New Athearn Big Boy (video)

[jdcolombo]

A short video of my new Athearn Big Boy, which got lost somewhere in Ohio and ended up on the NKP . . .

Not a valid youtube URL
I made several adjustments.  The sound out of the box is pretty "thin" - undoubtedly due to the small 15mm speaker.  Set equalizer as follows:
CV153 - set at 7 (sets user mode on the EQ)
CV 154-155 - set at 0 (these are the low bass and bass bands, which this speaker can't reproduce anyway)
CV 156-158 - set at 230 (bumping up the low midrange and midrange)
CV 159-160 - left at factory 128.

The EQ settings help a lot, but I may put a bigger speaker in at some point.

CV 112 is set at 61 to enable the double chuffs to slowly go in and out of sync.
CV 116 set to 120 to better match chuffs to driver rotation.   Not perfect, but a whole lot better than what it was out of the box.
Bell volume, exhaust volume, dynamo volume all turned way down.  Left whistle volume alone.

Used Bruce Petrarca's procedure for optimizing motor control; the engine had just a bit of a hitch at very low speed out of the box, but this cured most of it, and it's gotten better with a bit of running, as well.

Will need a bit more tweaking, but overall this is a very, very nice locomotive.  Bought it mostly for our N-Trak shows, but I'm going to invent a story on why it showed up on the NKP in 1957 . . .

John C.

[gpumph]

Very nice model!  My wife would run me out of the house if I ordered one of those beauties....

[up1950s]

Makes me wonder if N scale steam sound would better be served out of the boiler . My idea , maybe others before me , is that the base of the chuffs and whistle are beyond the capabilities of on-board N Scale circuits and or speakers . So say the loco driver RPM and drawn amps , along with whistle  info was xmited via radio signal to a control panel Receiver where it is then sent to an Audio Module . That module can be loaded with different prototype loco exhaust sounds and steam whistle sounds , such as Big Boy , Class A , etc . From the mods output the speaker or speakers are attached . That's the basic contraption . Loco sounds could be added at cost , or downloaded maybe .

Enhancements to it would be such things as real time fading of speakers to sync with layout location of the loco which would require about eight speakers or more .

[Zox]

Makes me wonder if N scale steam sound would better be served out of the boiler .

At the Timonium show last weekend, MARRS was exhibiting HO scale, and one of our members had a sound-equipped HO Big Boy running. To me, all the "locomotive sounds" were quite obviously coming from behind the locomotive, which I found quite disconcerting. It was a tender-mounted speaker, of course.

The actual (as opposed to scale) distance between stack/cylinders and tender is smaller in N scale--is this enough to avoid the localization issue, or does the sound still noticeably come from the wrong place?

[unittraincoal]

So does the new version come with a remote for DC operation? 

[jdcolombo]

Makes me wonder if N scale steam sound would better be served out of the boiler . My idea , maybe others before me , is that the base of the chuffs and whistle are beyond the capabilities of on-board N Scale circuits and or speakers . So say the loco driver RPM and drawn amps , along with whistle  info was xmited via radio signal to a control panel Receiver where it is then sent to an Audio Module . That module can be loaded with different prototype loco exhaust sounds and steam whistle sounds , such as Big Boy , Class A , etc . From the mods output the speaker or speakers are attached . That's the basic contraption . Loco sounds could be added at cost , or downloaded maybe .

Enhancements to it would be such things as real time fading of speakers to sync with layout location of the loco which would require about eight speakers or more .

This is essentially what the SurroundTraxx system does.  It does require a loco with transponding capability so the system can keep track of where the engine is on the layout.  If I didn't already have sound installed in 20 steam locos, I'd probably go this route, and might do it anyway for diesel sound on the layout.

John C.

[jdcolombo]

So does the new version come with a remote for DC operation?

No remote.  The Tsunami can run on DC, but I don't know what sound features are included in DC operation.

John C.

[strummer]

Very nice model!  My wife would run me out of the house if I ordered one of those beauties....

Me,too!

Nice looking layout as well...

Mark in Oregon

[Philip H]

NIce video.  These big boys ALMOST make me want to model the UP steam facilities in Laramie, WY.  ALMOST.

[Nato]

                          I can tell you what functions are available in DC since my Layout is DC ,but I will run it in DCC on club layout at shows. My locomotive 4014 brand new on DC had to have the throttle cranked up full and then it was running at a very slow speed. After about 5 Minutes of run time it was doing almost fast train speed with a full throttle and I could then back off and had a normal speed range. On starting you get a bit of locomotive pump noises then when speed increases a starting whistle ,then Chuffing (Chugging) which increases with speed or decreases when slowing. When stopping you hear squealing brakes being applied. When backing up you get a short bell ring sequence, whistle,  then Chugging begins. Occasionally at slow speed there is a glitch, once the bell sound stuck on, once I received a bell sound before moving forward. These are all the sound effects that are available in DC which is a bit more than I expected (only chugging) . The instructions that come with the locomotive are the same for the Sound Trax on the FP45/F45 diesels, adjusting (changing) the horn type and that the diesel sound increases with speed are a give away. The exploded parts diagrams with part numbers are nice till you read that parts are available for replacement under Warranty. I do miss the little voice calling out "All A Board". Naw, just kidding. Nate Goodman (Nato).  Nice layout in the movie, by the way.