Broadway Limited 2-8-0 Consolidation (Light Tender)

Scale:
HO Scale


WOWKit used in this installation

Kit Coming Soon

Which includes the following items:



This installation is for a HO Scale Broadway Limited 2-8-0 using a TCS WOW121 Steam Decoder, B-MB1 Motherboard with built in Keep Alive® and 28mm Hi Bass WOWSound Speaker. 

HO Scale Broadway Limited 2-8-0 shown prior to installation.
To start off this install, we must first disconnect the locomotive and tender. With these apart, we start the installation on the tender first. With a small, flat blade tool, gently pry outwards along each side of the tender shell from underneath and lift the shell off, being careful with and rails, etc... as you lift off the shell so they don't break. Shown above with the shell released. With the shell off, remove all the components on the tender chassis. The lighting board in the shell roof can be left in place with it's wire leads.
Shown with the tender ready for installation. We will be using the original wiring harness connection for this installation. Trim, tin or lengthen the wire leads as needed and using small lengths of TCS 3/32" and 3/64" shrink tubing, insulate these solder leads.
Next, after removing the adhesive cover on the 28mm WOWSound Hi Bass Speaker rim, set it in place in the front speaker port, keeping it as close the the rear as possible.
Before installing the motherboard, wrap the Keep Alive Super Caps with TCS 1/4" Kapton tape #1256 to insulate them from the speaker.
Using foam, double sided tape, mount the B-MB1 motherboard to the top of the speaker, making sure the B-BM1 is positioned to clear the inside of the shell when it is installed. In this photo above, the speaker and tender track pick up wire leads are soldered in place. Utilizing the original wiring harness in this installation has the benefit of keep all the original connections in place. By tracing the wire lead paths into the locomotive, this can be achieved. In order for the smoke unit to function, the resistor highlighted above in red needs to be bridged. This can be achieved by soldering a small length of wire or similar across the two top posts of the resistor. Next, we can turn our attention to the locomotive and the wiring harness connections at that end.
To remove the shell of the locomotive, remove the three screws highlighted above in red. Save these three screws for reinstallation.
Next, release the boiler support struts located inside of the front ladders from the platform. With these released, carefully lift the shell from the frame.
With the shell off, remove the two screws from the locomotive distribution board and remove it.
Clip off the wire leads from this unit and discard it. Next we address the locomotive shell.
First, remove the two screws shown highlight above in red and slide the smoke unit reward to remove it from the shell. Save these two screws for reinstallation.
The smoke unit shown outside the unit. Using a small clipper or similar, snip off the three leads shown highlighted above in red and remove this component.
Shown with these leads removed.
Next flip the smoke unit over and unsolder or clip off the wire leads shown here.
Solder new wire leads as shown to the smoke unit. These will be utilized to connect through the harness to the motherboard for control. In this installation, the blue (and red into blue) wire will feed into the common positive leads with the lighting, the brown will become function button #1 and black fan wire, function button #6. With this complete, you can replace the smoke unit back into the locomotive shell.
Add new wire leads of sufficient length to the headlight LED. Splice the blue (common+ wire lead) into the same leads from the ditchlights and cab light. TCS motherboards include on board current limit resistors for LED use. There is no need to apply external resistors for LED use.
Remove the two recessed motor mount screws under the locomotive and then carefully work the motor loose (there are three pressure fit pins holding it in place underneath) and lift it from the frame, setting it off to the side. This will give access to the wiring harness/ connections to splice in the new wire leads.
Shown here with the motor completely removed (for clarity purposes) to expose all the harness connections. In this installation these 8 connections translate to the tender wiring harness as follows, bottom to top in the above photo:Connection point #1= left rail pickup BLACK, #2= Motor (+) ORANGE, #3= LED (-) front, can and ditch lights WHITE, #4= Smoke unit control GREEN, #5= Smoke unit fan VIOLET, #6=Common (=) BLUE, #7= Motor (-) GRAY, #8= Right track pickup RED
With all the new wire leads spliced in to the harness wires, reinstall the motor in place.
Lace these wires as appropriate to bundle them into a harness to avoid pinches and shorts using lacing cord, which is a wax impregnated string used for wire bundling and making harnesses. There are many choices of lacing cord available from Digikey www.digikey.com. We use part number 802534B BK032-NDThe shell can now be reinstalled.
With the locomotive complete, translate the wire harness leads to the tender, soldering the harness to the B-MB1 as shown. A 1/4 watt 270 ohm resistor must be spliced into the fan (function button #6) wire lead to feed appropriate electrical requirements to it as shown. You can also solder on the rear LED as shown at this point.
As we did with the locomotive, we laced the wire harness into a bundle to keep a neat appearance and route the wires correctly. After feeding the harness through the front port, reattach the tender shell and connect the tender to the locomotive. Your HO Scale Broadway Limited 2-8-0 is now WOWSound equipped and ready to roll!

Important Soldering Tip

Please do not use any flux either liquid or paste on the mother board. Over time, the acidic properties of liquid or paste flux will begin eating away at the fiberglass PCB and will damage it. Use only Rosin-core solder or no-clean flux approved for electronics use.

TCS recommends the use of Kester "44" Sn63 Pb37, .015" diameter Rosin-core solder. Kester part number 24-6337-0007.

You can order this solder from the following retailers:
Digikey - PN:KE1110-ND
Techni-Tool - PN:488SO6775

Other solder tips

When stripping wire, only strip a tiny little bit of the insulation. Strip no more than a 1/32 of an inch. When the wire gets tinned with solder, the insulation will shrink back more. Try to not expose any more wire than half the length of the solder pad at most. In no case should solder or exposed wire wire ever be outside the boundary of the the solder pad you are attaching a wire to.
Click here for important information on properly Stripping and Tinning wire