southern pacific daylight ho locomotive

[southern boy]

yes i need  to know what is included in the ho southern pacific daylight steam locomotive and or what i need to do or get in order to get the chugging sound whistle and steam smoke to work or what kind of sound decoder and speaker do i need for this steam train
If I can get some tips or advice on what to get and where and how much I'd be greatly appreciated to get some help.
Thanks so much
Bob

[southern boy]

my label # on the box is a 50202 and train # is 4446 does not come with sound nor a steam generator need to figure out which smoke generator to get and what specific decoder and speaker to get any thoughts and or suggestions
thanks
Bob

[Doneldon]

So Boy-

Check manufacturers' web sites to see who has sound and features you like. You can even audition some on line.

As for the smoke, well, make sure you know what you're getting into. The smoke never gets better than anemic (frankly, I think they are just about right for diesel exhaust) and it can only do that during long runs at full throttle. For that you end up with oily goop all over the top of your expensively painted locomotive and the nearby scenery. And they burn out (read irreparable) quickly if allowed to run dry which can easily happen.

                                                            -- D

[southern boy]

I could really use the help to figure out what kind of smoke generator I need to have for my ho bachmann southern pacific daylight steam locomotive #4446 thanks so much

[WoundedBear]

You need either one of these....you may have to call Bachmann to find out which one will fit, if they know. Both are marked as "universal", so either should be able to be fitted in there.

http://estore.bachmanntrains.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=66_68_212&products_id=1706

http://estore.bachmanntrains.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=66_68_91&products_id=1705

There are others on the market, but they can't be mentioned here.

Sid

[jward]

may i strongly suggest that if you want to install a sound decoder you forget about a smoke unit. period......

smoke and dcc do not mix. dcc requires extra clean track to perform well, and smoke particles tend to accumulate on the rails. i am not sure if this has somethign to so with the magnetic field around the rails when the power is on, or the hot oil in the smoke condensing on the metal surface, or something else. smoke, no matter whether from a cigaratte or a smoke generator, means dirty track.

[WoundedBear]

Maybe we should stop the practice of recommending against smoke units. Bachmann sells them, and equips some units with it.....so by telling people to skip smoke, aren't we essentially causing Bachmann to miss out on possible sales?

I'm sure they have tested these units and they work well....so if the fellow wants smoke, shouldn't we, as Bachmann's guests, point out these units and not tell him to forget about it?

Curiously,

Sid

[Doneldon]

Sid-

I doubt if Bachmann has lost many sales due to people's criticisms of smoking locos. I'm sure they're well aware of the pluses and
minuses of smoke and I'll wager they'd be frank about those characteristics, too. I also feel, rather strongly, that the purpose of this
board is not to shill for Bachmann. And I don't think that anybody on here does or should go out of our way to slam Bachmann's
products around, either. What's in order, and what makes this board helpful to the many posters is getting honest information and
advice. Without such honesty, the board has no credibility and might as well not exist.

                                                                                                                                     -- D

[jward]

isn't it better to advise somebody to go with something that will work, and against something that is a known source of problems? you can sell more if people are satisfied with their performance. i think bachmann found this out about 20 years ago when the improvement in quality of their product caused many who, like me, had written them off to buy their products once again.

smoke units are fine with dc, where contact with the rails is not as much of a problem. with dcc intermittent contact due to dirty track can corrupt the dcc signal. partial signal loss can cause the locomotive to continue operating on the last command it understood regardless of what you do to the throttle. worse, in some cases, the decoder will reset itself to dc mode, see full track voltage from the dcc, and take off full speed with no control whatsoever. these are well documented problems with dcc and dirty track.

[Johnson Bar Jeff]

smoke units are fine with dc, where contact with the rails is not as much of a problem. with dcc intermittent contact due to dirty track can corrupt the dcc signal. partial signal loss can cause the locomotive to continue operating on the last command it understood regardless of what you do to the throttle. worse, in some cases, the decoder will reset itself to dc mode, see full track voltage from the dcc, and take off full speed with no control whatsoever. these are well documented problems with dcc and dirty track.

Holy cow!    So dirty track can cause run-aways in DCC? 

[jward]

yes in some situations you can lose control of your train.