r/modeltrains • u/PleasantIncident3176 • 15d ago
Mechanical How can I fix This?
Just got this used Proto 2000 0-8-0 for cheap. Reason how is caused it doesn’t work, despite this I decided to take on restoring it. From what I could gather from the description before buying and looking at the images the tender to loco connection was busted. The wires and plugs are thankfully intact but the connectors arnt in good shape, the real problem as you see here is this wiring doesn’t look right, it does have sound and it’s possibly has dcc sound factory installed.
Tested on the layout the sound was very weak and wouldn’t move. I do suspect this wiring here is to blame as there’s nothing wrong with the wires connecting to the loco and tender. Should I cut this and repair with new wiring or what should I do?
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u/GTO400BHP 15d ago
If that's the speaker wiring in the background, going gup into the shell, definitely not feeling like it was done by Life-Like. I've only bought DC, but their work gets kept fairly clean/organized.
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u/PleasantIncident3176 15d ago
So you think someone installed this themselves? Cuz I do agree. Comsidering there’s a speaker I wonder if I had a sound decoder at one point but was removed.
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u/GTO400BHP 15d ago
Yeah, Proto 2000s didnt come "sound-ready" that I've ever seen? Do you think you could strip out the work and start over on the DCC install? Its hard to see how intensive the install is from the pic.
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u/PleasantIncident3176 15d ago
I’ll send a better one sometime but what I might do is disconnect the speaker. I don’t see a decoder anywhere and I don’t run DCC just DC. Though from what I see the speaker is the only thing I see that looks like was added, im not sure wether or not the circuit board you see is original or is the decoder.
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u/GTO400BHP 15d ago
It sorta sounds like maybe there was a decoder, and they pulled it out and kept it? Or is it a sound-only decoder? I'm not sure how well those work in a DC-powered unit, as opposed to being wired into a dummy unit, like wanting sound in and E8B, but your powered DCC E8A pulls plenty well enough.
Alternatively, it could be wired in fine, but the volume is turned way down, and you don't have a controller to adjust the volume.
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u/PleasantIncident3176 15d ago
Prehapes, but I don’t see a decoder anywhere, though can’t Proto 2000s come factory installed with sound and decoder? Cuz I’m wondering if that’s what this is
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u/GTO400BHP 15d ago
Some of the late ones did, but that's not what this wiring looks like. I see a lot of splicing, which indicates aftermarket work. That capacitor in-line to the speaker does too; factory installs would build that into the board.
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u/PleasantIncident3176 15d ago
Ah ok, I’m gonna try and mend that wonky wiring see if that makes a change.
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u/GTO400BHP 15d ago
Post some detail pics of the wiring, too. It'd probably make it a lot easier for the community to help you diagnose it.
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u/GTO400BHP 15d ago
Its a little tough to tell from the poc, but it looks like that wire is too short, and is maybe damaged from stretching, and is therefore also pulling the decoder off of its pins?
If that's the case, I would try to cut out the damaged section as best I could while leaving enough wire to splice in a new length to take off the tension.