SoundBytes 7-30-12

NMRA National convention and the National Train Show are being held this week.

If you are in attendance, be sure to come by and say Hi! Jarrette will be giving clinics on Tuesday and Wednesday on prototypically using the Tsunami decoders, speed matching and consisting.  We will be there with a full staff at the show Friday, 9-12 for NMRA Members and 12-6 for the general public, Saturday 10-6 and Sunday 10-5.  More information can be found at http://www.nationaltrainshow.org/

New announcements!

A few items are ripe for announcement at the NMRA convention. Included is a new Blackstone Models passenger car three-pack “Chili Line” cars in Pullman Green. These cars, road numbers 284, 306, and 320, come with the conductor’s bay window factory installed and ready for service. These will be shipping out soon, without a traditional pre-order period.

B350112      Chili-Line Passenger 3-pack    MSRP $280

Next up is a car that was requested, and we admit, looks good. We are announcing HOn3 3-bay open top hoppers painted in a D&RGW Flying Grande scheme. These former EBT Hoppers made their way all over the country, including Durango, Chama, and did service on the White Pass as well. We took a bit of liberty and added D&RGW to the list as if they were dispersed throughout the country from the EBT a bit earlier.  This car is decorated following the paint scheme and numbering sequence of their standard gauge counterparts. These are available in only 2 road numbers, though, meaning quantities are limited. These cars are available now to ship out immediately.

B340708      D&RGW 3-bay hopper #950   MSRP $54.95

B340708W  D&RGW 3-bay hopper #950   MSRP $59.95

B340709      D&RGW 3-bay hopper #955   MSRP $54.95

B340709W  D&RGW 3-bay hopper #955   MSRP $59.95

Last for Blackstone Models is the release of the EBT hopper Vulcan truck assembly. These will be available to start shipping out immediately.

B370113 2-Bay Hopper Vulcan truck MSRP $12.95/pr

Tech Tip:
With most of the hobby’s major manufacturers now using SoundTraxx for their factory-installed sound, there are many manufacturer-specific CV defaults now. Each company is free to choose how their decoder is set up. Many of these do not match the default settings of the decoders that are purchased and installed by the modeler. We get many questions as to what are the default settings, so when making changes, the user knows where they are starting from.
On our homepage, http://www.soundtraxx.com/, down in the lower right, there is a box labeled “Quick Links”.

In this box, you will see “Factory-Installed Decoders.” Click here to be taken to the Factory-Installed page. Here each of the model manufacturers we supply are listed, Athearn, Bachmann, Bowser, Intermountain, S-Helper, Walthers and soon to be added, Rapido Trains. To find out about these specific models, click on any of the manufacturers, and this will pull up their page. Each manufacturer's page starts off with a little about the partnership we have with these companies. Scroll toward the bottom of the page, and listed by scale is each of that company’s models we have built decoders for. Click on any model to pull up its specific CV default list. These are the defaults selected by each company to more closely math their models.  These decoders do still adhere to the programming explained in the Tsunami User’s Guide for both Steam and Diesel.

Using this for each Tsunami factory-equipped model, you can achieve a standard operating scheme, or set volumes to be similar so you can have your whole fleet of locos operating to match your needs.