Model Railroading > Brass DCC challenge

I have several brass SP engines with vanderbilt tenders that I intend to install decoders in. Some already have can motors and some don't and will convert them. Isolating the motor in most brass steam engines is a piece of cake (or tape). Most have front headlight lighting or drilling through the headlight casting and then into the boiler is not that dificult. The challenge is lighting the rear headlight on the Vandy tenders. It looks like about the only way is to pull (literally) or desolder the light, drill a hole in the bottom, and then a drill in the water tank top and front below the deck plates and feed the wires through and then epoxy the light back on.

Anybody ever done it any other way, or if you did it this way did you run into any thing in the tank that blocked it?

Gluing an MV lens in is the easy way out.

Can you get a brass vanderbilt tender open for a decoder or speaker? I never thought about that before.

wabash2800 Wrote:
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> Can you get a brass vanderbilt tender open for a
> decoder or speaker? I never thought about that
> before.


The optimist in me says YES, the realist says that if ever dare to try it I might as well throw the tender out in the driveway and drive over it and save all the in-between frustrations. I have about a half dozen different brass vandy tenders and NONE look like they can in any way be easily or even moderately difficultly opened up.

However using an MDC kit for a short model tender or kitbashing two for a longer tender would be far easier than a brass tender. And even then I'm thinking you would probably have to have the speaker openings up under the tender top walkways. I think the easy way would be to mount the decoder and speaker in the car that is usually the first car in the train. For example for a Pacific and a Bay Area commute train you would have immense quantities of room in a passenger car. Almost any freight car would be an easier fit than a Vandy tender.

Let me give you hope. You can put DCC & sound in a vandy tender. There are two ways to open them. First, you can put a #11 blade under the oil tank and remove the oil tank cover. The only problem with this is some of the manufactures made dual version tenders and so the back sheet for a coal tender might prevent you from getting into the water tank section. The better way is to remove the round end cap on the water portion. Believe it or not, the round end is just a cap and it comes off quite easily. I have removed them from vandy tenders made by Also, KTM (Westside & Balboa) and Sunset. I have not put any of the electronics yet but as I did this while preparing to paint, but it is not difficult. according to a friend who has done it. Again, a thin blade shoved in the seam of the cap and it comes right out. I don't think any of mine have been soldered.

vcrdenny