N Scale 10 lbs of ... in a 1 lb Bag

Our primary N scale installer Lew B performed this installation at the request of a customer who wanted sound in an N scale narrow body dummy diesel.

Here are the simplified steps:

1. Disassemble the loco completely. Remove the motor and gearing.
2. Mill out the motor area of the frame to fit the decoder you select. We used a Soundtraxx DSD-090LC N scale. There are smaller options from both MRC and LokSound that would require less milling.
3. Mill out the fuel tank to fit a speaker to fit the TDS Mini-Oval Speaker
4. Cut traces on the lighting board to isolate lighting from the pick-up.
5. Assemble the loco with the decoder, lighting board and trucks in place.
6. Solder the pick-up and lighting wires to the lighting board.
7. Solder a 100 Ohm resistor between the motor leads (orange and gray wires) to provide a simulated motor load for programming.
8. Route and solder the speaker wires and install speaker.
9. Drill 1/32 holes in fuel tank cover and place over speaker.
10. Check operation and replace the Shell.

The pictures tell it all.

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