Looking for the costs to add sound and maybe smoke to brass Weaver. Which kit should I buy? Does Scott at Sunset have all the instructions for installing the boards? Thanks, Don
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Steam railsounds kit and a cruise commander, a new electrocoupler as well. aside from some 470 ohm resistors and a few LEDs that's everything. The instructions for the ERR boards are pretty good and thats an easy enough upgrade, that should be all you need. check the wire count on your tender tether. If you have less than 9 wires, it may need a new tether. Youll need wires for head light x 2, smoke x1 , both motor wires, power, ground, 2 chuff switch wires,
Many years ago when ERR first became available, I converted my Weaver P-2. The installation in the Vanderbilt tender was kind of like building a ship in a bottle, because only the back end removes. I used the removable oil reservoir as an antenna insulating it from the tender shell with clear packing tape. My engine, and assuming yours is the same, has a 4-lobe cam on the second driver axle. I mounted a microswitch on top of the frame to provide 4 chuffs per revolution. I changed the front marker lights to green. I never did get around replacing the seuthe smoke unit. My engine still has the original 4 wire tether and that is sufficient if you retain the constant voltage board and do not install another smoke unit. Good luck with your conversion!
Eric Hofberg
TCA, LCCA, Ives Train Society
When I do these types of locomotive upgrades, I use the MTH 10-pin tethers, plenty of wires for all the features. Of course, I also install fan driven smoke an my Super-Chuffer, it's not a steam engine without lots of smoke out of the stack!
It's convenient that one has a 4-lobe cam on the axle, that's pretty unusual!