I have recently finished installing RCS 2.4 GHz R/C and Phoenix sound into the Accucraft VIKING diesel.
This is a beautiful brass and steel 16 mm scale model of the Isle of Man loco. They come prepainted and are quite easy to work on with a bit of thought. There is actually quite a bit of room under the hood which is readily removable. The only real problem is placement of the ON-OFF switch, charge jack, Phoenix volume control and the programming jack. I overcame that problem by fabricating a styrene frame that is glued under the floor in the front of the loco. Sorry about the picture quality but this will give you an idea.
The ON-OFF switch and charge jack are placed either side so that access is through the two large holes in the frames. This required some careful measurements and a bit of fit twice glue once philosophy before installation. Here are two views of the cradle installed whilst the loco was still gauged for 45 mm.
I used a small 5 watt speaker glued in place under the top of the hood. I made styrene baffles that I also glued in place with silicone adhesive. The volume is amazing given the size of the two small grilles that permit the sound to get out either side. The battery pack is made up of 12 x AA size ENELOOP hybrid Alkaline/NiMh cells and also glued them in place under the top of the hood.
I removed the stock lighting controls and wired the 5 volt bulbs direct to the BELTROL directional constant brightness lighting outputs. This gave me enough room to mount the BELTROL ESC and extra sound triggers on the floor. The Phoenix P5 + P5T were glued to the battery pack upside down. Here is a view of the underneath re-gauged to 32 mm.
Here is a close up of how I mounted the SPEKTRUM AR500 RX on the styrene cradle. I did have to enlarge a couple of holes in the floor to get the cables through. The short antenna is simply pointed down beside the volume control. The long antenna is fed into a thin brass tube so that it extends under the loco and is exposed at the other end. This provides excellent range. Well over 200’ testing at a local layout.
Here is a close up of the ON-OFF switch. Once the styrene is painted black it will be invisible.
On the opposite side is the charge jack.
The sound exits via the small metal grilles either side and is surprisingly loud. All set ready to rumble.
So how does it perfom? Very well actually. Removing the regulated lighting circuit does increase the top speed quite a bit on 14.4 volts. If necessary the top speed can be reset in the RCS programming options. Range is great as is the pulling power of such a heavy loco. The sound system is the Phoenix Plymouth, as that is the nearest one we could get at the moment. Perhaps a proper Schoema diesel sound will become available. EDITING NOTES: Pix re-linked and BELTROL changed back to RCS.
