Jump to content

Fitting TTS to R3171 loco


Second time around

Recommended Posts

There is space because I fitted it to mine. You need to buy a different speaker though. If I remember rightly on mine there is space above the rear wheels to fit a square speaker. I am sure I must have bought it from YouChoos, I think the decoder fits in front of the motor. It is a shame about 3 weeks ago I took mine apart to change the motor to a 5 pole one (Pendolino one if you are interested) and I remember I didn't move it to the tender as I do with a lot of mine. If I get time I will have another look.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

R3171 is DCC Ready [has an 8 pin socket in the loco]. But it is not a TTS Ready loco [has no official provision for the large round TTS speaker]. Although the service sheet seems to indicate a round speaker mounting moulding in the tender.

So your options are ... follow Colin's advice (preferred) and replace the Hornby TTS supplied speaker with a smaller speaker suitable for the loco [fine soldering skills required] OR leave the decoder in the loco and extend the two speaker wires to the tender where the round speaker can be fitted [soldering skills still required]. This second option is not preferred as without some form of micro plug and socket arrangement having permanent wires between loco and tender is not really practicable.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

The part number for the Pendulino is X9712, you also need to remove the worm drive off and flywheel off your old one. You then remove the twin worm drives off the Pendulino and replace them with the flywheel and worm drive off your old motor. New Modellers had some when I looked at £7.95.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Service sheet 401 for the DCC-Ready version as opposed to the TTS-Fitted version indicates the tender whilst having a basic moulding for a speaker, does not have pickups but it does have a recess to fit the matching 4-pin socket usually installed to electrically connect the loco and tender. It may be your phantom plug is a half way house that would allow a TTS tender with pickups to be swapped in for the other tender. Compare SS401 with SS407 TTS version.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When I first bought my one second hand I added pickups to the tender and the 4 pin lead to connect the loco to tender. Adding tender pickups is relatively easy, you just buy the cheapest A1/A3/A4 tender bottom that has pickups, lever out the pickups to put in the P2 tender (which is an A1/A3/A4 one anyway) and throw the rest of the bought tender bottom away. It seems wasteful but I think mine was about £2-50 from Lendons so you are not losing much. Unusually, I didn't put the decoder in the tender, as I normally do, I think it was because I fitted lamps to the loco and with the decoder in the tender it is impossible to do. So although I used the standard Hornby 4 way connector I only used the two other wires for the tender pickups. With pickups in loco and tender it runs much better. I also added a sliver of phosphor bronze to the front bogie to give it extra weight, mine kept derailing on points.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As a general expanded guide to installing TTS to various ready and non ready locos you may wish to have a read of this . . http://www.halton96th.org.uk/ttsdownload.html

... unfortunately the link in the document to the very useful Bromsgrove Models installation guides is no longer working due to the owner having personal problems.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
×
  • Create New...