2-8-2 - Reviews?

[rogertra]

Anyone seen any magazine reviews of the 2-8-2, if so what magazine and what issue?

Anyone have the 2-8-2 and what do you think?

Running quality, amount of detail, accuracy etc., etc.?

Cheers

Roger T.

[rogertra]

Hunt.

Thanks for the review link.

I tried to send a personal thanks but you block PMs.

Cheers

Roger T.

[jbrock27]

Hunt.

I tried to send a personal thanks but you block PMs.

Cheers

Roger T.

I know, isn't that great   And I thought it was just me not being worthy  

[Trainman203]

Model Railroader.  Current issue.

[rogertra]

Model Railroader.  Current issue.

Thanks.  Not rec'd it yet.

Roger T.

[Trainman203]

What I can never get are the actual whistle choices.  Sometime I think I'm the only person left in the world who cares about steam whistles or knows anything about them.

[ebtnut]

There are 3 whistle choices on CV115.  IIRC, the loco comes programmed for "1".  I believe the other choices are "0" and "2". 

[Pacific Northern]

The Model Railroader on line issue has both a video and a review of the new Bachmann 2-8-2.  It passes as a fairly powerful HO steamer that would add to any ones layout.

[Trainman203]

What no one can apparently tell me is exactly which three whistles are in this engine.  Some one at Bachmann really likes the B&O 3 chime, which happens to be one of my least favorites, because it is in every Bachmann sound equipped engine, including this one...... you can hear it on videos.

What are the other two whistles?  Surely someone has a sound equipped 2-8-2 and can tell me.

[Trainman203]

Watched the MR video.  The whistle in the video  is the Southern Rwy. 3 chime.  One of the others is almost certainly the Bach Man's perennial favorite, the B&O 3 chime.  But with the SR whistle apparently being the default, I'm not so sure now.

Who can tell me what the other two are?  Do I need to offer a prize?

[Bucksco]

Southern 3 chime, B&O 3 chime and Crosby 3 chime.

[Trainman203]

Nice whistles, thanks. I have to think of a prize for the Bach Man.  Maybe me having at least 25 of his engines, with more to come,  is a good one.

[TimreturnMRR]

I'm trying to decide whether to buy the Light Mikado 2-8-2 with Sound Value or without and install my own sound decoder.  Its certainly cheaper and easier to go with Sound Value.  I have installed a sound decoder in the Bachmann 2-6-0 Prairie so I'm not concerned about my abilities.

I'm trying to asses how good the Sound value version is.  The MR Feb issue review was pretty vague.  The main thing that stands out is the maximum speed is pretty low, but with a small layout this isn't a  real issue.

Normally MR tells the manufacturer of the sound decoder and not only did it not but there is no picture of the tender with shell off to see what it looks like. Bachmann has a tender exploded view in its on-line reference but the decoder looks nothing like the brand name ones.  It does show a really nice sized speaker mounted in the floor which would be plus.

If the soundvalue decoder its a Soundtraxx and maybe other known manufacturers, then I can probably add a current keeper or equivalent.  I found this helped on my Digitrax 8 bit sound encoder installed in the Prairie.  The messiest part was running wires from the locomotive to the tender where the encoder is installed.  At first the wires probably caused my tender to derail.  I only held the decoder down with tape and it was a bit of a tight fit because there is a screw post all the way up the middle from the tender chassis.  I was able to move the decoder and get a less generous loop in the wires.  I also had to cut down some parts of the locomotive shell at the back and the tender at the front to get the wires through.

The upshot of this is that buying the soundvalue version already deals with electrical connections between the loco and tender  Does anyone know if the non-DCC version has the same connector as the Sound value and then my work is only in the tender itself.

I suspect that there is no current keeper in sound value.  If not does anyone know if its possible to add one from one of the manufacturers that make them? 

If I go with my own, I'll probably select the econami from Soundtraxx.

Appreciate any pictures or thoughts

[Trainman203]

Sound value, while great for some  folks, is too abbreviated  for me. What you get with a Tsunami decoder that you don't get with Sound  Value includes the following features I feel to be critical for me:

Dynamo sound with the headlight. You can't have a headlight without the Dynamo to light it.  That said, the new headlights are nice and bright compared to the old ones.

Coupler crash.  Some folks don't like it.  All I do is switch.  I need it.

Cv113 - time out sound turn off.  Setting this lets the loco, if not used for a period of time you select, go silent until reactivated.  They also are silent when you turn track power on, until you activate a command for the particular engine.  Not too big a deal if you only have one sound equipped engine on the track, but I usually have 5 or 6 engines active at once.  It's nice to have them start out quiet and then go quiet if unused for awhile.  This is particularly important if your domestic companion frequents the layout area.  

Cv161 - chuff reverb.  You don't  miss it until you hear it.  I can't live without it.

Cv 153 - 7 band EQ .  Lets you get the most out of your speaker.  Stock settings are never as good as they "could" be.

There are many other Tsunami features I don't  use such as speed tables , arcane diesel age headlight settings, "consisting", various fireman activity sounds, and such.

The thing that Sound Value could do without is headlight dimming on steam engines, a diesel era affectation.

The last thing about Tsunamis is that you can choose the one with the whistles you like.  That's the only reason to choose a certain decoder.  Light steam , medium steam, wheel arrangements, etc.,  all mean nothing.  All of sountraxx's whistles could have been used on any steam engine.

All of this said, I still purchase sound  value engines, to run until I can get something better installed.

[TimreturnMRR]

Thanks Trainman for your really detailed response.  I thought that i had read in the MR review that the deocder was SoundTraxx but I still can't find it.  (old age)  However, the MR video makes if a selling point right from the Getgo.  The one remaining question in my mind is whether Current Keeper can be added to the Sound Value and I've sent an email to Soundtraxx with this question.  I se in their comments on factory installed Soundtraxx that as you've pointed out in detail on the Bachmann, its up to the manufacturer to decide what features they want.