Which Speaker to Upgrade an HO Scale Rapido F40PH "Cabbage" from DC to DCC with Sound?


S

swhalen

New Member
Hi everyone,

I have two beautiful HO Scale Rapido F40 NPCUs that are currently only wired for DC operation. I'd love to add DCC sound and lighting functionality, and saw that Rapido suggests the ESU #59529 - LokPilot 5 DCC with 21MTC decoder in their manual for the locomotive, but here's my problem and question for you:

nobody says anything at all about a speaker!

Surely the DC versions don't come with speakers, which means that I'll have to buy one separately, right? If so, how do I choose a speaker that's compatible with the decoder I mentioned above? Is it difficult to hook up and glue down a speaker if I've never done this upgrade before?

Thanks so much for your help,

S


PS: Since they are both NPCUs, which means that the prototypes don't have prime movers, would it be easier to take out the motors than to have to sync them up in a consist with the lead engines on my trains? I have a bad feeling about trying to speed match these locos with other brands of locos, especially because I'm already having huge problems with consists that contain my walthers proto amfleet cars, which are notorious for derailing around curves, and are honestly such pains in the ass to keep from derailing that I'm not even sure they're worth their good looks LOL, but I digress...
 
I would look at the speakers from Scale Sound Systems.

scalesoundsystems.com

They are far and away the best speakers I have used in model trains.

Sound is very subjective but these sound clearer and have a deeper tone to me. They are made to fit.

TomO
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As for speed matching with other locos, I don't think the 40 was used for anything else other than passenger. If ya really want to mix and match em, the LokProggrammer can be of great help then.
 
I can't say to which speakers would be best, I have very few Loco's with sound and all are different manufacturers.

Are your Amfleet cars the only ones that derail on curves, or do you have that problem with all your cars?
 
Many of Rapido's locomotives are designed to use iPhone speakers. There were mounting brackets for a pair of them inside my dash-8 40-cm.
 
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