The Farish class 60 is a nicely running loco and usually operates the oil train. Because it runs regularly it is a good candidate to have a sound decoder.
The Youchoos installation guide is for a newer version of the chassis than mine, so I decided to get an MX660 decoder and follow the installation guide for the Class 57 (Guide). The steps are identical, but there is a bit more room in the Class 60!
Raw material required:
- MX660 decoder with sound file;
- Sugarcurve 6 speaker
- Lifelink PCB with 2 flat 470uF tantalum capacitors
As a hint, mark the "forward" direction of your chassis before starting. If the decoder is mounted with its "forward" direction the same as the loco, the LED settings will be easier.
I followed the steps in the guide pretty much exactly. There is more space for the speaker, and it was only necessary to file the sides away from the area above the front bogie. The chassis thickness for the bogie "+" mounting is unchanged. The decoder was attached with double sided tape on top of kapton tape. The capacitors were mounted at the back of the chassis with the lifelink just forward.
I had some 6BA solder tags; the screw that used to hold the PCB tot he lugs on the top of the chassis fitted through the solder tag in the holes where normally you'd solder wire. They made a simple pair of chassis connections.
The lighting is worth recording. There are 5 solder pads on the front & rear lighting boards marked A-E. Be aware that the boards are different widths, so they are "ended". The WHITE LED is connected between A(+ve) & C. The RED LED is connected between D(+ve) & E. So wire a blue decoder wire to A, with a wire link to D; then yellow and white wires to E & C respectively. At the front: white goes to F0f, yellow to F01. At the rear: white goes to F0r, yellow to F03. Then program CV33 to 17, CV34 to 6 and the LEDs will operate as expected.
