I will share my experience.
I bought a N&W J 611 set for my wife. She wanted sound so I installed a Tsunami sound decoder. I tested it on the floor at home with the track that came with the set and a Bachmann EZDCC controller. Everything worked well and we took it to my club to run. The train ran fine with the 3 cars that came with it. Over the course of a month or two she purchased three more passenger cars to go with the set. We took it to the club and the train would barely move, even stalled on the large sweeping curves. No grinding or stripping gear noises. I really thought the drive gear was slipping on the motor shaft. Brought it home and I decided to run it one more time with the track on the floor, it ran fine? Took it back to the club and same problem, it would barely move. We started to investigate further, the club uses Digitrax on the layout. We finally discovered that someone had set the power supply voltage to 12 volt output instead of 14 volt output. We switched it back to 14 volt and the locomotive ran fine. The Bachmann power supply puts out 16 volts. Either the locomotive, decoder, or both wanted more power to operate.
I hope this helps someone troubleshoot. I have some WOW Sound decoders but have not tried them at lower voltage to see the effect. I also have an N scale Challenger with factory Tsunami and it also did not run well at the 12 volt input.

Barry

The manual is available on the Soundtraxx website: http://www.soundtraxx.com/factory/OEM_pages/bachmann/bachmann_n_284berkshire_sv.pdf

I know on other Soundtraxx decoders there is an option for the sound to start when speed step 1 is selected instead of when track is powered. I do not know if this is available on this decoder or what the CV may be. I use JMRI Decoder Pro for my programming and it is an option on one of the pages. I have not done any Sound Value decoders for anyone.

Barry

I will give a thumbs up on the ECO-100 as well. I used a 13mm speaker I had laying around but may upgrade to a 15mm, that is the mount size inside the tender.

N-gager,

Depending on what interface you are using for the Decoder Pro, you will probably have trouble with the sound decoders. I am using a Digitrax PR3 and it will not read most sound decoders with out putting extra power to it. I use a 16 volt power supply and haven't blown it up yet. Most interfaces recommend a power booster for sound decoder programming. I did find out I could write to the decoder without the extra power, just couldn't read the decoder. These are what you want to adjust:
66 Forward Trim 128
67-94 Speed Table Varies
95 Reverse Trim 128

Enable the speed table and then adjust the trim, 128 is in the middle. Higher up to 255 will increase the overall speed and below 128 will decrease.
To my knowledge there are no adjustments for the ez-command decoders other than setting the start voltage to 0, the default is 10.

Barry

It was a really neat layout. I took several pictures of some of the modules. It was a pretty neat show.

Barry

If  those are older Life-Like E8's, they have lead weights front and rear.

Barry

The only time we had trouble with my wife's 611 was when the track voltage was set too low. We ran the locomotive at our club layout for the first time with no problems. Went back another time with three more passenger cars for a total of six and the train would barely move. Acted like the gear was slipping on the motor shaft or something. Brought it home and set up the snap track and Bachmann controller and the train ran fine. Took it back to the club a couple of weeks later and had the same problem. A little investigation and we found someone had set the power supply to N scale = 12 volts input. Switched it back to HO scale = 15 volts and everything was fine. The Bachmann power supplies are 16 volts. This was on a Digitrax system.

Barry

Cool, I am thinking about going to that show.

Missouri Pacific offerings for N scale are pretty slim. Your best bet is eBay or a train show. I bought a set a couple of years ago. It may have been offered by ConCor but it is a Life Like E8 with three passenger cars. I think some other manufacturers, maybe BLI, have made some locomotives in recent years.

I think it is a 1/2 inch speaker, not sure without taking mine apart. Soundtraxx has those as well. If it is too big around like the one in the article, the same frame modifications would have to be done.

I am not sure what the MRC part number is but since this article was written there is another option that came out recently. The Soundtraxx Econami steam, it has the proper 611 whistle as an option. That is what I am planning on using.

Make sure all the wheels that are supposed to pick up power are connected. I was having problems with another brand locomotive cutting out also. I kept thinking "this thing has 12 wheels to pickup power, why would it find a dead spot?" I finally did a continuity check with a meter and found one side of the front truck was not connected. Once I fixed that, it should work better.

Try CV2=0, it is factory set at 10.

Digitrax and I think MRC offer a sound only decoder. I have not tried them so don't know how well they work or sound. Also, there may not be room for two decoders and a speaker in a N scale tender.

No worries using Decoder Pro with the Bachmann decoders. Just let the program do a decoder search. It should come up with the Bachmann family of decoders. I have seen a choice of 2 function or 4 function decoder. I don't know what uses the 4 function, I have only seen 2 function. There may be an option for a 3 function that I believe the EM-1 uses. There are not a lot of options available to adjust, mostly address, start voltage, and maybe lighting intensity. I have programmed mine and several club members Bachmann locomotives using JMRI.
Just a note, if you find the locomotive is slow to start and has low top speed, check the start voltage setting. I have found some have a start voltage set at 10. I change it to 0 and the locomotives responds a lot better.