Put DCC and sound into a crap locomotive? I ask because I am thinking about putting a decoder into an old white box Bachmann SD40-2.
Why not? If you like the model or it has special meaning to you, and you know you will run it, do it!
If it runs poorly, DCC and sound won't save it. If you can fix the problems, then I think it could make sense.
I have been musing about putting sound into old plastic frame units after gutting them. The idea being that with the limits that physics places on small speakers, it's better to have a dedicated "sound unit" with the largest speakers that would fit under the shell than to try to shoehorn a speaker into a powered unit.
Well, I've done sort of the same thing but with cabooses that I run lashed to switchers, much like SP typically did. This was a good compromise for not being able to fit sound decoders in my switchers. Can't see why your concept couldn't work just as well.
Cause I have one. I have it running pretty decently, and I wanna know how difficult it will be to put a sound decoder into it.
While it's pretty easy to add a DCC decoder to an N-scale loco, sound can be challenging. There isn't much room for a speaker in an N-scale loco. You might have to mill the frame to make room for the speaker. Modelers have done things like permanently coupling together a loco and a boxcar and putting the speaker in the boxcar. Some take it a step farther and put both a sound-only decoder and a speaker in the boxcar, with a non-sound decoder in the loco. There is always a way, but it's not always easy! - Jeff
I'd go with the sound car idea, when you get tired of messing with "crap" locomotive, the sound car remains.
Putting diamond earrings on a pig comes immediately to mind here. As one of the above posters commented the DCC and sound will not make the locomotive run better. You might be better off trying to use a Kato SD40-2 and milling the frame or maybe wait for the IM SD40-2 that is supposed to arrive in February or so next year. Whether it will or not is another question as it apparently has been delayed before. But if you do install it in your Bachmann you can be sure that IM's locomotive will be here right about the time you finish the install. Seems to happen that way all the time.
The positive to doing this is practice. Potentially destroying a "crap loco" is infinitely better than starting with a better one. If this is a first try at milling and fitting speakers, using a Bachmann may be the perfect learning experience. However, do not attempt if pick-up and motor on the crap do not work well. In that case, you will never know if the ensuing problems are decoder install related, or just a bad loco.
In my case, I'm going to be using the first run Life-Like FB-2's to create an A-B or A-B-A set for my passenger trains. Mind you, I need to make the swich to DCC first. Of course, the real fun is going to be what I might do with my old FA-2.
