I finally spend the money to get a toby Frisco 1500 class 4-8-2. I am wanting to remotor it and put sound in it. what is the best motor to run in this engine and the best sound decoder? thanks
I would try a Canon EN22 and a Tsunami 2. I also changed gearboxes to KTM an on the last one a Boo Rim.
Old Kato diesel motors actually are a really good fit in the Toby 1500s -- small, good rpm for speed, plenty of torque and smooth/quiet. I did use the original gearbox as it was smooth/quiet. If you aren't planning cab detail, you can likely fit a Tsunami 2 TSU-1100 on top of the motor in the boiler -- much easier to do lighting functions when they aren't running through a tender plug. You'd then need five wires to the tender depending on what you're putting there -- speaker (2 wires), left rail (1 wire), backup light (2 wires) -- in my case I mounted the speaker in the smokebox (plenty of room for a sugar cube) and the entire loco doesn't use a tender plug. Let me know if you want more detail and I'll try to provide. The 1500s in my experience are great running engines with little tuning/tweaking required (outside of one basket case project on the workbench...).
Hunter, I see you are from Jackson and about the right age to be the son of a friend of mine from school; Frank Stoffregen. I can save you money on the SoundTraxx Tsunami decoder and provide the connector that you might want to use between the locomotive and tender that will allow you to put the decoder and a Current Keeper (recommended) in the tender, and have connections available for Right Rail, V+, Headlight, Motor +, Motor -, Speaker + and Speaker - , plus two more (firebox flicker, Class lights or cab light). Contact me via a Conversation (hover over your user ID in the upper right corner and select Conversations, then put my user ID in the address box).
