I just saw the announcement on PCM’s website that they will not be producing the sound upgrade kits. Anyone else out there with a “sound upgradeaable” loco that there won’t be an upgrade kit for? I’m curious as to how many modellers are impacted by this decision. Is there anyone who got tired of waiting for the upgrade kit and successfully outfitted their Alco FA with sound?
I for one never really bothered to deal with the upgradeable.
Basically I HATE paying TWICE for the same engine if I can get one fully equippted with sound and DCC, it will be done. Once.
Im not surprised by PCM’s decision.
Now we will see how long it takes for them to update the websites, product lines and other revelant information to stop buyers thinking that the choo choo can be upgraded later.
This whole thing post 2004 with BLI makes me recall the story “The Caine Munitny” in the part before the new Captian Queeg takes over the ship and after he demonstrates problems later in the book.
I do not feel hung out to dry by PCM/BLI. Not even by all the other manufacturers who over the years have refused to make what I want !!! My ex on the other hand…
I don’t feel they let anyone down since you can purchase the Loksound units from Tony’y trains and do it your self. I have learned to not believe anything in print or their schedules about new products or specifications.
This hobby has always been geared toward the kit and builders designed products and the Loksound is available for all to purchase and install in our units. I only buy sound models from PCM and they do a good job with the installation. The upgradeable non-sound units can still be upgraded by most modelers or you could have it installed.
The BLI/PCM company has done much for the hobby industry, but they seem to be having major money cash flow problems and cannot bring in anything that sits on a shelve for long.
Almost of their products have not been delayed or given the dreaded TBD, which means we can’t because we do not have a sufficient amount of reservations or money to foot it ourselves.
Why would any company delay the GS4 and Cab Forward when the Genesis Daylight cars would be perfect for either models. They could probably sell as many as they could import and all of us would be happy. Athearn has shown test shots of their 1937 Daylight train and both the PCM GS4 and Cab Forward could be used on these cars for certain routes and era’s. It is a model they have now delayed two years and it might be forever. The PCM Day
Not me.
Me either.
Frankly, and it’s probably just me, but I’ve gotten a little bored with the whole ‘sound’ thingy, anyway. I find myself running my BLI’s less and less as I go along and reverting back to my ‘soundless’ steamers (which, since I’m DC, respond better to my power pack anyway) for most of my running. I just want to run my trains, not spend all my time pressing little button combinations to bring on pumps,brakes, coupler slack or all of the wonderful little features that tend to make me feel more like a computer programmer and less of a person just enjoying his trains.
Tom
Cazephyr is right about BLI/PCM, however, he is not right about the GS4s, Cab Forwards and daylights.
Athearns train is designed after the 1937 daylight. The cars were remodeled, so by the time the GS4 rolled around, the cars resembled what the BLI cars will look like.
Yes I’m a picky Espee fan.
I was under the impression that the external baggage doors were not added to the older equipment and some of the car from the 1937 train were used on the SJ run from LA to Sacramento. Older baggage cars were used with various mixes of older Daylight cars made up the SJ #51 and #52 after the new trains were added in 41…
Sorry if this is not the correct information, but I have found pictures in several books that show the GS4’s did run occasionally up Soledad on #51 and #52 with a MT4 for a helper. This probably was not the normal power as the MT4’s were the mainstay for years on that train…
No.
Don’t like sound.
It all sounds like a tinny 1960s transistor radio and I mean all. After all, you ain’t gonna get much better with one inch speaker.
Not one has impressed me, far too cutsy.
AFAIK, the people who like sound hear what they want to hear not what it actually sounds like, tinny.
CAZEPHYR
The original 1937 Coast Daylight would have been pulled by a GS-2 (single headlight) on the Coast run from LA to SF, with usually a 2-10-2 helper over Cuesta, though a Cab-Forward helper out of San Luis Obispo to Santa Margarita at the top of Cuesta grade would certainly not have been unusual.
But you’re right about the '37 cars showing up on the San Joaquin between Sacramento/Oakland to LA on the Valley-Tehachapi run. Most of them were slightly refurbished and used on that particular run, in fact the SP’s unique home-built 3/4 dome cars used on the SJ (and later showing up on the Shasta Daylight as well) were rebuilt from several of the original '37 cars. As I remember on the SJ, which I rode several times back then, SP re-painted several standard baggage and mail cars in Daylight colors for use as head-end equipment instead of the single baggage-coach on the Coast Daylight.
I do know that the motive power from Bakersfield to LA over the Tehachapi’s was assigned to MT-4 4-8-2’s instead of GS power (though oddly enough, GS power often brought the train down the Valley from Oakland to Bakersfield). On the run over the Tehachapi’s, the MT’s were either double-headed, or paired with one of the very versatile AC cab-forwards (usually AC-6 or above). The MT’s were given a modified ‘Daylight’ scheme (only without the ‘skirting’) that was oddly attractive, especially after 1950, when most of the class had acquired their ‘skyline’ casings. So Athearn’s release of the 1937 Daylight can actually do double duty (especially since they’re releasing an MT-4 as a companion loco). If you want to use the MT-4, you can run it down the Valley and over the Tehachapi’s to LA, or if you can find a GS-2 (or modify the front of a GS-4), you can have the Coast Daylight between LA and San Francisco.
The SP Coast Line
Tom
I certainly agree that the MT4’s were the main stay on the SJ during the mid to late forties until 53 ?? era or so but I have several Daylight books including Daylight Reflections which does show many of the MT4’s double headed and some of the GS4’s with MT4 helpers on Train #51 and #52. They did use the GS4’s occasionally for service on the SJ and I always use the modelers l
CAZEPHYR–
You’re right about the SJ being pulled down the valley de-skirted GS’s in the 'fifties, then being hauled over Tehachapi by Black Widow’s. And yes, there are photos of GS’s hauling the train over Tehachapi and in Soledad Canyon along with the MT’s–glad you reminded me. Actually, during the transition era, SP was famous for using steam types where you’d least expect them to show up: 2-10-2’s as helpers on the Donner Pass snowsheds between Truckee and Norden after they got bounced off of the Siskiyous, for example. It was pretty interesting times, back then.
Great minds must think alike, LOL! Like you, I have one brass GS4 in Daylight colors and another de-skirted one in black. Plus a brass MT-4. I guess I’m ready for EITHER version after all. I’m really looking forward to the Genesis cars–what little I’ve seen of them in preview looks really fascinating. However I hope that the rumors that this will cancel BLI putting out a post-war Daylight are just that–rumors. I think the myriad of SP modelers around will make enough viable demand for having both versions available.
Tom
Amen, Brother!!!
I could perhaps one of these days get interested in sound but the current quality does not impress me and I’m not about ready to pop a hundred bucks for something that has all of the attribute of a tin-can telephone!
And can someone tell me how this subject degenerated into a fusilade of gunfire over Sufferin’ Pacific operations in the Golden State!!!
Tom
I also look forward to the Genesis cars and the PCM version if they build them. Like you, I believe there is a market for both versions since the train is great looking and with that mars light leading the way, it commands attention.
PCM has talked about the Daylight train recently on the BLI/PCM Forum and they still say the cars are being worked on, but they recently updated their schedule and the cars are moved back to 2009 now. The rumor is just that at this time but is fueled by the fact BLI/PCM has been delaying almost everything they bring in. They are now bringing in brass models at a time when many of us and myself included only buy brass when it is the onl
Rogertra,
“cutesy”??? AFAIK, the people who like sound hear what they want to hear not what it actually sounds like, tinny.
Sheesh, guy! Please give some of us a break and a little credit! So you’re telling us that if we listen to a model with a clear sounding Nathan M5 horn or the turbocharged whine of an EMD 645E3 diesel…we’re hearing what we want to hear, not what’s actually there?
Sound is meant to “complement”, not overwhelm a layout. Hence, the many suggestions to keep the volume turned down low. It can be as enjoyable as a good tasting sauce poured onto an Italian dish.
AFAIK, many modelers here in my neck of the U.S own sound equipped locomotives and plan on purchasing more sound equipped locomotives or installing sound systems in some of their non-sound units.
Of course we’re not going to get the full bass and mid-range responses that prototype units emit. But …I spent years listening to prototype diesels up close and personal. I even tape recorded a number of them back in the late 70s-early 80s. (I even rode behind the Chessie 614). The sounds that I’ve heard from Lok Sound, QSI, and Soundtraxx DSX equipped units sound like those GEs, EMDs, and Baldwins I heard back then, minus the very low end responses.
The only “tinnies” I’ve heard were models with very poor speaker enclosures. But after carefully listening to my Lok Sound equipped SCL SD45-2 with its 20 cylinder EMD, an impressive Leslie RS5T horn (custom edited and uploaded by an expert) and a well pronounced air pop off, I must disrespectfully disagree with your point.
It’s funny, but after having been a member of a club where me
R.T.
Now now, that wasn’t gunfire you heard, friend. Just a friendly conversation between a couple of guys (CAZEPHYR and me) pulling the subject temporarily onto a passing track–probably somewhere around Horseshoe Curve out of San Luis Obispo on Cuesta Grade.
But you’ve got my vote on those ‘transistor radio’ sound effects. I’m pretty bored with them, myself.
Tom [:D]
Tom
I always appreciate your replies and hope we did not derail the post. I think it started out with are we hung out to dry by PCM not to produce sound upgrade kits and our conversation ended up covering PCM not bringing in much of anything and the lack of the GS4 which I think is sorely needed.
I did go by Dave’s and look at the WP 4-6-6-4 a few months ago. Not Bad! He has a good selection of books also which usually costs me money when I visit.
CAZEPHYR