monstermunch1982 Posted July 3, 2010 Share Posted July 3, 2010 Dear All I am looking at purchasing an N gauge Athearn EMD F45 or FP45 loco fitted with dcc & sound. Has anyone else has any experiance with these? Also I am after the loco dimensions (chassis dims if possible) as this is to go under a narrow gauge O-9 deisel loco. Are there any other N gauge sound locos on the market, Idealy I would like 4 wheel bogies rather than the 6 wheels on the F45 & FP45s Anyone help? Cheers Andy Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrian Wintle Posted July 6, 2010 Share Posted July 6, 2010 I've seen the Athearns run, but don't own one (not my era or railway). They use the Soundtraxx Tsunami decoder which is a good bit of kit. Broadway Limited/Precision Craft have done E7s and E8s (and PAs?) all of which are also large 6-axle locos. The original PCM E7s had Loksound chips, while the rest have BL chips. Both are pretty good. All of the above have turbo-diesel sounds. For a O-9 diesel you may want non-turbo sounds. I'd suggest finding a non-sound chassis that works for you and then chipping it. You should have plenty of room for one of the smaller chips (Tsunami 750 or the like) and you could probably put in a larger speaker than comes in the RTR chassis. Adrian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
monstermunch1982 Posted August 17, 2010 Author Share Posted August 17, 2010 Many thanks Adrian Have just seen your reply with been busy with work and holidays etc... I think the Tsunami 750 could be the way forward, I will have a listen to them at home later before deciding which one. Do you have any suggestions to a 4 axle bo-bo loco with bi directional lighting which would accept this sound decoder? The digitrains website makes comment to been careful to the type of loco you install them in do to the size/voltage or something along them lines, plus looking at model junction website most of the locos say dc/dcc friendly with replacement board, not sure what this means... Cheers Andy Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Barry Ten Posted August 17, 2010 RMweb Gold Share Posted August 17, 2010 The sound on the BLI E8s is quite fantastic in my opinion, but the models do suffer from well-reported pickup issues which mean the sound tends to cut out over anything less than flawless trackwork. I'd love to hear equivalent sound in a four-axle diesel like an F unit. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrian Wintle Posted August 17, 2010 Share Posted August 17, 2010 Many thanks Adrian Have just seen your reply with been busy with work and holidays etc... I think the Tsunami 750 could be the way forward, I will have a listen to them at home later before deciding which one. Do you have any suggestions to a 4 axle bo-bo loco with bi directional lighting which would accept this sound decoder? The digitrains website makes comment to been careful to the type of loco you install them in do to the size/voltage or something along them lines, plus looking at model junction website most of the locos say dc/dcc friendly with replacement board, not sure what this means... Cheers Andy I've used 750s in OO locomotives, so there should be no issue for an N-scale one. Just be sure it has some air space and ideally a chunk of metal (loco chassis will do) as a heat sink. In terms of a chassis, most of the current NA 4-axle chassis are designed with split chassis and either have light boards that sit between the chassis halves (not DCC ready) or have their lighting on the circuit board (DCC ready). You would have to hard-wire the lights in either case. The second and thrd chassis shown in http://www.visi.com/~spookshow/atlasgp79.html show these two options. Atlas, Kato, new Walthers LifeLike are probably your best options, with the actual loco determined by the dimensions you need. If you look at the rest of Spookshow's locomotive encyclopedia (which covers just about every N-scale North American loco ever produced) you can determine which chassis might be the most use to you, or you could determine whether a particular loco is useful to you if you see an Ebay listing or a fire sale price. If you know the approximate dimensions (wheelbase) you need, I can probably suggest some locos that would have the right size chassis. DCC Ready/Friendly with Replacement board is like the last chassis shown in the link above. Digitrax and others make decoders that are drop-in replacements for the circuit board. Adrian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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