Van Hobbies brass CNR N-5-d 2-8-0 rebuild/ Finished pics add

[Wayne R]

I spent Monday afternoon and evening planning out the sound install. My first hurdle was to decide how to get the sound out of the tender. I really was hoping to avoid drilling any holes but seeing as the tender is an oil tender I have no coal bunker to mount the speaker in. My other steam locomotives I installed Tsunami decoders in have the speaker mount facing up in the coal bunker with a piece of carved soft foam sponge with some coal glued to it hidding the speaker.

The first thing I did was test the sound decoder to make sure it was working fine. I do this with all new decoders before installing them. Next I decided to see how things would sound with the speaker in its box facing up inside the tender. Needless to say even with the volume turned all the way up the sound level was low and the sound quality was poor.

This left me with one option. Drill some holes. Seeing as the oil bunker made getting the sound out via the top of the shell impossible I was left with the tender floor. Also seeing as I had to get six wires from the locomotive into the tender it and space is at a premium at the front of the tender floor it meant the speaker would be at the back of the tender.

    The tender floor with a drilling template I made to help drill the holes where they would not be effected by things on the bottom of the tender.I was only able to drill six holes.

    This is how the speaker will be mounted. The white plastic frame the speaker box is sitting in was need because the speakers cone was touching the tender floor. I made the spacer from some .060" & .040" styrene plastic strips.

    The drilled tender floor, speaker setup and the spacer I made.



Wayne R