DCC and sound for IHC Mikado, Pacific and Consolidation Loco

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I am rebuilding my 15ft X 8ft HO layout. I have several IHC steam Lococmotives and would like to use Digitrak Zephyr to add DCC and sound to my layout. What decoders do I use for these loco’s and is there data on how to install? I have tried to contact Digitrak but have not received a response.

Jerry Rose

2

Digitrax does not currently make any sound dedcoders with steam suitable for these locos. Your choices are basically the ESU Loksound product line or the Soundtraxx product line. I have installed some of the lower end Soundtraxx with the speaker and the decoder in the tender. It was not a particularly hard installation as the motor in the IHC locos is easy to isolate. I would not recommend the lower end Soundtraxx, I got them cheap a few months back when they really dropped the price, but in all honesty the performance is not all that good compared to the higher end sound decoders on the market.

http://www.tcsdcc.com/decoderpics/ihc_asa_packer_4_6_2.htm

Here is a picture of a non sound installation in an IHC steamer from the TCS web site. In the case of sound the wires have to be run back into the tender. All the ones I have done conveniently have a hole for the wires as well.

Any of these other brands of decoder will work fine with the Zephyr, it is what I use.

3

Simon, Thanks for the response.

Jerry

4

If your IHC locomotives are like the ones I put decoders into, none of them are DCC ready.

The only one I put sound into was a Pacific because the tender for it had electrical pickup wipers on the wheels, even though there were no wires going from there to the engine itself. I put a TCS motor control decoder into the boiler and a SoundTraxx sound decoder into the tender, and there is no interconnection between the two decoders.

I have not installed sound into any of the others because their tenders do not have electical pickup.

5

I just ran the electrical pick up from the loco to the tender. The motor control and front headlight wires have to be fed anyway so an extra pair is not a big deal. In my case I put black heatshrink around the wires to cover them in the gap between the loco and the tender.