IM Southern Pacific Cab Forward sound is right on

[Nato]

           Recived my two Intermountain SP Cab Forwards  an AC 10 and an AC 8. I have a video "Last Run of a Cab Forward". Thsi shows the last run with an AC 12 over Donner,copied from16MM Sound Film. The first time I viewed this I was impressed by the unique way these locomotives sounded. When at rest the air pump (pumps?) would make a distinctive weezing sound every minute or so. When the locomotive was running (chuffing) chugging the pump weez continued over the sound of the locomotive chuffs. So I put my AC 10 locomotive on the tracks,my layout is DC so I knew it would take longer to start up and that I would only have chug sounds the other features I can only access in DCC on club layout. Turned up throttle,a bit of clicking like morse code ,speaker crakel,then I heard what sounded like gears spinning at high speed,untill my brain functions kicked in and I realized it was the air pump weez. When the locomotive started up and moved this weez was clearly audible over the chuffing at certain points in time. Wow! Very impressive.                                                            My AC 10 locomotive has the prewar black cab front and no roadname on the tender just dada marking in white.The AC 8 has the prewar black cab front,white running board striping and small"SOUTHERN PACIFIC LINES" on the tender. The plow-type pilot on my AC 8 sits just a scosh too low and it catches on track where sections are joined together.At first I thought it was just a low trip pin on front coupler. I will have to compair this loco with the AC 10 to see if the pilot can be removed and re attached,or gentil filing of the bottom edge of the pilot will fix the problem. Otherwise these are really nice locomotives. Nate Goodman (Nato).

[Flagler]

mine is in the mail.......cant wait

[Flagler]

I got mine today, I dont think fillling will help with snow plow catching.the clearence is more then enough unless the front of the cab
is forced down to the point of sliding on any rail.It just happens to catch if the rail ends are off by any amount.

[peteski]

I got mine today, I dont think fillling will help with snow plow catching.the clearence is more then enough unless the front of the cab
is forced down to the point of sliding on any rail.It just happens to catch if the rail ends are off by any amount.

I'm scratching my head trying to figure out what you just wrote.  Especially, what does "if the rail ends are off by any amount" mean?  Off of what? What ends?

Nate's model had its plow hitting the rails (where I assume none of his other locomotives do). If not filing the plow, what do you propose to do to fix the problem with that specific loco?

[Flagler]

I call the end of the rail for a piece of sectional track a rail end each piece has 4 of them.   UNITRACK

[SkipGear]

The pilot is very low on mine also. It is a problem with unitrak because the unijoiner is not the best at keeping verticle play out of the joint between track sections. I have one place with a slight dip that exasterbates the problem and it will catch on the rail joint in that area every once in a while. The pilot being low is not the only cause though. On perfectly leve track, the pilot is an acceptable height above the rail, low but acceptable. The length of the locomotive and the front overhang makes it very sensitive to verticle curves in the track.

As far as the sound effects....all the sounds are there but the chuffs are not set up correctly. Mine chuffs half of what it should. I haven't set down to program it yet and fix it. Every rotation of the drivers should result in 8 chuffs, mine only does 4. The only time you would hear 4 chuffs per revolution would be if the engines were in perfect sync with each other. I'm sure they programmed it that way on purpose because at speed, 8 chuffs per revolution creates quite a racket and the slower chuff rate is more pleasing to the ear, correct or not.

[Flagler]

That I was I found out as far the snow plow also.The front Pilot whels are very sensitve and picky when tracking over any dip in track work.I just spent two hours shimming areas were it was derailing do to a dip.That takes care of the right hand side of my double main
line.I will work on the left hand side latter today.I also wnt around and worked on uneven rail ends on the unitrack.This engine will require better track work.How many pick up points does this engine have when it comes factory DCC/sound installed? I think I will start a thread about  general questions about this engine.

[Flagler]

Hi Nato,have you turned the maste volume up or down yet,I us e a Digitrax sysyem how about you?

[Nato]

      Flager,my home layout is DC CVP Radio Wireless throttles so I cannot adjust. I have a NCE Wirless throttle that I use when running on the Wasatch N Scale WNS layout at shows as the club uses NCE or DC CVP wirless. I will be making adjustments at the next train show on club layout.Nate Goodman (Nato).