HELP "DCC SOUND ON BOARD"

[bill Bagley]

The UPS man brought my new "2006" vintage 3 truck SHAY it is a beauty.
I understand it will operate from track power & produce sound.  Have yet to try it, still need to lube it etc.. Plus it is not the only thing on the plate of things to do.
I "think" I need a EZ command "control center" #44902 for it to be great / Bacmann web sight?
I am lost as to what 44902 will do, DOES SOMETHING BETTER EXIST?

Thanks  Bill
j

[jestor]

The EZ-Command DCC control system is intended to run HO/ON-30 size trains (1.5 amp capacity) . Your large scale SHAY may likely require an operating system with more power.  Run with a DC power pack, you will get all the normal sounds. About the only things you will not be able to do are ring the bell, blow the whistle, turn lights off and on,any time you want, which require using buttons on a DCC cotroller.  Actually, you will get a lot of sounds without DCC because certain sounds, such as starting and stopping whistle toots, bell ringing at start and stop, chuffing sound are all automatic and work with DC power.  And as these sound systems are made by SoundTraxx (Tsuami), they are some of the best sounds around.    There are a number of higher powered DCC systems available , but I would suggest that you run it initially on DC to enjoy all the basic sounds available. The motor control technology built into the "duel mode" decoder works in DC mode as well as DCC mode, so it should run just as well either way.  Manual volume adjustment is on the curcuit board.  There are small control boxes on the market that can be hooked up to the track to allow you to blow the whistle, ring the bell, etc. when operating with DC power supplies. You might check with SoundTrax to determine what(if any) control box works with their system.