I sit possible to add both sound and DCC on most N-Scale locomotives? If so how? I am talking about Kato F-40PHs.
Irv
The big issue with sound in N scale Diesel locomotives (Steam is the exception) is the lack of space for a speaker. With any sound application, the amount of sound you can move is directly proportional to the size of the speaker. Case and point :MRC’s n scale AC4400cw sound decoder. The sound is so tinny. Think of plugging your earphones into your IPOD and turning the sound all the way up. Now listen to that from a foot away, that is how that decoder sounds.
Now, there is a company that will mill out your frames to accept MRC’s generic sound decoders. I cannot recommend actually using ANY decoder made by MRC (as most of them have a shelf running life of 20 minutes or so…atleast from my customer’s experiences). That milling option is available, but gets pricey very fast.
Intermoutains latest N scale loco (FP7) has an obvious speaker enclosure when you take the top off. My spidey sence is thinking that QSI might dive into the N scale sound market (as Intermountain has used QSI chips exclusively). If that were the case, I would wait and see what they will eventually offer.
So you have 2 limitations;
-
Speaker size
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Decoder MFGs
David B
I was afraid of that. Oh well. I’ll have to live with it then. But then DCC is still a big advantage over DC despite the lack of sound.
Irv
You could always set up a boxcar with a sound decoder and speaker in it, and just keep the boxcar connected to the loco. I’m not saying wire the boxcar to the loco. You would have to put the boxcar in the consist, DCC wise, to get the sound so it works with the loco you want it to, and just keep it coupled there, or switch it to another loco if you want. Of course the boxcar would have to have the electrical pickups to the track through the wheels etc. This was commonly done for sound when sound first got started back in the DC only days.
Another option is to mount a decoder and speaker under the layout with the same address as the locomotive.
David B
I remember that in the days of previous high prices for fuel that Burlington Northern experimented with permanently attaching a tank car to some diesels so that they always had a source for diesel fuel. I don’t what happened but it might be worth experimenting with if I can find a tank car into which a speaker and sound module can be fitted. I’ll look into this.
Of course, just after I figure it all out someone will come up with anothewr workable solution that is much more realistic at an affordable price.
Irv
A fuel tender would work great.
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Irv