Here is the deal. I have a PCM Big Boy that is DC in for repairs at BLI. After 2 months it seems it will be shipped back to me this coming Thursday. If it works right, I want to add sound.
As normal this is not a simple question. From what I have seen a LOK decoder and speakers will cost around $120.00. I all so have a PCM Y6-b all so at BLI with sound, it as well will back this Thursday. I may be miss, spelling or using the wrong name of the LOK decoder, but the one I talking about is the one that came in the Y6-b with sound. I do not want the BB and the Y6-b to sound the same! But, I want the sound of a mallet with the divers going in and out of sync. (spell, check) Any ideas?
I hate Rust
Ken, the BB is not a Mallet. Or, if this is one of those, "It's my railroad," things , who is to say? But I would certainly agree with David. The Tsunami is hard to beat.
Note that the Loksound sound files for my H-8 Allegheny are plain wrong. Maybe the bell is okay, I wouldn't know about that, but the whistle and chuff are awful. Don't know what they were thinking.
-Crandell
Crandall, I though Mallet and an Acidulated engine was the same thing? What makes them driffrent?
Thanks for the answers.
Ken
Ken,
Nope. I believe the Mallet was the first articulated locomotive, named after it's inventor, Anatole Mallet. (Pronounced "Mal-lay". He was Swiss by origin.)
I thought the name "Mallet" was given to a particular type of articulated but I haven't been able to verify that after a quick search.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
OK fellas, leet's use the resources available to us right here on Trains.com! According to the glossary of common railroading terms:
So far there doesn't seem to be a great deal of distinction between the two based on those definitions. IIRC, a Mallet is a compound, as stated above, where the big boys were/are simple articulated steam locos. A spotting difference is that there is a difference in the size of the cylinders between front and back.
Jerry has it. Ken, a Mallet uses steam twice. It sends simple steam directly from the boiler to the rear cylinders where it undergoes expansion. In expanding it cools somewhat (that's where the "work" comes from as applied to the piston faces). This expanded steam is routed forward in the large ducts, as on the Y-6b, to the larger front cylinders. The front cylinders are larger because the steam is "larger"....it expanded once already in the rear cylinders.
But it is still articulated...meaning the front engine swivels on its own frame.
The Big Boy is also articulated...its front engine swivels. But if you look at the two banks of cylinders, the aft and forward are the same. That is because Big Boys and Allegheny and Yellowstone engines, all articulated, are what are known as "simple" steam.
The Y-6b and other Mallets are "compound" engines because they use the steam in a differential manner twice. First in the rear, then shot forward to operate the front cylinders.
Compound = Mallet type. Simple = the others. All are articulated.
Boy I feel like I opened a can of worms with that last question? Thanks Jerry for the answer.
Now back on subject. I checked out the Tsuanmi decoder on Tonys Train World. Seems you need a speical power booster of some sorts to program the decoder? Is that because most programing tracks lack the needed power? If there is no engines on the main, could the decoder be changed with out the speical thing?
Thing I left out before, with the cost of the decoder and speakers $ will be around $120.00. I can pick up a Blue Line Big Boy with decoder for $250.00. I spoke with Scott at BLI about my messed up PCM and the Blue Line BB. Same castings and pull the same, plus the BL Big Boy does not have the smoke unit that causes so many problems.
What do you think, get new or stick with the problem child and dump more cash into it?
Time to lay some more rail at the mining company as I listen to ZZ Top, then maybe some Mozart.
Crandell, you will be getting a PM later. Time to get out the chains saw and cut up the old bench.
Cuda Ken
One more thing to remember. The Y6b are a real Mallet, and have only four chuff for one turn of the wheels. The Y6b can never go out of sync because the same steam goes thru both sylinders on the same side. The BB can however go in and out of sync.
Ivar
in Norway
Ivar, maybe PCM got it wrong ie Lok sound decoder but at slower speeds my Y6-b drivers go out of sync? Should there not be some delay from passing the steam? More than likely none of us will hear again the sound of a real Y6-b or the beloved Big Boy again.
By the welcome.
The only steam coming out, are from the two front cylinders. The steam from the two rearmost cylinders go to the two in front in isolated pipes, Therfore it will sound just like an two cylinder locomotive. Thats why an real Mallet sound different than an articulated with four high pressure cylinders.
If the steam engine is anything like the PCM diesel engines, it uses a special European DCC plug with 15 or so pins that you can get only from Factory Direct Trains and it works only with the LokSound Decoder.
It is a 8 pin.