What sound decoder setup is recommended for use in the Niagara?
TCS has some Bachmann motherboard specific listings but not for the centipede tender configuration.
Has anyone done an upgrade to sound?
Thanks
RHF
MRC 1908
2 wires.
Done
RHF
Depends on how accurate you want your engine to sound, and how many features you want. I myself would have nothing but a Tsunami 2. But then , I've been around, and up in, steam engines a lot over the years. So I know what I'm missing unless it's all there. "Less" is probably "enough " for most people, which explains why "sound value " decoders, essentially steam on a starvation diet, makes so many people happy.
I beg to differ about the allegedly lack of variety in steam sounds. There is simple vs compound, geared ("logger") vs rod, saturated vs superheated, Johnson Bar adjustments, whistle playing, dozens of whistle types and tones, hundreds of whistle tunings, generator types, air pump types, pop valves, blowdown , cylinder cocks, injectors.......man, I need to stop. If you think that the sound value decoder truly represents a steam engine, better think again. Go stand next to a live steam engine, listen to her pull out, or better yet, ride in the cab.... and see if your thinking doesn't radically reset.
When I watch videos of sound equipped locos two things I hear.
1) Sound levels are all way too loud. Look at a video of an approaching train, it's a while before you here the locomotive, steam or diesel. On model you can hear them before they come into sight.
2) Steam or diesel, it doesn't matter, all steam sound the same, all diels sound the same. Tinney.
BTW, I work in live theatre and concert venues, so I know a little about sound. :)
Cheers
Roger T.
Boy I don't know about the steam engines.... every one I've seen, when they are working hard, you can really hear them coming a long way off. (We used to say that about my command-tone type-A old boss 😂😂).
Especially the whistle. I can say that as a kid, when both the T&NO and MP back home were still under steam, you could hear those screaming whistles really well at least a mile or more away where we lived.
I've been to a number of tourists railroads and I've heard some of them from a long way off and been able to hear them before I could see them. My hearing was much better back then. The one I rem most was the Black Hills Central. I had my video cam and we sat by a road crossing for what seemed like a really long time waiting so I could film it. We could hear it coming but it took forever to get there. As I think about it, it was kind of a valley so I the sound probably carried better there.
We live a couple of blocks from tracks and diesels go back and forth every few weeks over to a power plant a couple miles away. It seems like I can hear them for long distance.