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How to Control a Locomotive Sound Card
Art has a question for readers:
“I guess I’m a dullard. Even with a strong technical background I haven’t figured out what I need to buy to get sound working in a NOS Aristocraft U25B Santa Fe locomotive. I’ve visited various websites – I know about different sound cards but beyond that not much. The last time I messed with model trains was when I kid and that was ages ago. I’m a newbie to G scale. What was a starter set that was just for year-end holiday decor has become a mainline RR.I have a couple of locos, several cars, track and a couple of analog power supplies. I don’t really know what’s needed to control the loco’s sound card or the costs involved. HELP!”
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Art. Basically you need a DCC type system and if that does not come with sound and it has a plug in then get the sound plug it for that engine and there you go. There are some sound systems that are just for standard DC but most are not that good. There are several brands of DCC systems and most will run a G Scale system I know DIgitrax system should. Just like the HO or N scale engines the Motor has to be isolated from the frame so all power from the wheels go to the chip. The Chip runs the motor and is wired straight to the motor from the chip. The sound is added or part of the chip. When using DCC systems the track has power on it all the time and your controller (or throttle) sends the signal through the rails to the chip and that tells the engine to what it is suppose to do to include sounds, lighting, and things that move such as a bell on top of the engine. With sound the engine will have sound that will go with it and adjust sound speeds as you speed up or slow down.
Start there and also get with a model railroad club or person near you to help you get some information. Even if they are not G scale guys they can probably help you find you someone in that scale. This is just a start and I am sure there are G scale guys that can tell you just the one system that works best for that scale. from Newman Atkinson
I am also a relative “newbie” to G-scale but before you get too deep into installing sound in a locomotive you need to determine what type of operating system you want to use. Your options for G-scale include 1) operating with plain old DC current applied to the rails; 2) radio control; or 3) Digital Command Control (DCC). Related to this is where you plan to operate your trains…
I am mainly an HO scale modeler and we have DCC on the HO scale layout we are building. The beauty of DCC is that you put a constant voltage on the track and each locomotive must have a decoder installed giving you individual control over each locomotive on the layout. The beauty of DCC is that with the control you can turn-on (or off) lights, you have control over various sounds with sound-equipped locomotives, and you can program a locomotive to operate just like the real locomotives where they take time to get up to speed and to decelerate when one turns the throttle too quickly – although this can result in some wrecks… The one drawback to DCC is the cost for the operating system. Dirty track is also an issue with DCC, regardless of scale.
I am working on a garden layout in G-scale and the choice for outside in the garden was battery-powered radio control. I believe that radio control is a little cheaper than DCC. I’ve gotten two locomotives equipped with sound and set-up for radio control and I like it. At least with the battery power I am not hurt by dirty track when I take these trains outside.
I am not at all familiar with the sound systems that work with plain-old DC track-powered control.
I would agree with the previous comment and recommend you find a club near where you live and visit with them. In the least they might be able to point you to someone that is more extensively involved in G-scale and could show you their operating system.