Division Point Krauss-Maffei LokSound 4.0 DCC Install - Pics and Video


ianacole

Well-Known Member
Wow... lot's of little wires to deal with. Took about 10 hours total, taking my time, being careful, and moving slowly since it's been quite awhile since I've done this kind of work.

Overall work:

  • Install/wire LokSound MTC21 with connector
  • Install conductor in cab
  • Wire TCS voltage regulator (1.5v output) for existing grain of wheat bulbs
  • Install nano LED for cab lighting
  • Install two sugar cube speakers in parallel for sound
  • Install LokSound 4.0 with special sound file to replicate KM motors
  • Install connectors for pickup, motor, and speaker connections for future service, if needed

I ended up having to move the front speaker forward due to motor interference (was hoping to get both speakers directly under the fans. I used JMRI to program lighting functions... I may go back and set the cab light to turn off when the loco is in motion. Overall, this is a beautiful model and am very glad that I chose to install the decoder so I can use it on my layout.

Pics and crappy vid:
20170820_141958.jpg20170820_152438.jpg20170820_195242.jpg20170823_193604.jpg
 
Looks like it was not TOO tough. I always hate when the giant hand has to come down to do the coupling work...
 
Ian .....an interesting install......excuse me I don't know much about your layout, it looks to be HO? On the two speaker install, as I can recall, that's the first time I've heard of that, did you decide on that because you had the room to do that or the sound quality would be improved? Thanks.....
 
Looks like it was not TOO tough. I always hate when the giant hand has to come down to do the coupling work...

It wasn't TOO tough, not bad at all, really. Just took my time and moved slow. The giant hand spends way too much time on my layout :)
 
Ian .....an interesting install......excuse me I don't know much about your layout, it looks to be HO? On the two speaker install, as I can recall, that's the first time I've heard of that, did you decide on that because you had the room to do that or the sound quality would be improved? Thanks.....

It is HO. For the speaker install, it seemed that sound would most naturally be coming from the fans over the motors in the real one, so sounded reasonable to try. I was able to do so for the rear speaker; front speaker ended up right behind the cab.
 
Ian ..... On the two speaker install, as I can recall, that's the first time I've heard of that, did you decide on that because you had the room to do that or the sound quality would be improved? Thanks.....

Not all that uncommon Jerry, even among the manufactures. Several, where they have the larger modern diesels in HO, place 2 speakers in the fuel tank, facing down. That can have problems if the ballast used on the trackwork has a ferrous (iron) content. If the speakers are low and the grilles too open, small ballast particles can be drawn into the speaker magnet and foul up the speaker. Very hard to remove witout dammage to the cones. I have a Walthers Proto 2000 GP20, which is quite small and it has 2 also, mounted in a upturned V over the rear driveshaft, oddly their larger SD60 only has 1. Steamers with tenders usually mount the speaker and decoder in the Tender, which tends to give a dislocated sound from where you expect it. One of my club members overcame this by mounting an additional small, Cell phone speaker under the smokestack. Being small it accentuated the higher pitched steam and chuff sounds, directly where they would be, a noticeable improvement.
 
NCRC5315,

Ages ago AHM/ RIVAROSSI produced one see here AHM Krauss-Maffei ML-4000 - HO-Scale Trains Resource which may be found at those so-called train shows howeverI do not know if anyone currently producing the K-M --KRAUSS-MAFFEI in ho-scale, there is a company which has one in Z-SCALE. Fyi The original order of SP K-M's had HANDRAILS whereas the D. R. G. & W. RR K-M's where full cowl bodied and had port hole windows , the D. R. G. & W. RR ended up selling there K-M's to SP. See here Krauss-Maffei ML 4000 C'C' - Wikipedia then scroll down to Original Buyers. hope this helps.

BCK RR
 
Very impressive! Where did you find the HO scale Krauss-Maffei?

Thank you! AS BCK RR indicated AHM/RIVAROSSI produced one quite a few years ago, and can be found at train shows and occasionally on Ebay. This particular model was produced by Division Point.
 
Here's the D. R. G. & W. RR version photo 1 and photo 2 is the original SP version, I trust this clears this as to the differences of the K-M .

BCK RR

1> s-l1600.jpg 2> KM No.9004 copy.jpg
 
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