It only solves sound quality issues at higher volumes. It doesn't allow adjusting of all the other individual CVs, for the various sounds.  To do that you need some device capable of actually changing the cv volumes to suit.

I myself like using the programming on the main option in a DCC system like NCE wireless pro cab that I've been using for about 15 years now. You can actually raise the whistle up and down while the engine is running, to see how well it realistically covers up all the other sounds.  Some of the old soundtraxx sound-on-board products that were factory installed in. Bachmann engines had very anemic whistles. According to my friend who works out there, Tsunami2-2 has a much better amplifier and you can't turn the whistles up all the way without distortion. After programming a few engines with tsunami 2–2, you start learning the limitations.

Lets you keep the basic EZ command. But. After getting a more advanced wireless DCC system, there is no going back to the EZ command. I gave it to a kid who was just getting started in model railroading.

Still ..... QSI is gone, and any decoder made today will far surpass any of those early sound units.

😂😂😂

And QSI is no longer in business.  Today's decoders are astronomically better anyway. My personal preference is Soundtraxx, at the moment, Bachmann appears to prefer TCS decoders.

One thing that I do not like about the Alco 2-6-0 is the tender. With those goofy excessively high coal boards, it is too idiosyncratic to look like any  other Railroad beyond the odd little short line engine that Bachmann decided to replicate instead of a more common type.  Bachmann used to sell separate tenders, including the one presently behind the low-boiler 10 wheeler.  That particular tender would really help that mogul resemble other engines.

The other thing is the puny headlight. The N scale model looks infinitely better with a larger headlight on it. But, on this model, Bachmann finally got the headlight bright enough to be a headlight, in comparison to the terribly dim headlights in their  earlier spectrum engines, especially the consolidation.

I too would be thrilled with an eight driver frame under the present Alco  2-6–0. It would begin to bear a great resemblance to the Mississippian #77 that I saw running up in Mississippi in 1964, or even more meaningfully to me, one of the little Missouri Pacific ex-Frisco 1001 class 2–8–0's that I saw running in my hometown in the MP last year of steam. I've actually quite often thought of such a job, but you are much braver than I.

My old layout tries to capture the aura of the old Missouri Pacific branch back home now long gone, passing through low, lying, wetland, woods and agricultural country.

That must be very old technology. It sounds like a very complex way to change CVs. I've always programmed on the main with my N C E procab or on a programming track with the pro cab if I needed to do a bunch at once.

Didn't we talk about this before in the old forum?  I agree totally and also have ideas about suitable prototypes.

Short line modeling is a concept that usually takes some tenure in model railroading to understand.  It's so much better and realistic in limited space than trying to squeeze a Big Boy into a phone booth.   I was lucky,  grew up in a time and place that had two branchlines that ran this very type small steam engine, I saw them in every day service.  So I tried early on as a model railroader to recreate these places, and I am still at it. After almost 60 years, I'm still building the same Model Railroad.  These vintage style branch and short lines basically don't exist anymore in their old form, and live on in the memory of people like me.

That railroad sounds like a very complicated and intense way to have fun. 

I have the opposite mentality.... Slow speed easy going steam powered 1940 era local freights on a loose schedule if any, maximum speed 15 scale mph, minimal paperwork if any.

I always think of the long gone Reader Railroad in southwest Arkansas... "The Possum Trot Line."😂

I'm retired.  My work life was too long and too involved, intense and responsible to do any other kind of railroading.

I never have to worry about breaking a coupler.😂😎

You need a DCC system that allows you to change cv's of the sound volumes.  EZ Command is not advanced enough to do this. 

In the attachment, See cv's 138-132.  And note that Cv 134, blower, and 136,steam release,  although not shown, are present too.

https://soundtraxx.com/content/Reference/Factory-Installed/Bachmann/SoundValue/bachmann_ho_284berkshire_sv.pdf

The sounds are not well balanced at default.  Set 128 master volume at 255, the maximum.  Then set 129, whistle, as loud as it can go without distorting.  Set the chuff, 131, as loud as it can go but still be covered up by the whistle.  Bell 130, the same.  Steam release, set at maximum 255.  Blower ok as is.

Try these and report.

There was a Bachmann spectrum 2-10–2 lettered for the Texas and Pacific on eBay a couple of days ago. Despite missing the pilot and looking like it took a nosedive off the layout, it went very fast.

I don't remember ever seeing this as a road name offered by Bachmann. Does anyone know if this actually was a stock road name way, way back in the Spectrum Jurassic?  If another one appears on eBay, I would know if it was a home repaint or not. I stay away from home repaints and decal jobs on eBay. You can't tell enough from the photos how bad the work probably is, but hardly anyone knows how to do decals right and you can always see the film edges.

Nevertheless, I am very interested in any Texas and Pacific steam locomotive that might appear on eBay, if it's not brass.

Who did you try to call? The Bachmann Service center?

I'm afraid that if you bought a train set without knowledge of what was or wasn't in it, you won't be able to trade it in for something else.  Train sets are not automobiles. Once you open the package, they have near- zero resale value at all.

Not much to go on, my friend . 

Look for a brand name stamped somewhere. Post photos if you knew how. Describe the locomotive. Steam or diesel. Wheel arrangement if you know how to figure it out. Describe each car. Describe scale, O, HO or whatever.  Measure and approximate height of a car. That will tell us enough to get an idea of which scale the trade is. Two rail or three rail track?

Photos for the best way to help you. But you can't just post them in this forum. You have to use a photo sharing app like Photobucket or something like that.

We want to help, but there's not enough right now to figure anything out

You could just connect your cars with drawbars too.  Or dummy scale couplers from the Jurassic before any kind of operating coupler had been invented, and no one switched at all. These would look really good, not break apart, but be separable for transporting the trains to, and from the exhibit