Fitting TTS sound to GWR Star

[81F]

Has anyone fitted  TTS sound to Star?

 

I have a couple of GWR Stars and am considering fitting Castle TTS chips and speakers to two of them as this is probably6 the closest sound that one can get in the TTS range. Howeber will the speaker etc fit into the small GWR 3500g tender as fitted to Pricess Alice or Knight of the Grand Cross?

 

Also can someone confirm that the 4000g tender fitted to Kinight of St Patrick is the same as a Castle tender. If yes  I'll get a Chip anyway and if it doesn't fit the 3500g tender of the others I will not have wasted any money.

 

Thanks for any advice 

[96RAF]

Have you compare the associated service sheets.

Rob

[81F]

 I've tried doing a search for Star and castle service sheets but nothing is found under star and the castle has the 4000g Hawkesworth tender rather than the Churchward 3500g type so that is not much use.

 

I know the 26XX tender chassis seems to have tghe correct fitting for a speaker (like the Hawkesworth tender) but I do not know if there would be enough clearence for the speaker. What worries me is that a second hand 28XX tender body I have has the bottom of the coal area cut out so I am worried that this was done to accomodate a speaker but I have no way of telling.

[96RAF]

Star class comes up blank apart from Eurostar and oddly some Scalextric models, but Castle throws up SSs 213, 293, 306 and 346.

 

I have no idea about the class differences for tenders If any shown.

SS346 shows essentially the 8-pin TTS ready tender installation.

SS306 shows an 8-pin loco socket.

SS293 shows a 4-pin ringfield loco installation.

SS213 shows analogue ringfield installation.

 

Not enough detail shown to determine which tender is which.

Rob

[OssieB]

I have 4050 Princess Alice, from the Great Western Troop Train set R3219, which has a 3500gal tender. I also have R3237 4073 Caerphilly Castle which also has a 3500gal tender. I have fitted TTS decoders to both of these tenders. Both have the ready prepared housing for the speaker, under the weight. After fitting below the weight, I applied a little extra sound sealing by using blue tack. However, to accomodate the decoder, I found it necessary to cut away quite an area of the tender moulding below the coal load, which was a little difficult. The coal load can easily prised out using a craft knife blade. Since then to improve the sound quality, I have replaced the speakers with sugar cube type speakers. To do this it was necessary to accomodate the decoder in the prepared speaker housing and place the sugar cube speaker in the cutout made in the tender moulding.

I hope this helps,

BarryO

[SteveM6]

There is no need to modify any part of the tender mouldings to achieve what you want - just ditch the 28mm speaker and use a small sugarcube speaker instead.

[81F]

Many thanks for the advice. As it looked as though I could fit the TTS chip in the 4000g tender, I obtained one and tried it in the 3500g tender first only to discover that there is not enough room for the original speaker without removing the coal bunker bottom so I've fitted it to Kinight of St Patrick with it's larger tender instead.

[96RAF]

Tip

Cut a block of expanded polystyrene or fashion some Plasticene/PlayDough to the size of your speaker and locate in loco/tender as required, then park the body back on. Remove the body again and the dummy will indicate if the real,one will fit.

Rob

[81F]

Tip

Cut a block of expanded polystyrene or fashion some Plasticene/PlayDough to the size of your speaker and locate in loco/tender as required, then park the body back on. Remove the body again and the dummy will indicate if the real,one will fit.

Rob

I was actually able to get either the speaker into the 3500g tender or the large TTS chip, but not both!

[ff2nd]

Search for "4000 class", or just for "4000", and you should find the Star service sheet.