DCC Sound in Z

[kevsmiththai]

I know that it has been done for a while now in the U.S.A but I managed to get my MTL SD40-2 working with DCC sound in time for the LYDCC Model railway exhibition at Manchester last weekend. I had to purchase some really fine wire at the show to make things fit a bit better which involved some soldering in the hotel room on saturday night (before we went for a few beers!)

 

The sound was rather drowned out by the general noise in the hall but to be honest most of the sound layouts struggled a bit because the show was quite busy. I've still got to refit the handrails, belly tank and rear snow plough to the loco and also install working ditch lights which will be wired up with fine magnet wire,

 

 

Video of the beast in action back at the workshop can be found here

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kcF2JySgjk&list=UUI6p-eLL5zX3K226z27Josg&feature=share

 

next project is to fit DCC sound into the scratchbuilt NKP Berkshire I'm working on, I know I've been fairly quiet on that project for a while but I'm going to get it finished this summer before I start in earnest on the two new Z gauge layouts 'Tapton Junction' the Midland mainline in the 1990s which shall show the potential of doing British outline Z and 'Kurosawa' a minimum space steam era Japanese rural line to give the D51s and C62s a run out

 

Cheers

 

Kev

[Bernard]

Kev - Nice video and I also like the shirt you are wearing in it... :)

Also is that your layout?

Edited May 26, 2014 by Bernard

[kevsmiththai]

The layout is my one of my two USA outline Z layouts.

 

Shasta is based on the Sacramento River canyon near the California/Oregon border and has featured recently in Z-track magazine and Continental Modeller magazine. The other layout is called Cuyahoga and is based on the Nickel Plate Road in Cleveland in the 1950/60s. Both are showed extensively in the U.K

 

Shasta

 

Cuyahoga with a preserved 'Deltic' as a backdrop at Barrow Hill roundhouse

 

 

I also have a British outline layout Midsomer Mardy which is nearing retirement as I am planning to build a new one shortly.

 

 

 

 

Just as an update the SD40-2 with sound has undergone some changes over the course of the weekend! My plan for it was always to recreate one of the Burlington Northern 'Crawford Hill' helper engines that ran with a fuel tender.

 

 

 

 

More in a minute about the z scale version with DCC Sound

 

Kev

[kevsmiththai]

I had asked Stonysmith the designer to do me a 3d printable fuel tender which he duly did and put on the Shapeways website

 

the bits for the sound tender are seen here

 

 

painted and assembled

 

 

 

seen wired up to the loco and two GP35s. the chip in the loco and the Loksound one in the tank have the same address and work together

 

 

 

best description is on the video I posted last night on youtube

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8DD31G6GUg&list=UUI6p-eLL5zX3K226z27Josg&feature=share

 

this explains the build and once again shows the loco in action. Surprisingly the sound is better than when the speaker was in the autorack which I would have thought would have been superior due to the greater volume as a soundbox.

 

Kev