I acquired a Spectrum 4-6-0 with the Tsunami sound decoder and ran it last night. WOW! The sound is excellent but what is more important is the slow speed performance. It crawls. Much better than my TCS decoder equipped 4-6-0s. Does Bachmann offer any of the tenders with the Soundtraxx decoder installed for sale separately? I'd take a couple of the small Baldwin tenders with sound. - Nevin
Dear Nevin,
I'm glad you like the sound. we don't have separate tenders,but they have been suggested. I'll post any developments.
Happy Holidays!
the Bach-man
It seems like I'm not the only one to want tsunami tenders ;D ;D ;D
Actually, what I would REALLY like to see is the Tsunami in the Vanderbilt tender wired so it will run behind the 4-6-0. that would be even more perfect!!! But I would settle for the small Baldwin tender with sound for my other engines. :D - Nevin
NevinW,
I don't use DCC or sound, but I have two 63" driver 4-6-0's which I have converted to the medium Vanderbilt oil tenders. They look and run great.
I use the Aristo Craft Train Engineer Throttle and the slow speed performance is excelent. It uses square wave DC pulse modulation rather than changing the voltage. It makes almost every DC loco run as good or better than with a DCC decoder.
Sheldon
If I'm not wrong, there was another Tender suggestion topic about the big tenders. I believe it was a 14-wheeler tender. Like the ones behind Union Pacific Big Boys or larger steamers.
I don't blame you, selling tenders alone will help those with other steam locomotives find the tenders they need separately. I have yet to hear the Tsunami sounds... A Vanderbilt with a Baldwin 4-6-0 along sounds like a winning combination alone! If anyone has a video of a Tsunami Sound equipped tender or locomotive, please post it. I'm interested, I might refer to them in the future if I like the quality that NevinW posted about.
NevinW,
I know you really want a Vanderbilt tender wired with a Baldwin 2-6-0 with Tsunami sound, after all, you've asked for it quite a bit ago:
http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/board/index.php/topic,3538.0.html
Josh
If you are adventurous, Bachmann sells a variety of DCC ready tenders including the small Baldwin tender. The Baldwin looks to be the size of the tender my 4-4-0 comes with. I bought my Richmond 4-4-0 shortly after they were released which was DCC on board, no sound.
I found the tender ready for a one inch speaker and I installed a Micro-Tsunami.
I have just received a USRA medium tender that comes with a two wire jumper and a four wire jumper to allow the tender to be plugged into my 4-6-0. All I have to do is change the wire connections of the four wire harness and add a 1k resistor. The USRA DCC ready tender I got does not have a resistor for LEDs or 1.5 volt lamps.
(http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l267/richg1998/USRATender.jpg)
My 4-6-0 tender is slightly larger than the 4-4-0 tender but no speaker holes.
I do not know if the small Baldwin is ready for a speaker. I asked The Favorite Spot but they did not want to bother to look at one of their tenders but referred me to the Bachmann forums.
With a multimeter and soldering iron, the conversion is not to difficult. To my knowledge, the Tsunami decoder Bachmann puts in their locos is not available separately. I doubt we will ever see it available.