Bachmann's Ho 4-8-4 GS4 Southern Pacific Daylight Steam loco

[New ChooChoo]

  First off let me say that I am somewhat new to DCC. Most of my trains have been DC. I am trying to keep up with the times and am learning as I go. So here is what I want to do. I have the Daylight GS4 and it is equipped with DCC. I want to upgrade to sound. I see that the decoder in the tender has an eight pin plug that plugs into a board. I assume that one of the sound decoders made by Digitrax, MRC or Soundtraxx, will plug into the socket in its place. I want the motor functions and sound but don't want to have to solder connections etc...There is a place for a speaker also. Any recommendations on which decoder I should get? Any help will be greatly appreciated.

[Doneldon]

New Chooch-

You have several options for sound decoders in your GS4, and a good size tender for the installation. First, though, you have to decide if you want a single decoder to do all of the work or if you would be just as happy with a sound only decoder "piggy-backed" to your existing decoder. Both would have the same address and they would operate the same as if you had one board. Such a decoder, like the Sound Bug, would be your less expensive option but you would still have the existing motor control decoder which lacks adaptability and isn't so hot in slow speed situations.

I urge you to consider a whole new board for both sound and motion control. You'll have back EMF for better slow speed operatoin and more access to lights and other features. Go to the Lenz, Digitrax and NCE web sites to explore for just what you want. With such a large tender you might even consider a second speaker for better sound. The decoder manufacturers have combaptible ones on the sites.

Good luck!
                                                  -- D