Meeting - Val Pistilli 06-28-09

Val Hosted the LVSG meeting on Sunday, June 28th at 1:00 PM at GATSME. The attendance was light probably due to the weather being so nice after the weeks of awful weather we were having.

Val gave a clinic on putting sound into S Scale diesels. An American Models RS3 was used in the demonstration. A Tsunami T-1000 Alco 244 (P.N. 827104) sound system is the model for this loco. Each Tsunami comes with 15 different horns so that the correct horn can be selected by the user.

The installation. The hood was removed and it was seen that the headlamp was mounted on the geartower on the short hood end. As the loco goes around curves, the light goes inside the shell and is not seen for the length of the curve. This will be replaced with Golden Yellow LED mounted in the shell. There is no light in the long hood. Another LED will go in that end.

Since the mechanism takes up the full height of the hood, we need to find space to mount the decoder. In the long hood end, there is room above the drive shaft. Build a platform to clear the shaft, motor, and gearbox. I would recommend making a metal platform to aid in heat sinking the Tsunami decoder. Then mount the decoder there with the wires aimed toward the motor. 

The red wire was removed from the motor and connected to the red wires coming from the trucks were then connected to the red wire coming from the decoder. The orange wire from the decoder is connected to the motor terminal the red wire was removed from.  The black wire is removed from the motor terminal and connected to the black wire coming from the decoder. The gray wire from the decoder is connected to the motor terminal that the black wire was removed from. Using Kapton tape, tape down the wires coming from the decoder to the top of the motor.

The speaker can be fitted into the cab facing down. Be sure to use an enclosure, whether commercial or home made. There are two straps across the opening in the bottom shell. These can probably be removed for added clearance. The purple wires from the decoder attach to the speaker terminals. 

 We had a short meeting. We left the decision as to location of the next meeting to Jamie. We agreed that we liked going to Strasburg for the club picnic. After the meeting, we went out to have dinner in Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia.

Submitted by Val Pistilli