I have this old Reading T1 with a defunct Mighty Sound of Steam system I am replacing with a Lionel Railsounds 2.5 board.
Power is supplied to the tender with a 4-prong plug...3 black wires and a blue wire. 2 of the black wires power the reverse light bulb...leaving me with a light blue wire and a black wire.
I can probably figure this out by opening up the engine but would rather not...so can anyone tell me which wire is '+' and which wire is '-'?
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So...lacking instruction I broke open the engine.
In the process...wires broke due to age which changed the whole project.
Sooo...I started from scratch and used a crowbar and a chisel and got to work.
I mounted the circuit board in the tender using velcro. I used 2 4-ohm 2 inch speakers purchased from the bay which are similar to the fat boy. The board requires an 8 ohm load...speakers wired in series...
I used caps off of Testors model spray paint cans for speaker enclosures...which also happen to make the speaker package just about right size for the tender chassis to hold the speakers in location when assembled...no rattling around.
Mighty sound of steam on the T1 used a hall sensor as a trigger...this also works for railsounds 2.5 (maybe all activated this way)...wire color code is the same...so some solder and heat shrink insulation...
Drilled holes halfway around the rear tender wheels pivot point for additional speaker.
Board only had two power wires...so with boiler of engine, used wire clips and trial and error (careful here as reverse polarity will blow the board) to isolate correct power connections on engine...ground is on motor assembly screw on side of motor...power is on center tab located on top of motor (has a GREEN wire coming from general location of reverse unit.
As wires broke at the connector and I only had two good connections left, for the moment I lost the backup light.
If anyone knows a source for this 4-pin plug let me know.
I realize railsounds 2.5 is not the latest-greatest...but this engine now ROARS with a way better sound set and whistle than it ever had out of the box.
I can overlook the not totally synchronous chuff...and this project really improved the fun value of the engine to me.
You win some every now and then!
What 4-pin connector do you need? I'm guessing it's probably a 2.54mm (.1") JST EH connector as those are mostly what was used for the RS 2.5 board.
No...it's the one the connects engine to the tender...that old style, Long prong thing lionel used to use.
Hoping to find one that still has its wire pigtail attached...
Oh, I remember those. 
I've had them pass through my hands, but I replaced them with decent tethers, and I didn't keep any of the old originals.
Gibson Man,
Could you post some pictures of your work? A video of the loco running with its improved sounds? The work seems simple enough by your description!
Enjoy!
Yes...a couple days...it's not pretty as I was just using what I had laying around to make it work...so wire gauge is funky or wrong type, routing is not pro...so on...I really don't want to pull the engine apart again, but can illustrate using a motor I have laying around.
If the tender you use has room and uses a hall trigger the RS2.5 is a relatively easy install...easier if the tender has power pickup built in.
Lionel still sells the boards...there is a guy on here who sells them with the ROM chips as well...
I'll throw something together in a couple days...
John...where is a good source for a tether?
Can you recommend a part number and a supplier?
I need 4 wires to make everything work...
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