Building Sn3 and N Worlds

By Stationmaster

The Zephyr has sound

Today I took a break from trees and finished installing a decoder in the lead baggage car on the California Zephyr (just behind the second locomotive).  It is a Soundtraxx Economi diesel decoder, with a Soundtraxx current keeper and small speaker.  The current keeper keeps the sound coming through dirty track or interruptions.  Slick!

Since I have several trains that do not have sound and will not - just too much fiddling - I made a sound module on a small piece of plastic with the decoder, current keeper, and speaker on it.  I added a small two wire plug to the decoder.  In the baggage car, which had current pickup already on the trucks, I added a receiver plug to the truck leads.  Now, when I want to run the Zephyr all I do is take the top off the baggage car, lay the decoder module on the base with trucks, plug in the decoder, and replace the car top.  I do program the CVs to the right prime mover, bell, and horn.  Then consist the baggage car (#9999) to the two P42s and away we go.  Actually was easier than I thought it would be.  First such project I have done and I did not blow up anything!  

I also posted a video of the train leaving Glenwood Springs.  Sorry for the jumpy-ness.  Here is the link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0wL48G8rkI&feature=youtu.be

Next step will be to add truck pickup to a couple of boxcars so my F7s, GP40s, etc will have sound.

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