Athearn 2-6-0

[central.vermont]

I just recently picked my first 2-6-0 by Athearn in CN livery at the Springfield show for a very good price of $25.00,  and am going to put a decoder into it but got to thinking if anyone has attempted to squeeze in a sound decoder into one of these. I pulled it out of  the box today to test run it and was very pleased with it's performance.

Jon

[Chris333]

You do know the tender is one solid block of motor. There isn't even room for a decoder without making extensions.

[Dave V]

Apparently it can be done.  I have no insight into how...

[Mike C]

Have to say that the decoder must be in the tender judging by the coal pile . Speaker in the cab ?????  That loco would sound a lot better if the chuffs were synced better , and the speed control was horrible .  Probably just bad programming though .

[central.vermont]

Interesting that it has been done. But a question though. Does the 2-8-0 and 2-6-0 use the same boiler and tender just a different chassis? I don't own the 2-8-0 so I can't make a comparison. Anyone out there have both that may be able to answer this?


Thanks, Jon

[Dave V]

Interesting that it has been done. But a question though. Does the 2-8-0 and 2-6-0 use the same boiler and tender just a different chassis? I don't own the 2-8-0 so I can't make a comparison. Anyone out there have both that may be able to answer this?


Thanks, Jon

Yes, same boiler and tender.

[central.vermont]

Thanks Dave. Guess I will have to disassemble it and find some room for sound. 

Jon

[robwill84]

Canadian National had tenders with tall oil bunkers that would be perfect to fit a decoder into. Just scratchbuild the bunker out of styrene. I remember the conversion in the video, if you search around you can find how it was done. The speaker is in the cab, and it doesn't have a baffle which is why it sounds a little weak. I bet you can cram in one of the newer "sugar cube" type speakers in there. You can remove a signifigant portion of the metal boiler that extends into the cab, and make a custom enclosure for the speaker that is curved to match the cab roof. It can be done, but a lot of work.

[robwill84]

Actually, if you can build a tall enough bunker, there just miiiight be room for decoder and speaker inside the bunker!

[powersteamguy1790]

I just recently picked my first 2-6-0 by Athearn in CN livery at the Springfield show for a very good price of $25.00,  and am going to put a decoder into it but got to thinking if anyone has attempted to squeeze in a sound decoder into one of these. I pulled it out of  the box today to test run it and was very pleased with it's performance.

Jon

Jon:

You can put a a sound decoder and small speaker in the tender if you modify the tender by replacing and raising the coal load. There is no room for a small speaker in the locomotive due to the drive.

Have fun with it....