This install is similar to the Lifelike SW9/1200 install with a few variations.
The basic differences are using the fuel tank for a speaker enclosure, having a flywheel on only one end of the motor and some minor milling to allow clearance for the extra thickness of the Loksound 58823 .
The Lifelike chassis was narrowed at the cab end with a Dremel cutoff wheel until it fit under the narrow end of the shell.
This particular shell is a Kato NW2 with a Rivarossi narrow end grafted on then fitted to a Lifelike sill with the front steps blocked in. I had built this model previously and it was originally powered with a stock Lifelike motor before this sound upgrade.
Skytop Models (
http://www.skytopmodels.com/) offers an excellent TR4B resin shell with sill should you want to build a TR set.
This install would also be easier using a Loksound v4 Micro decoder without the added connector and sub board of the v5 if you are fortunate enough to have one of those. The only differences from the SW9 install would be the speaker placement and hardwiring the front truck
First up was to make room for the 8x12 Soberton speaker.
The fuel tank area was milled off leaving enough material to still establish the plastic fuel tank location.
[ Guests cannot view attachments ]
The plastic fuel tank was then made into the speaker enclosure by cutting the speaker flush into the floor and adding .010” styrene to create the top of the enclosure.
[ Guests cannot view attachments ]
[ Guests cannot view attachments ]
[ Guests cannot view attachments ]
The last photo was taken before the speaker wires were attached and fed up through holes in the styrene “roof”.
The next thing to be addressed was how to fit the extra height of the v5 board under the shell. To make room at the rear of the chassis I used a 7 x 16 double shaft coreless motor and turned a brass flywheel for only the front end leaving room above the rear worm to be occupied by the sub board on the decoder. The motor is cradled in a plastic holder from a Bachmann S4 the same as in my earlier SW9 conversion.
[ Guests cannot view attachments ]
[ Guests cannot view attachments ]
Some of the inboard rear post was milled off to allow the decoder to be placed far enough rearward so the sub board would step down over the end of the motor.
Slots were milled into the frame halves to make room for the width of the sub board.
Before milling these areas I filled the groove where the original light board plugged in with JB Weld epoxy because the new slot wouldn’t have left much material there in the frame half.
[ Guests cannot view attachments ]
The decoder now has ample room for the shell to fit down properly.
[ Guests cannot view attachments ]
Tomix brass worms were cut to length then connected to the motor shafts using stainless capillary tubing with a touch of red Locktite to secure them much the same as the SW9 installation.
[ Guests cannot view attachments ]
Two 25v 220 UF capacitors were placed on the rear shelf and an 0603 LED with a 3k SMD resistor soldered in line was placed on top to feed the stock light pipe.
The front (narrow end) truck is hardwired with the wires soldered to the bottom of the truck tabs. The rear truck pickups use stock Lifelike tabs screwed to the chassis with 00-90 brass screws and have wires soldered to the tabs and connected to the track pickup wires on the decoder. This gives a direct path to the decoder so no current flows through the frame.
[ Guests cannot view attachments ]
When programming under the motor settings I used predefined by motor type “coreless with small diameter” and it was a good place to start to get nice running characteristics.
This unit is admittedly light with all the material removed from the frame but it will always be run with the A unit and the capacitors and improved track pickup have proved to be quite sufficient for reliable operation.
There is room to add weight above the flywheel and behind the caps but it seems to run fine without it.
The A/B pair pull a 15 car train around level 11 1/2” Unitrack curves with no problem. It would probably pull more although I haven’t maxed it out to see just how much.
The A unit in the video has a pretty much stock Lifelike mechanism with an ESU v4 Nano non sound decoder installed.
