How do you install DCC/Sount in a Con-Cor Hudson

[Paradise275]

I picked up a Con-Cor (Kato) Hudson at a flea market and it runs so smooth I forgot it was made many years ago.
The model number is 0001-003006 and says Con-Cor Japan on the sole plate.

The tender has all wheel pick up and a reversing light.
I would like to put a Loksound decoder in it. Has anyone done this and is there a tutorial available.

Rick

[jdcolombo]

Yes, I've done this.  I don't have a tutorial or photos, but basically I just located the decoder, a keep alive, and a speaker in the tender.  Hooked the decoder up to the pickup strips in the tender for power, and routed wires forward for the motor and headlight.  You'll need to isolate the motor from the frame; I didn't try to run pickup wires from the boiler frame back to the tender, since I found that the combination of tender pickup and a keep-alive (I think I used a TCS KA-3) was sufficient to avoid any electrical problems.  The speaker was an 11x15mm in a custom enclosure mounted transversely in the front of the tender; everything else went behind the speaker.  I also added some sheet lead inside the tender for weight.

John C.

[nickelplate759]

Having put a decoder in the Hudson engine itself (non-sound) specifically to avoid running more wires back to the tender, I think John's recommendation of a Keep-Alive in the tender along with the decoder is a terrific one.  Wish I'd thought of it before I did my conversion.

[lyled1117]

I've done quite a few of these for a customer, pretty much in the fashion as John describes. I will admit I did not provide lighting control, let the light (if present) be frame powered. If lights weren't present, I didn't add. In the steam era locomotives didn't always use headlights during the day.

Lyle