I have a pair of these locos with sound value, Southern #7080 (from a set) and #7082 (BAC #51815). These are great little locos but I have one question. Stationary or moving, both of them make a curious constant sizzling sound, like cross between a kettle simmering or bacon frying. This is not the loco frying - it stops when I mute the sound. But I do not have this sound on any of my other Tsunami locos, though these are my only "Sound Value" models. Is this normal, and what is it supposed to be? I spend some time around real steam engines, and they don't make this sound. It is a background noise, quite separate from the chuffs, blowers, etc. I am running them on DCC with an MRC Prodigy Advance 2.
I would be grateful for any enlightenment!
Thanks,
Bill.
That sound is normal. to me it sounds like it's supposed to be steam escaping from either the safety valves or the cylinders like you would hear when a steam engine is sationary as crews would usually open the cylinder cocks when the engine was stopped so they were already open for when they set off once more or from where the piston rod goes into the cylinder.
That's probably the blower. It was a steam jet designed to create a draft to keep the fire alive when the engine was standing still and the exhaust couldn't do it. All soundtraxx steam decoders have the blower I am pretty certain .
It may be set louder on the sound value decoders
All volumes are adjustable. I have all mine set so they are barely audible from four or five feet away, except the whistle and the bell. The whistle is loud and the bell can just be heard over the other sounds. So try adjusting the blower volume.
Cheers
Roger T.