Page 25 - November December 2014

indicates that it has consisted itself to the locomotive. You never need to have the caboose selected on the throttle at all. A tip here: don’t set CV113 to anything other than zero: this is the automatic mute function. While hugely valuable on locomotives – because a standing loco with all functions off makes itself go quiet and no pressing of F8, if you set it on the SoundCar, it won’t play the release sound to let you know you’ve triggered it.
Now, remember I set my lights to F5, and told it to operate F5 on advanced consists? Well, F5 on most of my locos is unassigned: so turn it on, and the caboose markers turn on, following the locomotive. How cool is that? Next, release the loco brakes: F11 off, and as well as the loco making a brake release sound, so does the caboose. Open the throttle, and as the loco accelerates, the clickety-click noise from the caboose accelerates, too. Actually, as well as wheel clicks, you can also set up a flat spot, flange squeal and general wheel white noise too – even set the probability of how often the flange squeal occurs. All of that is pretty neat.
I work mainly on the 6-foot rule: if I’m more than 6 feet from the loco, all I can hear is the whistle, chuffs when accelerating, and faintly, any bell. I did much the same with the volumes on the SoundCar, so that it’s not audible when the loco is closer to me, but as the train recedes, you get that lovely clickety-click sound as it rolls away, vanishing when it’s about 500 feet away – 6 feet or so – into the general noise of the train. And when I close the throttle, and the loco goes quiet and coasts, the clickety-click becomes a more predominant train sound. Then, when you hit F11 to apply the brakes, you hear them go on in the caboose as well as on the loco, and the clickety-click slows down and stops in exact match with the train speed. Of course you do all know that to get the best from the Tsunami, in locos as well as cabooses, you need lots of momentum, to make coasting and braking really effective. I use CV3 = 50, CV4 = 150 and CV61 = 255. Of course, while you get used to all that
coasting, you may need to hit the emergency stop button once or twice! The SoundCar spots that, too, and plays the big hole sound to match. Finally, when you uncouple the loco from the train, wave the magnet over the caboose again, and you’ll hear the handbrake being wound on. That indicates that it’s un- consisted itself from the loco, and will no longer follow its commands. Again, seriously cool.
So what are the downsides? Not many. The wires on the decoder are a great deal stiffer than the lovely flexible stuff that they use with the TSU1000 and TSU750. I’m a fingernail wire stripper, but you can’t strip these with a fingernail: you need proper wire strippers. There’s only two horns and a Hancock whistle, it might have been nice to have more modern horns available, but at least there is a choice of bells. There’s no equaliser or reverb in the decoder either. I think these are to keep costs down; after all, SoundTraxx want you to buy a whole load of these things, not just one or two – and they even sell them in 3-packs! I’d also recommend that you ensure that you have decent pickup in the vehicle and don’t rely on the CurrentKeeper too much. Otherwise, while the decoder is relying on the capacitance for power – which can do maybe 10 seconds’ worth – it is easily possible for the decoder to miss a command. Note that most command stations only refresh continuously up to F8; F9 and above are usually sent once and once only. That can mean that occasionally the caboose doesn’t see an F11 brake command, and happily plays the clickety-click while the rest of the train stops. Maybe I need to move my brakes to F7 instead. Price? SoundTraxx MSRP is USD42.50 singly; USD112.95 for three. Assuming an exchange rate of 1.50 to allow for shipping over here, I’d expect a UK shelf price in the £30 area, maybe a little below. Talk to your favourite DCC dealer: I’ve already ordered some more via SCC.
(Ed’s Note: listen to SoundCar here: www.soundtraxx.com/dsd/ soundcar/soundcar.php)
Cottoned or Cottoning?
Allan Dobson (Gosport American Model Railroad Group)
Top right: Corner End Open
Centre right: End Board Closed
Bottom right: End Board Open
Well we never knew we did it, in fact we have virtually always done it without even knowing about it. It was not until we had a visit in April from our chairman, Keith Webb that it was pointed out that we were doing something which might be of interest to others. He suggested in the recent June Roundhouse that it was a suitable item for “Sharing Know How” so here we are.
The item concerned is no big secret – it is just the way we have designed our modules for transport and storage. It never occurred to us that it was in anyway unique or life-changing, it just appeared to be logical.
The easiest way to transport modules is to turn them into boxes, that way they are easier to carry, put on a sack truck and stack in a car or van and prevent damage. So each has its own individual partner and in the simplest of terms we have added a slot on the front of the modules to accommodate the inverted sky board of the partner board, this working for both boards. Having done this, we have added a couple of bolted-on end plates of plywood (with an electric screwdriver for speed) and you have a good solid box for transport.
I myself have been using this tongue and groove principle for over 15 years, and have been explaining it to folks at public exhibitions for just as long, and in fact I am quite surprised that it isn’t a “Universal Standard” by now.
One of our private owner’s layouts, “Surprise County”, has used this method with just an “Interference Fit” (ie just pushed together, no ends or bolts) and it has been to about 35 shows over six years and is still going strong and still holds together quite firmly! So it can turn out really well as a time saver, as usually we only take about 20 minutes to put up an 11' × 7' layout and have something running. Also it is even quicker to take down!
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