P2K S3 Scale Sound Systems Speaker Upgrade

[CPRail]

Hi Group,

I noted that J.T. at Scale Sound Systems now offers two different speakers for the P2K S3 engine, so I decided to upgrade my install with a new speaker (one of the last in the fleet to not have a SSS speaker).

Both installs required me to hard-wire the LM-3S and toss the board. I originally had the LM-3S located in the nose of the loco and a small sugar cube firing upwards under the stack, with a KA-4 tucked tight in front of the cab. The SSS speaker goes where I had the LM-3S, so things had to change.

I switched to KA-2 which fits nicely in the hood width, and you can see the rest.

NOTE: You need to square out the interior section of the hood above the motor to gain a teeny bit of extra room for the LM-3S. I used a drum burr in my Dremel and slowly squared it out with a couple of test fits. You can see the section in one of the photos.

[ON28]

Good work, Ian, and thanks for the chassis images, very instructive! I've got a Proto SW-9 and have put off installing an RP module due to space; the appropriate DCC decoder is barely thicker than a saltine!

[CPRail]

Happy to oblige! I've done 4 Rapido SW1200RS locos as well. I've learned that the key to these small units is tossing the board (and sometimes weights) and hard-wiring the LM-3S in. Also, the KA-2 keep-alive is your friend!

[ON28]

I have used the KAs in the past, but have since replaced them with PBMs. This after a number of conversations with RailPro user Lee Nicholas, who has long experience with thousands of decoder installs across different systems, and speaks with Tim Ring on a regular basis. His considered view of KAs and RailPro is that "they really don't work". That was good enough for me. Before I switched, I had frequent low voltage alerts on my NCE DCC layout; the changeover results were immediate and positive and I now have close to none on properly powered track. Yes, the PBMs are large compared to the KA2s but that's less of an issue with my fleet of roomy F units, Geeps and BL2s. Just saying.