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Hello all,
I spotted a spare Walthers Trainline GP9M Canadian National #4497 in my local hobby shop. The owner of the hobby shop advised me that this is RTR = Ready to Run however its DC.
What sound decoder would work best to make this engine DCC compatible and has anyone tried to convert DC to DCC with Walthers Trainline products?
A picture of the Walthers Trainline GP9M
Hello all,
I spotted a spare Walthers Trainline GP9M Canadian National #4497 in my local hobby shop. The owner of the hobby shop advised me that this is RTR = Ready to Run however its DC.
What sound decoder would work best to make this engine DCC compatible and has anyone tried to convert DC to DCC with Walthers Trainline products?
A picture of the Walthers Trainline GP9M
I have successfully converted a GP9M-Norfolk Southern to DCC (non sound) using NCE decoder. Had to sacrifice a part of chassis to get space for the decoder and reverse light. Runs very sweet and smooth. One of my favorite runner.
I did a sound install for a customer using a Trainline GP9M. Per customer request we did it on the cheap, so it had a Digitrax SFX sound decoder with a Railmaster Hobbies DSM8 speaker. I removed the overhead weight. The Digitrax decoder comes with a round 1" speaker, but there wasn't a great place for me to put it in the locomotive.
It was fairly easy to do, but because he wanted it cheap, I didn't do a rear light for him. It has a good a sound out of it as you can get from a Digitrax 8 bit decoder (Soundtraxx is 16 bit).
Had I to do another, I'd use a TSU-AT1000 or TSU-1000 EMD 567 decoder from Soundtraxx, replace the factory light with an LED (front and rear), and the same speaker (DSM8).
The motor is already isolated, but theres no plug so you'd have to hardwire in a thin board-replacement decoder.
Can you gentlemen post a picture of the modifications to the GP9 so I can have and idea what parts to shave and what not to destroy.
Thanks
I'm sorry I don't have that locomotive anymore (it was a customer's).
If I remember correctly, there are a couple of screws which enable you to remove the top weight (it goes from the front to back over the motor). There isn't room enough for a speaker to keep it.
If you use a board type decoder (TSU-AT1000, for example), you will have an easier time soldering. Add two 3v LEDs (I like golden whites) and two 680 ohm resistors and you have a nice running locomotive.
I hope following will be of help to you. I have installed NCE (non sound decoder):
I was not able to find the top weight that I removed. If I remember correctly, it can be pulled easily. (See the last image in the previous post.)
If I remember correctly, there are a couple of screws which enable you to remove the top weight (it goes from the front to back over the motor).
Well in my case there were no screws. I was able to detach the weight with slight and consistent pull.
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