers to it in Jan 24 Hornby magazine article 'Cleaning up / dirtying down. Hope you have success.

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Charlie Thanks for this video. I had seen / heard this one before, but still haven't got around to the reblows. On your site there are now a number of sound files for refurbished 37s. I assume that the video is for this one:

A second K1. As with the second B1, this loco had already been weathered, and real coal added. So, I wanted to install sound without the need to cut the coal chute away. A smaller, but still very effective speaker was selected for this. This is the kit used: Inside the tender. Weight and capacitor removed. Shorter wires soldered to the socket. Parts clipped out of the tender body and chassis. Speaker, stay alive, weights and decoder fitted. Complete. A straight vacuum pipe this time!

Very different sounds, and have to agree the Jamie Goodman sounds the best. Is that down to the new ESU speaker or the sound files (or both). I assume that the sugar cube was removed for that. How about the Biffo sound?

Or back to TMC!

Now to the locomotive. As previously mentioned, a low profile LED is needed owing to the small clearance between the motor and back plate. A Kytes Lights suppled nano smed LED was used. The LED fixing was set up using some insulating tape as shown. A 3mm diameter hole was drilled through the firebox, and the LED fixed to the rear of the back plate. The LED wires are routed forwards to available space on the loco chassis. The 2 pin micro connector was routed as shown, with the wires taken underneath the brass retaining plate. Wires and resistor connected. Insulated with heat shrink and the excess wire stuffed into the smokebox. Loco and tender connections made. Tested OK. Firebox flicker. As the glow is set back into the firebox, it seems far more realistic. Stay alive parameters set as per usual. Great sound as usual from Locoman, and plenty of depth and power with that large Rail Exclusive speaker.

Now for the tender installation. Opening up, the space is filled up with the weight, standard speaker fitting and the 8 pin socket. First step is to remove the weight, the capacitor (not needed, especially with DCC) and the DCC socket. I decided to hardwire for this install, as that would eliminate the space taken up by the 8 pin plug and socket The tender body has had the coal pan removed, and also the lug which would have connected to the weight for body fixing. Before cutting out the coal pan, I marked where the coal load came up to. This would prevent cutting too high, as the load has a low profile and I wanted to keep as is. A couple of styrene pieces were added to the tender chassis. This would provide a boundary for the lead shot, keeping glue away from the wheel pick-up routing. As can be seen, a good deal of parts of the tender chassis have been clipped off to increase the headroom. Lead shot added, and fixed with cyano. Also, a couple of weights added to the side of the speaker. Now to the decoder. A 3 wire DCC Concepts Zen large stay alive was used. First the wiring to the decoder. Then the hardwiring connections. Motor (orange and grey), track (red and black) , speaker (brown), 2 pin micro plug/ wires for fire box flicker (blue common +ve and green AUX1). The firebox flicker wires were routed through a 2mm diameter hole in the chassis. The speaker was fixed in place with black tack. Insulation added, and assembly of parts. Fixed with black tack. Note the postion of the stay alive decoder interface chip. The angle and position forwards makes sure that it clears the lowered profile of the tender body at the rear. Tender body fitted. The front end screw as original fitting, and as the lug had been removed, a thin strip of black tack secures the body at the rear. Coal load fitted. Next will be the firebox flicker.

A couple of Black 5s were described in: This time the sound, stay alive and firebox flicker will be fitted to a more recent model, which has the DCC socket in the tender. This is not the retooled version we are waiting for (at 2023). The irony is that if a large speaker is to be fitted, the older version was easier! However, it is still possible to fit the same speaker by cutting out the coal pan to maximise the space available. As mentioned in the previous installation, the room between the motor and cab back plate is so small that the 3mm diameter LED protrudes too far through the firebox. This time a Nano SMED LED was used which overcomes this problem. This is the kit used: Next time the tender installation will be described.

Fran Great to see these are not far away. I have a couple on order. Point of interest: I assume the speaker configuration will be the same, or similar to the class 37s. Have there been any changes to the the PC board / sound files to overcome the cutting out issues that have occurred with the 37s. That is, not having to turn the volume settings down.

Another apology! 35 layouts was stated in the email from key Publishing yesterday, but as you say 12 are listed with info', and 15 in another statement. Certainly, if not 35 then the information is misleading.

I assume it is the picture advertising Key Model World Live. My apologies, but perhaps I should have shown the rest of the information. So, there may well be something for everyone? It might be the case that the 'big' layout of Pete Waterman's will draw a bigger footfall, especially amongst the younger generation which cannot be a bad thing. Hopefully the 'bright lights' will spark the initial enthusiasm which could develop into more meaningful / traditional railway modelling with maturity. If tech (including DCC and sound), keeps the hobby going then I'm all for it. I went to see Heaton Lodge at Harrogate last year = fantastic. Also there was Grantham = equally fantastic, totally different, and certainly also a large layout. That was mixed with a model engineering exhibition. Flexibility and variety of formats seems to be a good idea.

For example this one at the NEC in April

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The model railway fraternity need to present some form of honour to the company and the staff for all the years of dedicated service.

Might be worth checking clearance with the edges of the speaker?

I thought I had missing magnets, but not the case. It could be that the magnet on one side as become unglued, so you might find a a couple of double magnets on the lid. They are quite strong so the glue needs to be even stronger.

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And whats the longevity of that black gunge. Will it degrade?

A second B1 sound installation. This loco had already been weathered, and real coal added. So, I wanted to install sound without the need to cut the coal chute away. A smaller, but still very effective speaker was selected for this. This is the kit used: The tender chassis parts cut away as before. This time, only the one fixing lug removed from the tender body roof. Lead shot and speaker added. Connections to provided stay alive and speaker. 8 pin plug connected, and fixed adjacent to speaker end with insulation tape and black tack. The decoder and stay alive were fixed to the tender body, and a 5 gm weight also added. Completed, with chuff rate changed as before.

The second sound installation for this thread is a B1. The tender being virtually identical means that most of the installation is a repeat, however this time, forebox flicker and a larger stay alive was also fitted. Here is the kit used: The loco came DCC fitted, which was removed. Again, the coal space and a parts from the tender chassis were removed, same as for the K1 above. Now to prepare the loco for the firebox flicker. A 2 pin micro connector was used. The available routing for the wires was limited, so initially a 2mm diameter hole was drilled at a corner as shown below. To ensure that the wires would not contact the rear drivers, they were glued with 'hot' Cyano into the the recess as shown. The LED and 1K ohm resistor were prepared. Blue wire to the +ve leg, and black to the -ve. Black would connect through to the Green AUX1 of the 8 pin socket and the Blue to the Common +ve. Heat shrink covering the soldered joints, and black tacked into a 3mm hole drilled through from the firebox. Loco chassis refitted. Back to the tender. Lead shot added, and set with Cyano. A 2mm hole was drilled in the chassis to route the firebox flicker wiring. Black and Blue wires from the female 2 pin connector were soldered to the 8 pin socket. Blue to Common +ve Pin 7, and Black to the Green position Pin 3 which is AUX 1. Speaker added using black tack, plus a 5 gm weight. Lais stay alive connections. Decoder added using black tack. Stay alive fitted to the tender body and another 5 gm weight added. Tender body refitted. The vertical leg on the coal load was trimmed off and refitted. Connections to loco. Completed and tested. Excellent sound files with active braking, and big sound. Chuff rate was adjusted. CV 267 from 80 to 135 (4 per rev) Firebox glow. This needed some CVs to be changed so that firebox glow operated with F6 (coal shovelling). CV 40 from 4 to 0 CV 430 from 17 to 6 CV 432 from 2 to 1 CV 434 from 2 to 1 The flicker effect - CV 127 from 0 to 8

The design of the electronics in conjunction with ESU was a wise choice. ESU should have more know-how re their decoders than anyone, and with the degree of complexity why not 'get the experts in'. I expect that ESU would never have signed off the design without ensuring the safeguarding of their decoders, even if the speaker arrangement seems to be not within their typical standard specification. I would also expect auto cut outs are set at levels well within adequate safety margins to ensure the longevity of the devices. Decreasing volumes does seem to be a reasonable approach to get the sound operating within boundary limits. This may not always be possible to limit within the electronics design by ESU, as it could be that the combination of overall volume and individual sound slots when developing the sound files that tips the balance. Why some cut out and some do not, could be down to external conditions as already discussed, or it could be due to variablity of the components. I guess many are getting into the details 'cause it's interesting and we can be curious sometimes. Perhaps a statement from ESU backing up what ACC have already been so helpful with might alleviate the quizzical minds.

This project includes the fitting of sound to a Hornby K1, including a large Rail Exclusive speaker, and the stay alive as suppled with the Zimo decoder. The sound files were chosen after listening to the installation as done by Digitrains as below: This is the kit I used: On opening the tender, it was clear that most parts would need to be removed before a decent size speaker could be installed. The 8 pin socket was disconnected, and the weight removed. The coal space was cut out, and one of the tender fixing lugs removed from both the tender chassis and body. One fixing point, together with the clip at the front of the tender was tested as OK to hold the body tight. The weight fixing lugs, and the speaker surround were also clipped out. A little weight was re-introduced with lead shot fixed with Cyano. A large 'Boom box' speaker added using black tack. The decoder chip and stay alive capacitor were fixed to the sides of the speaker with black tack. And the decoder plug connected. Tender body replaced. The front part of the coal load was clipped off, and then the load replaced above the coal space. I was quite surprised just how much sound eminated from this relatively small locomotive, so had to turn the volume down! Final task was to adjust the chuff rate. CV267 changed from 70 to 120.

Is there a reblow for a Class 45 V3.5 available? The original Bachmann sound file is pretty useless.