RailPro > Finished RailPro Installation Examples

ScaleTrains ES44 install

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KPack:
I recently acquired one of ScaleTrains' excellent ES44 models.  They are great in all respects.  Definitely the top of the tier for this particular locomotive.


I don't use the factory electronics board, except for a single model in my collection.  All other locomotives in my possession have been completely gutted of all factory electronics and Railpro hardwired in.  This locomotive was not an exception.  The model comes from the factory with a board using a 21 pin plug.  That does not leave enough room for both the LM and a PBM (keep alive) so it must be removed. 


I also don't like the speaker enclosure that ScaleTrains uses for their models.  Even with expensive speakers like the Scale Sound Systems offerings, the small space for speakers leaves it sounding "tinny" and without depth.  So I picked another TB Speakers sound module and got to work.  The chassis had to be disassembled so I could cut a large piece off the upper weight.  An angle grinder with a cut off wheel is a much faster way to do this than using a mill.  Once the piece was removed and the sound module shaved down to slim it up, I installed it with caulking.  Then it was just a matter of installing the LM and PBM, and hooking up all the wires.  Easier said than done.  It took a couple of hours to do everything from start to finish. 




A couple of notes for anyone hardwiring Railpro in these locomotives.
1.) The orange and gray wires do not match up with the orange and gray on the wiring harness.  They are reversed.  Railpro makes it easy to change the direction of forward on the locomotive, so no big deal.  But if you want the locomotive to run forward without having the change it up in settings, connect gray with orange and orange with gray.
2.) All the step/ground lights (5 of them) have a black and red wire.  The black all get connected together with a resistor, then to an output wire from the LM.
3.) All red wires (except for track wires) get connected to the blue common. 
4.) 1/4 watt 1K ohm resistors work fine for the LEDs in these models.

The locomotive runs great, and sounds great with my speaker.  I'm getting a bit of clipping sometimes though, so I think I need to mess with the volume settings a bit to be sure I'm not overdriving the speaker.  Lights are excellent. 


Nighttime lights.  I don't light my numberboards because I always change the numbers.  And the ground lights are not as bright as they look in the picture.


-Kevin

ON28:
Always first-rate work, and glad to see you back!

Smoke:
Clean looking installation as always Kevin. Out of curiosity how much does the loco weigh with the weight you removed? They're pretty heavy from the factory and I imagine the pulling power is still great with the weight removed.

Orlando:
Awesome job on the installation Kevin. You hit the nail on the head about the sound with Scaletrains models.Most of my locomotives which are Scaletrains have Scalesounds speakers. Enclosed in the body of the model the speakers do not sound how they supposed to. They lack the bass and rumble that we all want. About 2 yrs ago I purchased 50 speakers from digikey that fit exactly into the Scaletrains stock enclosure which sounds better than the stock ones and those are the speakers I use now on Scaletrains models. Then again, I buy them Dcc ready.

Orlando

KPack:
Sorry for the extremely late reply, been busy with work and life.

Smoke - I haven't weighed the locomotive after the weight was removed, but the model is still very heavy.  Heavier than most other locomotives I have.  As you suspected, there is zero issue with pulling power. 

Orlando - What speakers did you end up using from Digikey?  I do really like the TB speaker modules I've been using, but they are not easy to fit.  I'm not opposed to trying something else if it sounds decent.  I don't think that anything can match the bass of the TB speaker though.  I have an Athearn Genesis Dash 9 that I want to try to put a large speaker in but it looks to be much more difficult than the Scaletrains model.  Not really looking forward to it.

-Kevin

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