ScaleTrains GP40s are being shipped.

[C855B]

Received the notice this afternoon. Apparently it's quite popular, and they commented to allow 3-5 days before actual shipping due to the volume.

I haven't taken inventory of decoders lately, but I do know I'm falling badly behind on installations. Somebody is going to get a big order once I determine how behind! 

What I also know is I'm out of tungsten cubes for the fuel tanks.

[robertjohndavis]

This is exciting news. Haven’t received my emails yet, but have orders in for a bunch of them. If they are as nice as the GP30’s I will be very pleased. I am hoping for another 1960’s era announcement but I expect something like a  GEVO would be likely.

[robertjohndavis]

Also seems (according to the website) the GP30 second run has been pushed to October.

[N Scale Train Boy]

Totally missed my email yesterday morning, glad I saw this thread and went to check! Very excited to see how they came out!

[N Scale Train Boy]

On a whim, I pulled up my ScaleTrains account, and looks like I have a tracking number!

[mrp]

Mine arrived today in good order.
After a quick test run, it seems to run fine and nice detail. Wheels in gauge as well. Coupler height also OK.
Don't know yet how well it pulls.

Sound is good but way too loud.
There is an enclosed instruction booklet on how to do this, but may be over my pay grade.
I don't use JMRI or have the ESU programmer, so usually so this via the NCE hammerhead throttle.


Michael Pennie

[spookshow]

I don't know what the heck this thing is supposed to be, but it fell off during my GP40's first lap around the layout -





Also, there is some sort of obstruction in the trucks that's causing the loco to get hung up in turnouts. Unfortunately, it's not immediately obvious to me just what exactly is getting stuck. Sand lines maybe?

-Mark

[peteski]

Sound is good but way too loud.
There is an enclosed instruction booklet on how to do this, but may be over my pay grade.
I don't use JMRI or have the ESU programmer, so usually so this via the NCE hammerhead throttle.


Michael Pennie

Master volume control (for all the sounds) on LokSound 5 decoders is CV63.  That should not be above anybody's pay grade.    You can write to it on the programming track or main line (to immediately hear the difference as you change it).  I would read it on programming track to see its current value then do the changes on the main line to hear what it sounds like.

If you are talking about individual sound volumes then that is a bit more involved, but not really all that difficult.
Those are indexed CVs which means they need the index CV set first.
The index register (CV32) needs to be set to "1" for access to all the individual sound slots.  The other index register (CV32) value is irrelevant.
So set 32 to "1". Its value will persist until you change it, and you now can access individual volumes of various sounds which are in the range of CV259-CV443.  You can access them just like you did with master volume CV63 and the changes will be audible if done on the main line.

[tehachapifan]

I don't know what the heck this thing is supposed to be, but it fell off during my GP40's first lap around the layout -





Also, there is some sort of obstruction in the trucks that's causing the loco to get hung up in turnouts. Unfortunately, it's not immediately obvious to me just what exactly is getting stuck. Sand lines maybe?

-Mark

On one or two of my Scaletrains SD40T-2's, a solder blob where the wires connect to the trucks was too tall and would hang up on the underframe details when the truck swiveled leading to derailments. I was able to resolve this with some really careful filing. Also, on all my ST SD40T-2's, the sand lines do indeed make contact with things as the trucks swivel, but it doesn't seem to cause any tracking problems.

[cnw780]

I don't know what the heck this thing is supposed to be, but it fell off during my GP40's first lap around the layout -




-Mark

Mark, that is the Automatic Train Stop (ATS) Shoe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intermittent_inductive_automatic_train_stop

~Tim

[cnw780]

So I just started playing with mine (CNW 5504)  and it was...weird.

The function mapping was not setup as usual.  F1 turned on the sound, not F8. The sanding sound came on automatically, I had to activate F25 to shut it off.  And my number boards (Aux6) were not mapped at all.

I downloaded the sound file from the ST website and everything there looked normal.

Very curious.

~Tim

[spookshow]

On one or two of my Scaletrains SD40T-2's, a solder blob where the wires connect to the trucks was too tall and would hang up on the underframe details when the truck swiveled leading to derailments. I was able to resolve this with some really careful filing. Also, on all my ST SD40T-2's, the sand lines do indeed make contact with things as the trucks swivel, but it doesn't seem to cause any tracking problems.

This is on absolutely straight track, so it's not an inability to pivot issue. I put together some test Unitrack on my workbench and have been sliding the locomotive back and forth through a turnout and it gets stuck every single time, requiring some real force to push it through. But I can't for the life of me figure out what's getting hung up.

Anyway, since I just got it and haven't taken the shell off or even run it very much, I think I'll just return it and try my luck with another one.

-Mark

[tehachapifan]

This is on absolutely straight track, so it's not an inability to pivot issue. I put together some test Unitrack on my workbench and have been sliding the locomotive back and forth through a turnout and it gets stuck every single time, requiring some real force to push it through. But I can't for the life of me figure out what's getting hung up.

Anyway, since I just got it and haven't taken the shell off or even run it very much, I think I'll just return it and try my luck with another one.

-Mark

That sounds like it may be a wheel gauge issue.

[wmcbride]

This is on absolutely straight track, so it's not an inability to pivot issue. I put together some test Unitrack on my workbench and have been sliding the locomotive back and forth through a turnout and it gets stuck every single time, requiring some real force to push it through. But I can't for the life of me figure out what's getting hung up.

Anyway, since I just got it and haven't taken the shell off or even run it very much, I think I'll just return it and try my luck with another one.

-Mark

Do the GP40s have holes in the bottom of the fuel tank (which makes the sound tinny)?

[N Scale Train Boy]

Got my Penn Central unit yesterday! Looks pretty good, unfortunately does have those dreaded holes in the bottom, and the volume is set to almost maximum out of the box, so that was something to fix, and my unit seems to be missing the fireman side front wind deflector/mirror, so I'll have to reach out to ST and see what can be done about that, but otherwise I'm pretty happy so far. The sound files are great, and the details are beautiful. This weekend I'll set up a loop of my T-trak modules to get it broken in and test how it really runs on something other than my 3' test track.