There were many great layouts on display, including the New Mexico Narrow Gauge Module Club set up across the aisle from us, running HOn3! Thank you to all who have made this year of trade shows enjoyable and we are looking forward to visiting new areas next year to have the opportunity to meet many more modelers! For a list of upcoming shows for 2011, please visit our website at http://www.soundtraxx.com/shows.php.
In an effort to build on his career, he moved to Grand Junction, CO and went to work for the Southern Pacific in 1995 as a conductor and locomotive engineer. Working his way up the corporate ladder, he improved his Class 1 railroad career to a Manager of Operating Practices for the Union Pacific. In 2005, he returned to the town that he loved, Durango, accepting a job at SoundTraxx to help Steve and Nancy start up a division to manufacture finely detailed ready to run HOn3 equipment, Blackstone Models. It is his efforts and attention to detail that has helped make Blackstone Models what it is today. As his professional career brought him back to Durango, he now works part-time for the Durango and Silverton railroad. In the small amount of free time this would give most people, he somehow still finds time to play in his country-rock band, the High Rollers (http://www.highrollersband.com/), as an accomplished fiddle and banjo player.
Bachmann locomotives use only 8 functions and therefore are re-mapped accordingly. The purpose of this was to allow Bachmann E-Z Command users to have access to the sound functions since the E-Z Command has only 8 functions. As a result, some of the functions may not be set to the same as the decoder that you have installed yourself. Most of the features are present in the decoder, just not mapped to a function.
We have a page on our website that discusses Bachmann Tsunami-equipped locomotives and what changes need to be made to operate these the same way as the ones you have installed. We have also included a factory CV setting page for many of these locomotives at the bottom of the page. This will allow you to see what these default settings are for these models without having to read each CV. This will also let you know where each volume CV is set to know where to start when making adjustments.
The information about this project can be found here: http://www.blackstonemodels.com/rolling/hopper/index.php Be sure to get your advance reservations in by January 31st, 2011!
The show was a great one with many model railroads on display. We are already looking forward to next year!
This show allows all hobbies to come together to display their wares to potential dealers on Thursday and Friday and to the public on Saturday and Sunday. Hobbies included were RC cars, RC trucks, RC airplanes and helicopters, Plastic models, and many other hobbies, including rubber band guns! On hand was one of the original General Lee cars from the Dukes of Hazzard TV show.
We met many of our current dealers and were able to find a few new dealers here at the show. On Public days, we were able to meet with many of our customers in the area, and introduce our products to many hobby newcomers too! Overall, it was a good show and thanks to those who came out to see us.
Next up this year is TrainFest in Milwaukee November 12 thru the 15th. www.trainfest.com George, Jarrette, Allison and Steve, our company co-founder and president will be there too. Come by say hi and see what we have new to show. We attend this show every year and we always have a great time. There is a lot to see and do, so if you are near the area, be sure to come by and see us!
Expansion time!
Well, those who know George know he could not have only a small switching layout for too long. He has started an extension to his layout in his garage to complete a round trip for constant running. Check out this photo of the completed bench work.
This portion of the layout will represent a few vignettes of the White River Run for the Mopac. (On the Carthage and Cotter Subdivisions) Included will be Pyatt Tunnel and the Calico Bluffs near Buffalo, AK. He is looking forward to getting this part up and built. We will keep you posted on the progress here.
Programming Note:
There is a programming issue that has been brought to our attention. Users of the Digitrax Zephyr may have trouble programming CV 128, overall volume control, when using the Zephyr to program. This issue is not present when using a DT300 or 400 series throttle, only when programming using the Zephyr. We have also found that despite documentation to the contrary, it will not program a long address on the mainline. We have contacted Digitrax regarding this issue and they have in fact confirmed that there is a glitch. They have advised anyone experiencing this problem to contact them about getting this issue resolved.
Tech Tip:
Our Tech Tip this time is a programming trick that was inquired about by one of our dealers. In modern diesel locomotives like the SD70 series
or the GE Dash 9, the bell is activated when the horn is sounded. This can be done using Tsunami. First, set CV36 to a value of 12. (4 for the horn, +8 for the bell.) This will have the momentary F2 sound the horn and activate the bell sound. To control this, Press F2 and the bell will start to sound at the same time as the horn. Then when releasing F2, quickly press F1 to sustain the bell ringing during the time between horn blasts (Since F2 is a momentary function, the horn and bell will stop playing as soon as the F2 button is released). Pressing F2 again will not turn off the bell, since at that time it is already on, it will continue ringing, just like the prototypes until you turn the bell (F1) off.
the Mount Hood Model Engineers, both in the Portland, Oregon area. In the Northern California area, He was able to visit the Carquinez Model Railroad Club in Crockett (http://www.carquinezmrs.org/),
the Alameda County Central Railroad Society in Pleasanton (http://www.pleasantonmodelrr.org/)
and the East Bay Model Engineer Society at the Golden State Model Railroad Museum in Richmond (http://www.gsmrm.org/).
He was happy to be able to spend some time with these club members showing the capabilities and features of the Tsunami decoders.
During this trip, he also visited several SoundTraxx and Blackstone Models authorized dealers in the area. He was able to visit Whistlestop Trains (http://www.wsor.com/)
and The Hobbysmith (http://www.hobbysmith.com/),
both in Portland, OR, Mainline Trains in Forest Grove, OR,
Tammie’s Hobbies (http://www.tammieshobbies.com/) in Beaverton, OR
and Eugene Toy and Hobby in Eugene OR.
Stops in California included The Train Shop in Santa Clara, CA,
Tom’s Trackside Trains (http://www.tomstracksidetrains.com/) in Menlo Park, CA,
Railroad Hobbies (http://www.rrhobbies.com/) in Roseville, CA,
Bruce’s Train Shop (http://www.brucestrainshop.com/), in Sacramento, CA,
Roger’s Railroad Junction (http://www.rogersrailroadjunction.com/) in Lodi, CA,
Franciscan Hobbies (www.franciscanhobbies.com) in San Francisco, CA and Just Trains (www.just-trains.com) in Concord, CA. Just Trains was holding their annual Open House Sunday, October 3rd.
This year had a good crowd that lasted all day. There were lots of great layouts on display, including an HOn3 Blackstone Models inspired layout by Bill Iwan,
a member of the Northern California Narrow Gaugers,
a great On30 modular layout club.
This was a busy trip, but he had a good time, despite the traffic! If you live in these areas, or are just visiting, be sure to visit these fine dealers.
Upcoming Shows
This week, Nancy, Jarrette and George will be in Chicago for the International Hobby Expo (www.ihobbyexpo.com). This will be held at the Rosemont Convention Center in Rosemont, IL, near the Chicago O’Hare International Airport. If you are in the area, come by and see what we have to show.
November 12, 13, and 14th, we will be at Trainfest in Milwaukee (www.trainfest.com). Following that, we will be at the Oklahoma City Train Show, (www.okctrainshow.com) December 4th and 5th. Be sure to come by if you are in the area to see what’s new and to see some of the upcoming releases from Blackstone Models!
Tech Tip:
ch There seems to be confusion as to the purpose of the Capacitor included in the Tsunami decoders. This is a 220uf capacitor that is designed as a stay-alive capacitor for the processor. Older SoundTraxx decoders had a 33uf bi-directional capacitor included to hook up in line with the speakers. This was a noise filter and is no longer necessary with the Tsunami line of decoders. Lets look at how it works.
At any point in time, the locomotive is picking up power from one wheel on each rail, no matter how many wheels it has.
Electricity follows the shortest path of least resistance, which will be one wheel on each rail. As the locomotive is moving, this point of contact with the rail is broken and needs to be re-established quickly, which it does, but for that moment, the decoder is without power. The capacitor supplies the processor with power until another reliable path of electricity is found. This window is only milliseconds long, but with a sound decoder, even this is enough to result in a constantly re-setting sound decoder, similar to plugging in and unplugging a computer. With a non-sound decoder, this takes place so fast that we never see any interruption of power, but with sound, we would hear the loss of power.
We have selected a 220uf capacitor because on a well-wired layout, these interruptions of power will only last ¼ second to ½ second. This capacitor is more than enough to handle this amount of time. If you are still experiencing losses of power causing interruption of operation, you can increase the capacitance to help lengthen the amount of time that the processor will be powered over dead track. Remember, as capacitance increases, so to does the physical size of the capacitor, which may be a tight fit into small locomotives. You can use as large a capacitor as you can fit, but we do recommend keeping it less than 1000uf. If the capacitance of multiple locomotives gets too high, this could cause the DCC system to detect a short circuit upon startup due to the inrush current caused by multiple capacitors charging at the same time. Most installations will not need this, however, if the locomotive’s track power pickups are insuffecient (not enough wheels are picking up power), this could help overcome these issues.
We were proud to show the newest pre-production samples of the C-19s, and decorated samples of the passenger coach and the tank cars. These were well received and whet the appetites of many HOn3 modelers! You can view these samples on our website, http://www.blackstonemodels.com/rolling/passengercoach/index.php and http://www.blackstonemodels.com/new/tankcar/index.php.
The layout hosts were very hospitable and we saw some fabulous layouts. In particular, we’d like to thank Jeff Boock, Eric Brooman, Chuck Graham, John Kalin, Herb Koening, Randy Meyers and Ron Schlueter- Your layouts were truly inspirational! 
Nearly all featured our Tsunami sound decoders and we even found one using our SoundTraxx S220-IR Steam layout sound system! We will post some photos at in a future post.
If you are in the area, please stop by- this is an awesome store with a wonderful selection of items for all hobbies. It truly brought back childhood memories for all of us!
(http://www.hobbysmith.com/) at 4:00pm and at the Columbia Gorge Model Railroad club
(http://www.cgmrc.com/) at 6:00pm, on Tuesday, September 28th. Traveling to the San Francisco Bay Area Wednesday, he will be doing public clinics at Bruce’s Train Shop along with the 26th Street Model Engineers (http://www.26thstmodelengineers.org/) in Sacramento, CA at Noon on Friday, October 1st and at Roger’s Railroad Junction in Lodi on Saturday, Oct 2nd at 10:30am. If you are in the area and can attend, we would love to have you! We are planning on visiting our dealers in the area as well, along with several clubs including the Carquinez Model Railroad Society (http://www.carquinezmrs.org/) Thursday evening at 7:00pm and the Alameda County Central Railroad Society (http://www.pleasantonmodelrr.org/) on Friday evening at 6:00pm. On Sunday, Oct 3rd, we will be displaying at the Open House for Just Trains (http://www.just-trains.com/) in Concord, CA. Please come by and say hello and see what’s new!
they now offer installation services for both brass and mass-produced plastic models. Give them a call and support them in their efforts to better support you! 
the Eureka and Palisades #4, a 4-4-0 and the RGS Galloping Goose #5 all were here running special trips throughout the Animas Canyon. One of the highlights of this year’s festivities was the Parade of Trains through Durango, featuring a train arriving at the depot about every 10 minutes, finally posing for a special photo shoot with some of the everyday D&S equipment! 
This kicked off the Railfest Banquet held in the Railroad Museum. This annual event seems to get better every year. If you are looking for a great railroad vacation, Railfest is hard to beat!
For those who were not able to attend, watch here for more clinic schedules and locations. We are looking to plan a few more around the country!
This way, you can have a multi-unit consist that has each decoder is using the same set of CVs for controlling the lights and motor, including the popular F11 braking! No more will you have to look through many manuals to figure out how to get different decoder-equipped locos to run together smoothly. 
and diesel decoders are preloaded with 16 air horns to choose from. 
Prototype locomotives carried many different whistles based on the railroad or region of the country, or even different class of locomotives! Diesels became more “standardized” with the railroad selecting the air horn of choice for all locomotive models.
Each Tsunami decoder has a card enclosed in the packaging that denotes which whistles and air horns are selectable on the decoder. By reading the chart, you can determine the values to program into CV115 to select each air horn and whistle type. For example, on the EMD 567 diesel decoder, CV 115 should be set to a value of 3 of you want to hear a Leslie A200. 
On the Southern Steam decoder, set CV 115 to 2 if you want to hear the Norfolk & Western #1218 whistle.Using CV115, you can select a whistle 
or air horn that you like the sound of. After all, this is your railroad. By using the many choices available, doing a small bit of research on your prototypes can make for a more prototypically accurate running experience.
Blackstone Models
We also have passed the deadline for guaranteed reservations on the narrow frame and frameless tank cars. We have very limited quantities available, so be sure you have ordered yours to guarantee you receive these quality models.
that cools these resistor grids to prevent thermal damage to them.
The locomotive in question, when coupled to a few locomotives that did have dynamic brakes, would drop to idle to save fuel, but there were no fans, so set CV116 accordingly and set CV 133, Dynamic Brake fan volume, to 0. This way, when in a consist, this locomotive will behave properly in accordance with the prototype, and there will be no Dynamic Brake fan sound! This feature found only in Tsunami helps create the realism we are all striving to achieve on our layouts!