Converting 8-pin TTS tender to 21-pin

[96RAF]

Following on from Colin’s recent posts about installing 21-pin sockets in lieu of existing 8-pin sockets I found myself in much the same situation.

I had a TTS Duke of Gloucester, with the socket and speaker in the tender and I also had a spare DoG 8-pin tender and an old Hornby ESU 21-pin socket sound tender.

Apart from milling out the four pin socket hole to fit the fractionally larger one from the ESU tender and swapping the 100-ohm speaker for an 8-ohm one the job was straight forward. To make the task as easy as possible the whole socket and harness was moved over as is just needing to desolder the pickup wires and reattach them to the new tender. A check was made that the loco and tender wheels were in continuity and not cross connected.

These are the tenders in question. Top is the original DoG TTS tender which I have kept intact in case I need to switch back. Left lower is the new DoG tender and right lower is the ESU donor tender.

This is the final installation with a decoder fitted before I tidied the wires up.

[ColinB]

I must admit I bought my Duke of Gloucester with sound fitted for a very reasonable price, so I have never taken the tender apart. I changed the motor to a 5 pole but never touched the tender. That tender looks awfully like a Britannia one.

Anyway the 21 pin solution is much better solution. Yesterday I spent ages trying to fit Zimo sound in a Royal Scot tender with an 8 pin socket, same issue as before, just too much wire.