Sound Car with Beast Banter

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Has anyone tried the new Soundtraxx Sound Car with Beast Banter

I just ordered one Hoping to have it running in time for my open house

on 11/5

Heres a video

http://store.sbs4dcc.com/Soundtraxx829100TsunamiSoundCarDigitalSoundDecoderv2withBeastBante.aspx

2

Terry,

I think they’re just hitting the market. The originals were well-received. I must say the BeastBanter idea seems to be a great addition, although I’ll put in a plug for hogs and horses in addition to the cattle and sheep sounds included with the newest Soundcar decoder.

3

Yea the Beast Banter option just became available in July

I have a C&O cattle car from BLI so this should make a good addition

4

Anybody else recall the Varney ads for their stockcars that had “everything but the smell”?

And some years later, there was a company called, I think, Olfactory Airs, which offered “realistic scents for your model railroad”.

As for sounds, if I were running DCC, I might consider the swine version in my “freight hogs”…possibly more suitable than most of the HO steam sounds that I’ve heard.
For now, though, the sounds in my imagination seem to work quite satisfactorily, without being too intrusive.

Wayne

5

There was offered a long while back a sound system, for an HO scale mechanical refrigerator car that was pretty good for what it was.

.

It was power by a pair of AA batteries and sounded pretty much like a 2-71 Detroit Diesel engine running at 1,800 RPM.

.

One of our club members had a string of eight of cars equipped with these. Pretty neat.

.

I would think stock car sounds could be better battery operated than relying in DCC and track power. Just turn them on and enjoy.

.

-Kevin

.

6

What’s a good option for power pickup? I’ve equipped passenger cars and a caboose or two to pick up track power, but they’re mostly a bit short of perfection in the power continuity department. I suppose installing a current keeper would help, but it also adds to the cost.

7

Hi, Mr. B.

I like these because they have all four wheels picking up.

http://www.athearn.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=ATHG61383

Athearn has several varieties of trucks with pickup, including caboose trucks with axle-end generators. Unfortunately they are all geared to the post 1970 era.

http://www.athearn.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=ATHG4592

I have been requesting they make a similar truck with solid-bearing journals but, so far, I don’t see any coming down the pike.

Bowser makes a retro-fit kit for their caboose trucks which could possibly be rigged into a regular freight truck (unless you don’t mind PRR caboose trucks under your rolling stock)

Then there’s the bent Kadee centering spring trick, which I have not personally tried.

Good Luck, Ed

8

Well, I’m a DC operator and not a fan of sound, but you could add all-wheel pick-up to a freight car pretty easily, as I do with wheel-wipers on all of my brass steam locomotives and tenders…

An even easier method, although perhaps not quite so reliable, is to use axle wipers in the same manner as on Bachmann locomotives: the insulated wheels on one truck are to, for example, the left side, while the insulated wheels on the other truck are to the opposite rail. Simply run a wire from each to one of the two terminals on the sound device and you should be in business, although you may want to add an on/off switch to the circuit.

Wayne

9

I’m using the KD coupler springs As pickups

Beside Athearn Ring Engineering also makes

Pick up trucks

http://ringengineering.com/PowerPickUpTruck.htm

But i also intend on using a Keep Alive

10

Ok got it working with the bell and horn saounds but have not figured out how to activate the cow/sheep sounds

Guess i need to watch the video

Will do a video when i get it working

11

Here’s the Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSiqmJytFOI

12

Marc Wrote some new Files For JMRI Decoder Pro

Because the old Files didn’t include the beast sounds

They will be included in the next release