N Scale Kato Big Boy 126-4012 with ESU LokSound installation
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- Опубликовано: 22 ноя 2023
- It's been a while since I've added to the 'poorly shot, horribly narrated and terribly edited' series of videos for your amusement. Welp...here's a big...boy one for you.
This is a brief (well, long) overview of how I installed ESU LokSound in a Kato N scale Big Boy.
Parts used were:
126-4014 Kato Big boy
2 pcs 11x17 ESU sugar cube speakers
58420 ESU V5 full sized decoder programmed to S0516 'big boy' file
scrap and misc wire and LED's, heat shrink tubing
While most of this may be useful, it's not really meant to be a step by step tutorial, however, it will walk you through how I did the install.
After having done a few of these now, my observations are that while not a terribly difficult install, it is very time consuming and you need to keep track of where everything goes. It's definately not for the beginner. Certainly the process has been refined over the last few installs since this unit was shot, but one thing you can't get around is the amount of time it takes.
Need YOUR Kato N scale Big Boy (or many other Kato models) converted to ESU LokSound?....feel free to either message me through facebook messanger or email me with questions on pricing and turnaround time:
dufordmodelworks
kelley@dufordmodelworks.com
I hope you enjoyed my video. If not, I hope you learned something. :)
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Kinda surprising how this locomotive is not very DCC friendly considering the FEF-3 accepts a drop in decoder.
Nice work. Thank you for confirming my thoughts on this one. I had ordered a DCC version of the Big Boy but cancelled it after the delays started creeping in, figured it wasn’t as DCC ready as Kato claimed. Went another direction. 15:21
Kelley - nice precise work on the install. Thanks for posting the video!
BTW - Thanks again for the excellent work you've done for me in the past installing sound in my Alaska RR Kato SD70's and E8/9's. They turned out great.
Sweet looking locomotive 👍
awesome job now I kind of got an idea how to do mine now thank for the video =]
Nice.. I did my own conversion with the tsunami big steam. Biggest challenge for me was wiring the motors so they didn't interfere with driver articulation. Reassembly was tedious... I certainly wouldn't want to convert multiples of these ! I did leave the headlight constant on simply to avoid running wires all the way back to the tender. Added a red light above the rear tender light as well. It is a nice runner though. If I ever wear a motor out I'll probably wire up the headlight while I have it apart.
Quand tell us who much do you paid for the loco? Thanks and great video!!
What gauge wire would you recommend running for the drive motors? I keep reading where others have articulation issues and trouble fitting the shell back on
ESU 36 gauge super thin wire works well. I've used it on around a dozen Big Boy installs now. Works well. Make sure as the Loco is getting buttoned up you left enough slack for the Loco to articulate and for the tender to swivel.
I was also wondering if I should just run the Kato Big Boy as a DC locomotive and forget about the DCC/sound I preordered one but now they are saying Jan but no one knows for sure if Jan is accurate, the DC big Boy is at a good price now.
Being you worked for Kato, any idea why delivery dates are being pushed back further and further? Is because of the sound install? Thanks and great video. Don’t think I want to try it myself.
the DCC versions (Digitrax) ones are being done here in the US by Kato USA's in house staff. The Soundtraxx ones are being done in Japan...I'm not sure if by the factory or outside contractors over there. In either case, there is a steep learning curve for installing dcc in these and it can only be sped up so much. Couple that with someone they brought in to help with the installs passed away a few weeks ago. Of course, had they been reasonably DCC friendly from the start, this model would have been a homerun for Kato. As it is, due to delays, and ignoring a large component of the N scale market from the beginning, it's pretty lackluster.
What would your cost be to make my DC Big Boy Kato to ESU and DCC ?
🤔🫣🥴