MARK HOLLAND shows us how to add sounds to your layout using a Train-Tech module.
The inspiration for this article came about from a question from a customer in our shop; how to add sound to a locomotive but without using DCC. Now, I haven't fitted it to a locomotive, but instead to a wagon - why will hopefully become clear in a moment.
For this little project I have used a Dapol BR box van, I felt that this would be the best fit for our shop layout and would be a good size for the sound unit to go in. The sound unit is the Train-Tech TTSFX70 SFX+ Goods Freight Sounds Module, which I thought was more appropriate coming from some rolling stock rather than a locomotive.
Another reason for picking the Dapol box van is the ease of disassembly, one screw in the bottom and the van comes apart.
The sound unit is completely self-contained. The power comes from a watch type battery, that is included. The other item is the sound tube, more on this next.
The battery clips into the holder on the reverse of the speaker and the sound tube, once un-flattened, fits over the speaker. The purpose of this is to provide some direction to the sounds and does help improve the quality of the sound as well.
The only small downside to using the Dapol box van now becomes apparent, the centre fixing post. This isn’t a real problem it just requires a hole to be made in the sound tube so that it can slide down the post when dropping the unit into the van body. The sound unit can be temporarily fixed in place with an adhesive pad attached to the battery, but I didn’t really find this necessary and its not a problem if the unit settles down once the van is put back together.
These sound units are very simple to install and give a good set of random sounds, see the full range here. They allow the analogue modeller to add an extra dimension to any locomotive or rolling stock.