Decoder suggestion for Bachmann 4-8-2 heavy mountain

Model Railroader Electronics and DCC
1

I just acquired one of these that is not DCC equipped nor DCC ready. Pretty much all of my layout is now DCC. I opened the tender, and there is a PCB of some type, but appears to be mostly for the LED light.

Any install articles and suggestions from you fellow modellers? I may want to try for sound on this one as it should have ample room in the tender. I have mostly been using TCS decoders, and like them.

2

the heavy Mt. should have an 8-pin plug with either a square plg or two “L” shape jumpers in the plug.

anyway, you will need to clip the capacitors from the board.

3

Tsunami Heavy is a great choice for this loco.

David B

4

I just bought one of these a couple of weeks ago, I removed the dummy plug in the light board (I believe it was the two “L” shapes rather than one eight pin plug) and put in one of the newer TCS decoders that has Back EMF. Works great!!

BTW the Spectrum USRA heavy mountains are recent enough that all of them are DCC-ready with an eight-pin plug.

5

[#ditto]

I have one that I installed an MRC sound decoder in two years ago. There is a dummy plug on the circuit board that you remove to plug in a plug’n’play decoder. I would also reccomend clipping off the small yellow capacitor on the circuit board, it isn’t needed with a decoder and usually causes problems with one.

John

6

My spectrum mountain has the soundtraxx LC280 decoder. Soundraxx discontinued it a while back but you can still find them at train shows and Ebay. Its a plug and pray easy decoder that sounds prety good for an LC decoder.

Pete

7

This guy has it and free shipping over $50.00. I buy from him quite a lot. Check his other brands for good prices.

http://litchfieldstation.com/xcart/product.php?productid=999002770&cat=116&page=1

You will need the 8 pin NMRA plug.

http://litchfieldstation.com/xcart/product.php?productid=410061&cat=174&page=1

http://www.soundtraxx.com/documents/manuals/quickstart.pdf

Scroll down to page 5.

Rich

8

Thanks for the info, you guys are TOO NICE, you should have said, “Hey Dumb@#*- the factory jumper plug looks like a wad of solder” pull that off, and you are in business.[;)] The sheet in the box had every part listed on the loco, but nothing about its’ features.

My mistake, should have thrown that away 1st.[:I] found a soundtraxx DSD with speaker nicely priced, and may buy that.

9

Be aware that if this is one of the older SoundTraxx DSD 150 sound decoders in the white shrink wrap, it may be too large to fit inside the Bachmann tender.