Plug-n-Play decoder, non-Plug-n-Play Loco?

[rrinker]

For some reason i thought the fuel tank on an S2 was under the cab deck. Or maybe I am stuck on RS-1's. Anyway, that looks to be one heck of a challenge - it looks like that motor goes right to the top of the hood, leaving no room for the decoder on top. An expensive proposition but one that would allow a HUGE speaker and great sounds would be to replace the drive with a pair of either NWSL power trucks or some of those Bull Ant drives from Australia. Definitely NOT cheap, but the entire interior would be freed up and a pair of large oval speakers fitted in along with the decoder. And the cab would be clear so an interior could be installed.
Quick way to check, the dimensions of the decoder are given on the Soundtraxx page, cut a piece of styrene to that size and sitit on top of the motor and attempt to reinstall the shell. If it doesn't fit - definitely going to have to think of something else. I was concerned about width at first, an S2 hood is very narrow - a typical HO decoder like I use in my Geeps will NOT fit in my Proto Alcos, I have to use a smaller one. And it's all a width issue. But then after seeing the hood off - that's a HUGE can motor. It looks to me that even the TSU-1000 wouldn't fit in there other than in the cab, which is needed for the speaker. The smaller ones might, but you need to check the am draw of the motor. Both SOundtraxx and ESU have small versions of their sound decoders. QSI still does not.

--Randy