Cock Of The North

Looking for a bit help, is it possible to fit TTS sound in the Hornby "Cock Of The North" train,it already has DCC fitted
Colin

Hi Colin,

Do you have the Railroad version where the decoder plug is in the locomotive?

Nigel

Yes Nigel
Colin

Hi Colin,

You may have a bit of a job then as there does not appear to be much room in the boiler as is for anything but a decoder. The tender has the molding for the speaker, so you have a choice of either having the decoder in the boiler and running the speaker wires to the tender, or running red/black from the pick-ups from the boiler to the decoder in the tender, running orange/grey back to the motor, and having the speaker in the tender. The PCB board seems be the one that was used in the tender anyway, just move it (leave enough wire attached to make soldering easy). Decoder in the boiler and speaker in the tender is the obvious choice as it means 2 instead of 4 wires twixt engine and tender.

My choice however would be an oblong sugar-cube at the front of the boiler instead of the pancake one supplied in the tender (with the 2 chimneys on the shell drilled out) after some judicious metal removal from the front end. That's assuming that the TTS decoder fits into the decoder space. Looks like it should. You would need to make sure the CoG was still between the 2 middle driving wheels.

Check out Hornby UK - Model Railways, Train Sets, Locomotives & Accessories for the diagram.

Nigel

Thanks Nigel  I  spoke to Rails of sheffield, they said it can be done but its a job for an experienced modeller,more or less they said excatly what you have said
Colin

Hi Colin,

One of the (many) differences between "Railroad" and "Costalotta" versions of the same locomotive. Not sure about "experienced modeler" though. Running wires from the engine to the tender is not difficult - if you look hard you should be able to see the channels that Hornby use for the red/black/grey/orange wiring with the decoder and speaker in the tender. Use those for the speaker wire. Use 30 or 32 gauge wire with a 2-pin mini-plug and socket (I use Miniatronics with plugs already there) under the tender so you can easily detach it. As I said, the logical way would be to take the "big file" to the front of the weight and pop a sugar cube in there. No need to dismantle the mechanism, plenty of kitchen towel and low tack masking tape will keep the bits of metal out of the innards.That way the sound comes out from where it's supposed to, rather than the back of the tender, and it avoids the wiring.

I noticed that the TTC decoder has "2 channel" sound (2 sounds at once). My ESU Loksounds have 8 channel sound. 

Nigel 

Thanks Nigel for reply, what do you mean by "big file "
Colin

Hi Colin,

10"-12" long, coarse or Bastard cut, metal file. Makes short work of MAZAC/ZAMAC. Hack-saw also works. Or a mill. If you can easily remove the weight it will make life a lot easier, as you can clamp it in the vice.

Nigel

Many thanks Nigel