can be done with a mill or belt sander. The photo also shows
some of the cab floor removed to have a place for the decoder.
Early in 2012, I found installation notes on the web from
George at TVW Miniatures (
. His
approach appeared to have merit. Since it uses a small (N-scale
appropriate) speaker in a small enclosure, I didn’t have hopes
for room filling sound. When the loco was done, I was pleas-
antly surprised to find that it had a reasonable sound from
a Tsunami GN series decoder. Since it is a yard switcher, this
localized sound is fine.
I had George machine the frames for six of these units and what
follows are notes, photos and video from assembling these
locos. Some had DCC installed previously, as shown in (2), so
3
3: HO scale Kato NW2 ready to reassemble with Tsunami
decoder.
DCC Impulses column - 2
A DCC installation in any split-frame non-DCC-ready loco
requires complete disassembly of the loco, frame machining,
motor isolation and reassembly.
For years, I’ve had folks asking me to install sound in these
NW2s. I’ve not been happy with any of the ones I’ve tried. Non-
sound installations have been very successful, but difficult to do.
Part of what makes this a great switcher is what causes the
installation issues. The entire loco interior is weight. It has a lot
of traction.
Over the years, I’ve become comfortable with putting a small
DCC decoder in the cab floor, as shown in (2). A cable relief
needs to be cut into the frame (upper left in the photo). This
2
2: Kato HO NW2 ready for final assembly with a non-
sound decoder.
MRH-Jan 2013
