Sound Decoder for locomotives Thomas and his friends.

[PieroRK]

Good morning:

would like to know if anyone knows of a decoder that can be installed on locomotives Thomas and his friends sold with recorded sounds of each locomotive. If not, I encourage this thread from the manufacturer to put Bachmann on the market a range of motor and sound decoder that is specific to each locomotive. I think they would have great public ...

Regards.

[alex wittman]

well with my knowledge of the sound decoders is that you have to do a lot of work to fit the speakers in them and as well as getting the right one in fact, but if you install the sound decoder you have to adjust the drive wheels so that it can make that "Chuffing" and "Puffing" sound. and doing that with bachmann thomas locomotives in HO scale, thats really difficult, If in Large Scale, it's probably a breeze. That is all I know about sound decoders. What I would suggest is going to the parts list and print out the thomas HO scale exploded diagram and put thomas together but with fixed static eyes so you can at least fit DCC and Sound inside of Thomas or anyother Character in the HO range.

thats as much as I know.

                         - Alex Wittman

[jettrainfan]

I remember hearing about a guy from nasa putting a DCC decoder into a thomas and having all sounds recorded including the thomas tune. Wish I rememered which decoder he used...

[Anthony P2]

really? that sounds cool. i was thinking about putting sound in my thomas engines. my little cousin is two, almost 3, and loves coming over my house to see the trains.  it's so funny because the first thing he says when he comes over is "Can we see the trains now?" any way if anyone has seen Topkazfatt's videos on youtube then you remember he put a talking sound decoder in his hornby Gordon and now it talks and makes sounds like it was a real engine. AND he put a smoke unit in it! it looks AMAZING! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCT0zd6Ygqc&feature=channel_video_title

[jward]

you might be able to do that with gordon and the other tender engines. but i can tell you first hand there is barely room enough for a standard decoder in thomas & percy. there is no room for a speaker for sound as well. i am talking the HO versions here.

[jettrainfan]

too big? get a smaller decoder! Got N and Z scale ones! 

[DinoNTrains]

so can any scale decoder work with any scale engine and can you program them to the numbers you want on Bachmann's E-Z Command DCC system?

[jward]

too big? get a smaller decoder! Got N and Z scale ones! 

not that simple. for percy you'd already be using a z scale decoder, and even that's a tight fit. where exactly would you put the speaker for sound?

[jward]

so can any scale decoder work with any scale engine and can you program them to the numbers you want on Bachmann's E-Z Command DCC system?

it's not quite that simple. ho n & z scale decoders all have sufficient current ratings for use in most HO locomotives. the larger scales draw significantly more power, and have decoders with higher ratings. putting an Ho decoder in a G scale locomotive is a good way to fry it.

[DinoNTrains]

it's not quite that simple. ho n & z scale decoders all have sufficient current ratings for use in most HO locomotives. the larger scales draw significantly more power, and have decoders with higher ratings. putting an Ho decoder in a G scale locomotive is a good way to fry it.

I see. But if I wanted to put DCC in Thomas engines, what decoders would you recommend for the engines and where do you recommend I put the decoders for smaller engines (Thomas, Toby, etc.) and tender engines (Edward, James, Henry, etc.)?

[jward]

for HO scale......

i'd use a digitrax dz125 hard wired in the cab. you'd replace the circuit board already there with the decoder. just be sure you know which wires go where before you make the connections. bachmann doesn't use the same colour code for the wiring as the decoder does.

for the tender engines, i'd put the decoder in the tender, and run the wires to the motor in the engine itself. you could probably use a sound decoder in the tender.

bill & ben, i don't have them. i don't know how much room there'd be for a decoder. i know they are smaller than percy, and that was a tight fit.

note that the dz125 is a z scale decoder. you aren't going to get them smaller than that. it also has back emf, which should make the engines run even better than they do on dc. back emf functions as a sort of cruise control.

[DinoNTrains]

Cool. Thanks for the tips

[PieroRK]

With respect to the decoders, I have put in Percy, Thomas, Toby, Spencer, Bill and Ben (these are Hornby), James and Emily Bachmann 36-553 a decoder.

I have two installed in Gordon decoder. A 36-553 Bachmann and SFX064D Digitrax, all within the body of the locomotive but the speaker is installed in the tender.

In Edward I put a reference decoder DCX75 CTElektronic.

These days you'll get to a decoder Digitrax SDH164D Henry and put the speaker in the tender.

Of all the locomotives have only had to put Emily the decoder in the tender.

Otherwise they all work beautifully, best Edwuard and Percy and Gordon. Admittedly, the space for the decoder is very, very limited and this is a problem that only the manufacturer can solve. It would be a good idea to solve this issue and that today more and more digital systems and models used so you have to install decoders in our locomotives.

Greetings to all.

[7029cluncastle]

What you could do is put the speaker and decoder into a coach/wagon behind the loco (eg thomas with the speaker in annie) so you would have to permanetly couple thomas to annie and clarabel. same with toby and henrietta, percy with a rake of troublesome trucks etc etc.