Bachmann Sound On Board steam locomotives

Model Railroader Electronics and DCC
1

I have acquired three Bachmann Sound Onboard Steam locomotives.

The problem I have is I cannot set the address programming to anything but the factory set “03” address.

However they all run fine., but only one at a time on my layout.

I have mostly BLI steam locos , six of them, and two other steam locomotives with TCS Wow Sound and one early diesel engine withTCS Wow Sound.

I do have a Power Pax booster, but unfortunately misplaced the power supply adapter for it.

I have an NCE system with with 5 hand held controllers, 3 are Power Pros and two Power Cab controllers.

All of my non Bachman locos can easily be programmed with either my Power Cab or Power Pro controllers.

Are there any other DCC programming boosters like te Power Pax that would work better and is this what I am going to need to program my Bachmann locos?

One of my Bachmann steam locos is the Nickel Plate RR “765” , which the actual restored NKP “765” resides in a large building about 15 miles from where I live.

It is operated by the Fort Wayne( Indiana) Railroad Historical Society.

Just a very short distance away in the same complex is a building, number 207 now used for machine shop operations for a local large industry.

However , before I retired as an over the road semi truck driver, I used to deliver and pick up at this building .

It’s in an industrial park area called the “CASAD DEPOT”, part of which is used by the US Military.

Well inside building 207 during World War Two the first three atomic bombs were shipped by rail and partially assemblled in building 207.

Several local industries made parts for the bombs. Capehart-Farnsworth ( makers of the first TV sets),REA Magnet Wire and one othercompany sent parts to CASAD 207, now on the civilian side of the complex.

The Fort Wayne Railroad Historic Society operates excursion rides

2

I have a few Bachmann engines with sound and have never had a problem programming anything on them with a basic programming track.

3

K4,

Are you programming the Bachmann’s with either of the Power Cabs in programming mode (vs POM or programming on the main) using the Power Cab PCP panel? If you are not using your PCP panel with your Power Cab to program locomotives, that could be your problem.

Your Power Cabs were designed to provide a little more oomph in programming mode for the specific purpose of programming sound decoders. The ProCab throttles do not have that feature.

Tom

4

To clarify - set up a dedicated peice of track connected to one of your PowerCab Panels, with the power supply and one of the PowerCabs using the flat cable - completely independent of your PH Pro system. That may be enough to get the job done.

You can always try programming on the main, most but not all decoders can change their address this way, but generally only from a short address to long, or long to short, so if they are on short address 3, you can set and switch to a long address. You will need to program CV17 and 18 first, using a calculator to get the correct values, then set CV29 to an appropriate value for long address. At that point, you will lose control of the loco, but it should now respond on the chosen long address. Remove all other locos that have address 3 before doing this, or they will all end up with the same long address. Repeat for the others, one at a time, until the addresses are all set.

–Randy

5

I have no problems programming my Bachmann sound locomotives I have 3 of them but I have a seperate programming track for my power cab with a toggle switch to switch from layout to programming track.

6

The problem I’ve found with these is that without a booster I can set CVs no problem, including the address, but can’t read the CVs. This is using a programming track connected to an old Digitrax Zephyr. I have a Power Pax booster hooked up to my laptop for programming with DecoderPro on a separate programming track, and that can read the CVs fine.

7

That’s a non-issue with the Power Cab, Stix. As mentioned, it provides the needed amperage in programming mode to program sound decoders. The NCE PH Pro doesn’t have that feature so it does sometime need a booster. The OP has both so it would be advantageous for him to use the Power Cab for programming his TCS Wow in programming mode.

Tom

8

I have an older Zephyr system, and reading CVs is inconsistent at best. I should say that I have just about every make of decoders on my layout, and some are probably 20 years old. I keep all my decoder instructions (one for each loco) and write down the CV information for each loco using the good old pencil and paper method. If the loco came without a decent CV instruction sheet [:(], I find it on the Net and print it out. I know that some will advocate sticking to only one make of decoders, but loco manufacturers themselves don’t follow that logic. And I buy my decoders on sale…

Simon

9

Just a follow-up…Decoder Pro with booster works fine with my Bachmann sound diesels. I recently purchased a 2-6-0 steam engine with sound, and for whatever reason Decoder Pro can’t read it’s decoder. I can read and program CVs with my DCC system.