Can someone suggest a sound decoder suitable to use in an RDC car?
Cheers, Howard
Wow thats a good question , I have no idea but I will bump the thread.
bill
I think your best bet might be one of the new types that can have a sound sample recorded and uploaded - as I understand it RDCs have more in common with buses mechanically than they do with locos, so a visit to your local depot might be required unless someone’s already recorded a suitable effect.
I don’t know anyone who has this sound loaded into a decoder, which is surprising, since there are a few RDC’s still running from which to make accurate recordings. You can probably fake it with an EMD first-generation (non-turbocharged) diesel.
–Randy
Yeah the motors in an RDC are typical GM (Detroit Diesel) motors used in trucks and busses. Plus the hydraulic transmission - very bus-like. Which was why there was a lot of laughter when SEPTA phased out RDCs citing they were too different to maintain - even though they have plenty of buses with the same engine and possibly even the same transmission.
But they are 2-stroke motors, just like the big locomotive power plants.
–Randy
I would say one of the new Digitrax decoders. You download your sounds onto them, not sure where to get an RDC sound though…
SoundTraxx makes a decoder for the Con-Cor Galloping Goose that may sound enough like an RDC. Unfortunately, SoundTraxx took their sound sample files off-line, possibly to prevent people from using them as the sounds to load into the new Digitrax or LokSound decoders, so there’s no way you can check one before you buy unless you know someone with a Con-Cor Galloping Goose.