Farish LNER A1 with Zimo Sound

Kit: MX649N (6pin direct); SugarCube5

Cut 10mm off the front of the chassis block, which is where the speaker will be placed.

Fit speaker (15x11x5,, SugarCube) - pack slightly underneath to clear valve chest block screw, and glue. Paint the speaker black (as it can be seen under boiler).

Run speaker wires in chassis grove and cut small grove in loco chassis for speaker wires.

Mill tender block flat (to allow decoder to sit flush)

Cut 2mm off the decoder pins (Zimo MX649N) to allow decoder to fit right into decoder holder .

Put Kapton tape over the motor (to prevent risk of short)

Run speaker wires from the loco to tender (cut away tender base plate to allow wires though into tender)

Slightly chamfer the rear of the coal space as decoder just fouls on it.

Fit tender top (the original will fit or you can add artificial coal.

Test loco for shorts and all finished.

Not a conversion for the faint-hearted - quite awkward. On reflection it may have been better to use a shorter wired decoder than the MX649N, such as MX648 but this was an attempt to keep re-wiring to a minimum. Hard wiring an MX648 probably would have meant that there would be no need to chamfer the coal load.

Approach, photos and words courtesy of Anthony Glasson

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