Well, it will with a big enough hammer and chisel! 
Just kidding, of course. I just completed my installation of a Tsunami Light Timber decoder into my Shay and thought you may be interested in how. To those that say the decoder is too big...you are right! But, you can take action and make it fit and here's how.
1. The light board must be removed from the water tank which means you have to sacrifice having a backup light. (The bulb for the light is part of the ckt board.)
2. The decoder with plug is slightly longer than the inside length of the water tank. To remedy this, trim the shrink tube on the decoder and you must cut off two alignment ribs on the inside front end of the tank and the round rib that is used to screw down the front of the tender to the bottom. I used wire cutters to get them down close to the surface. (This is all metal.)
3. Then a Dremel was used to grind them on down flat. This is not enough because of clearance needed for the wiring harness, so I grinded the inside box end to about half way through. Now there is a fit...snug, but not too tight.
4. I then hardwired the decoder harness to the Bachmann wires, keeping the wire lengths short as possible, but still long enough to be able to open the box back up if ever necessary. Probably the hardest part of this was figuring out the wiring on the loco without taking it all apart.
TIME TO TELL ON MYSELF : I found an old diagram that I had made of the 4 wire Bachmann plug and I thought I had the wiring figured correctly and connected all the wires up, shrink tubing and all. Ahhh! Smoke test time. Hmmmm! Doesn't work . Well?? Let's see if the lights work...Did I see the engine move? Oh Crappo!! I got the lights and the motor hooked to the wrong decoder wires and the light voltage was moving the engine. The problem was the diagram was on the tender side and I was working on the other side which meant left was right and right was left. No harm done and a quick fix took care of that.
5. Since I cut away the screw hole thingy, how do I hold the front of the water tank down?? A spot of SUPER glue of course .
6. I chose Tony's mini oval speaker to install in the fuel bin area. I cut a piece of styrene to fit tight and cut out a hole for the speaker. I drilled a hole in the bottom of the tender for the speaker wires and fed them through.
7. The speaker plate is mounted at about 1/4" down into the bin. This particular Shay was an oil burner, but I haven't decided on rather to use coal or oil. If I use it as a coal burner, then I will make a coal pile using a piece of synthetic scrub pad, impregnate it with coal and glue, and shape it over the speaker. This method still allows plenty of holes for the sound to come through.
The end results were exciting with great sounds and smooth running. Hope you can get some ideas from this post in your installations.
Notice the speaker in the styrene.
I went around the edges of the speaker housing with Crazy glue gel for a seal.
Just kidding, of course. I just completed my installation of a Tsunami Light Timber decoder into my Shay and thought you may be interested in how. To those that say the decoder is too big...you are right! But, you can take action and make it fit and here's how.1. The light board must be removed from the water tank which means you have to sacrifice having a backup light. (The bulb for the light is part of the ckt board.)
2. The decoder with plug is slightly longer than the inside length of the water tank. To remedy this, trim the shrink tube on the decoder and you must cut off two alignment ribs on the inside front end of the tank and the round rib that is used to screw down the front of the tender to the bottom. I used wire cutters to get them down close to the surface. (This is all metal.)
3. Then a Dremel was used to grind them on down flat. This is not enough because of clearance needed for the wiring harness, so I grinded the inside box end to about half way through. Now there is a fit...snug, but not too tight.
4. I then hardwired the decoder harness to the Bachmann wires, keeping the wire lengths short as possible, but still long enough to be able to open the box back up if ever necessary. Probably the hardest part of this was figuring out the wiring on the loco without taking it all apart.
TIME TO TELL ON MYSELF : I found an old diagram that I had made of the 4 wire Bachmann plug and I thought I had the wiring figured correctly and connected all the wires up, shrink tubing and all. Ahhh! Smoke test time. Hmmmm! Doesn't work . Well?? Let's see if the lights work...Did I see the engine move? Oh Crappo!! I got the lights and the motor hooked to the wrong decoder wires and the light voltage was moving the engine. The problem was the diagram was on the tender side and I was working on the other side which meant left was right and right was left. No harm done and a quick fix took care of that. 5. Since I cut away the screw hole thingy, how do I hold the front of the water tank down?? A spot of SUPER glue of course
.6. I chose Tony's mini oval speaker to install in the fuel bin area. I cut a piece of styrene to fit tight and cut out a hole for the speaker. I drilled a hole in the bottom of the tender for the speaker wires and fed them through.
7. The speaker plate is mounted at about 1/4" down into the bin. This particular Shay was an oil burner, but I haven't decided on rather to use coal or oil. If I use it as a coal burner, then I will make a coal pile using a piece of synthetic scrub pad, impregnate it with coal and glue, and shape it over the speaker. This method still allows plenty of holes for the sound to come through.
The end results were exciting with great sounds and smooth running. Hope you can get some ideas from this post in your installations.
Notice the speaker in the styrene.
I went around the edges of the speaker housing with Crazy glue gel for a seal.
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