The New Haven owned the mainline and the spur at the time. The spur was known as the 'Groton Branch' The main industries served were Sunoco Ready Mix Cement, near where the spur left the main, Groton Airport, Esso Oil, Pfizer, and Electric Boat Company.  The track is still there, and can be followed on Google maps:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Groton,+CT/@41.3412721,-72.0417338,16.58z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x89e6093f23ffd9e5:0x44ff1732c5e11cc5!8m2!3d41.3481528!4d-72.078663!16zL20vMDNsaGoz?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDMxMS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

It splits off the main right at South Rd, runs west past Tilcon Connecticut (Was Sunoco), then turns sound towards Beer'd Brewing and down to the airport. The siding with the station and freight house there is long gone. It then heads west again, passing through a golf course and on to Pfizer, Something oil, and Electric boat.  Except for the branch tracks headed to Electric Boat, the old Pfizer tracks are gone. There is still a fair amount of track left at Electric Boat.

Len

That one actually appears doable. I assume the New Haven is a branch line and not the main? Otherwise the plant shifter would have to come out onto the main for headroom.

This is the description for the 'SoundValue' 0-6-0 from Bachmann's on-line store. There is no mention of smoke:

Features Include
 Authentic USRA standard design
 Precision motor
 Soundtraxx® Hyperdrive2™ Advanced Motor Control for refined low-speed operation
 Flex-Map function mapping technology for reassigning function keys F0-F28 to any effect
 Hyperlight™ equipped headlight and reverse light with Rule 17 operation or automatic direction control
 Soundtraxx® Econami™16-bit polyphonic sound with user-adjustable sound effect and volume options
 Completely hidden drivetrain
 Upgraded locomotive body with refined and improved boiler and cab details
 Newly tooled roadname-specific coal or oil tender with operating backup light
 Operating LED headlight with roadname-specific placement
 Separately applied metal handrails and uncoupling levers
 Separately applied bell, number plate, and clear cab windows
 Highly detailed painted bodies with precision graphics
 Upgraded chassis and operating see-through drive wheels with spokes
 Metal siderods
 Blackened metal wheels with RP25 contours on locomotive and tender
 Magnetically operated E-Z Mate® Mark II coupler on the front and rear
 Product Measurements: L 9.5 in., W 1.5 in., H 2 in.
 Performs best on 18" radius curves or greater
 Retail Package Measurements: L 10.2 in., W 1.8 in., H 3.4 in.

The earlier version of the 0-6-0 had smoke, but no DCC decoder.

Decoder function outputs do not supply enough current to operate a smoke unit. You sould have to use the function output to trigger a relay that supplied track voltage/current directly to the smoke unit heater. And there is not really room for that in most HO locos.

Len

This Bachmann HO USRA 0-6-0 + SoundTraxx Econami + Smoke train reference, allows to activate smoke with track sound from a dcc bachmann control, if not please indicate the references that have this function. 

Hi,
I am new to this forum but I am an old HO modelist.
I recently purchased the Siemens Venture Train and run it on my DCC layout.
Everything is fine (locomotive and Cab car) except the red lights at the end of the train.
I don't if they exist and how to turn them on.
Help is welcome,
Chris

Although not available in blue for the Pere Marquette I may just randomly purchase a 70 ton in whatever color undecorated. I can get lettering and stripes in yellow with or without red outlining. I can not remember if the  70 ton Diesels they had were ever repainted when Chesapeake and Ohio purchased the P.M.

Quote from: trainman203 on March 10, 2026, 09:02:58 PMI don't know how this will reproduce in this form, but this Sanborn map is a view of some long-gone very compact street running switching trackage in my hometown, reminiscent of the 4x8 under discussion. The T&NO comes in from the left. It crosses the vertically running MP several times. The T&NO was in this location at least 20 years before the MP arrived.

https://www.loc.gov/resource/g4014nm.g033751952/?sp=9&st=image&r=0.346,0.184,0.575,0.669,0

Looking at this map raises some questions. There has to be an interesting story here. My understanding is that the later railroad to arrive must pay for any necessary junctions to the existing railroad, and for a tower to control things if necessary. Could the T&NO have purposely added more industrial spurs in order to increase the cost of the MoPac coming to town? How was the issue of T&NO fouling the MP line to serve these industries handled? Did they have to get permission to foul the MP? Or were speed low enough and traffic light enough that visual right of way would suffice?

As Len has stated DCC Onboard are non sound decoders. What you describe is the decoder doing what it is supposed to do. 

Put the locomotive on an actual program track .  You should be able to get a read out of a manufacturers number which is a standard established by the NMRA.  The next thing it will tell you is a product ID number. Once you know who made this decoder and what it actually is, you can pursue it in more detail.

 To me this sounds like a preowned locomotive with an unknown aftermarket decoder. Correct me if I'm wrong.

But if by some miracle it happens to be a Soundtraxx product, follow their instructions to reset the decoder to factory default by doing a cv8 reset to value eight.  You then break the power to the locomotive by rocking it completely off of one rail, then setting it back down and you should see the headlight blink 16 times if the reset is correctly negotiated.  At that point, the address will be 3 and all functions should work.

Have you tried putting this engine on an actual program track?  If you do that, you can read the address and you can read what each CV value actually is.  One of the first things that will do is provide you a manufacturer ID number which is established by NMRA standards, and you can look it up and see who actually made this decoder.  Then you should be able to get a CV list and know which CV actually does what.