SoundTraxx Tsunami Sound decoders

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I recently picked up a Soundtraxx tsunami medium steam decoder for my 4-6-2. The sound is very impressive. I was very surprised by how well the sound performed. When I first installed it there was a red glow from the decoder and I thought oh s^*t, I’m burning it up. Turns out they have a status LED built into them. Anyway I thought I would share my thoughts on these decoders. The lighting effects were also quite impressive. When you turn on the light function the steam turbine winds ups up and the lights dim up to full brightness.

Also I was curious about something else. They make a Tsunami decoder for a light logging locomotive. It seems that these decoders would be a little large for something like a shay. Does any one know about this?

Here are a couple pictures of my 4-6-2. It is DRGW 4-6-2.


My second question was which one of the whistles would be appropriate for this locomotive? The choices are:

Santa Fe Freight
Baltimore & Ohio 3-Chime
Colorado &Southern #801
Pennsylvania Railroad Banshee
Lehigh Valley
Nathan 5-Chime (Road Mix)
Nathan 5-Chime (Yard Mix)
USRA 6-Chime

2

Yup, sure do. I just put one in an On30 Bachmann Shay. I do not believe you can get one into an HO locomotive without some serious reworking. Although Soundtraxx is offering the On30 locomotives with factory installed Tsunamis, they are not (and have no plans to) offering the tsunami as a drop in. I think that’s a stupid decision on their part. I had to locate the decoder right where the wood load goes and am in the process of scratching a larger wood load to hide the decoder. I also boxed up a 1/2" X 1.5" speaker and placed it in the cab floor. I painted the box flat black, so it’s really not that noticable, especially when the train is running on the layout. The sound from an oval speaker is far better than an oval, too. Have you read the data sheet on the Tsunami? It will do so many different things, it’s impossible to memorize them all. It even has reverb settings to simulate the train being in a valley situation. It’s quite impressive, really.