been a N&W fan since hearing O WInston Link's recordings since a kid. I've wanted to build a layout that reflected the N&W workings, track planned thru the years built this n that, but years ago you just couldn't get that full affect of the line, but today with DCC and sound all that dramatically adds into the model railroading experience.
But getting there is trippy.
I have 3 Y6b rivarrossi's, ran them some, slowgeared one so it crawls like a snail, put constant lighting directioanl headlights in it (my own design) repainted and decaled it, weathered it, the whole bit. Even put the DC version of a sound system into it, well, no whistle but it chuffed.
BLI came on the scene and put out the Class A 2-6-6-4, I went BONKEROOS on that, I debated how I could make one from bashing Y6B;s but nowait. Buy THAT!!! I didnt own DCC yet but I BOUGHT that engine, Ran it some on test track DC only...niiiiiice. 1st DCC engine I owned, and its the QSI sound pre-MTH problems..yay.
Got the BAchmann EZDCC and tried out the sound more...yeh, reaaaal cool.
So, I wrote one day to BLI...hey, you think maybe you might make the Y6b? They responded back with positive notes...so time went, then along came PCM, a derivitive of BLI. They made it under the PCM label. WHabang cool!!
Pricey like the A, but finally I bought a non-sound unlettered off ebay.
Sooo later I order from my hobbyshop the LokSound decoder thru walthers the 2-8-8-2 one.., got it, installed it (backwards first found it after wondering why the lights wouldnt work right, then reversed the plug) and the sound... well....it was fine...but wasnt the Y6B sounds I know, the whistle was waaaaaay wrong.
SO I looked up loksound and they had the PCM Y6B sound file on the site, and I poked around seeing there were decoders available with the Y6B sounds on them, well, I decided I would buy the LokSound programmer and re-sound the engine.
Just tonite I got the courage and decided to get it all together and re-sound it, pulled out the programmer, set up a short programming track of 2 snap track pieces, installed the software, and BTW, the software came with ALL of the loksound sounds on their site. If I wanted to make my Y6B sound like a grinding DD40, I could....heh.
Program startup it has a wizard to pull you thru various things to do like modify CV's or update the sound and more.
Well I used the USB cable but there was no USB setting, so it hung so I closed out the prog and changed to the COM1 port connections.
Restarted, and came back with the wizard, but I closed that and looked at the main screen and poked around. They have a Virtual Cab that lets you activate the engine on the test track.
I clicked the RUN button. BrreeeeEEE chung chung chung my Y6b came alive, its ALIVE!!!
I looked at the screen and there were tick marks for all the function buttons, I ticked F1, the bell rand, F2, the whistle (UGH WRONG!!) and ran thru the others.
Then there was this vertical line thing, apparently this is a throttle, but the center is OFF, up is forward, down is backward, they have 128 speed steps and the lower ones to select, I select 128. move the speed bar up...WHOOSH Psshhh whhooaa waitaminute my engines gonna run off the track!!!!!! I held onto the engine till I could mouse the throttle back...nowait its BACKWARDS NOW.......mouse again to the center...ugh whew!!!
Well, after that quickie ordeal, I thought, well, I will resound the engine, copied my sound file off the floppie (it fit on the ole floppy disk) unzipped it and put it in the loksound folder, restarted the loksound prog, and went to the wizard to update the sound. Updating the sound was practically a breeze, select the com port then select the sound file, and GOOOooo, and it works it. WOw..done, now my Y6B is correctly sounded.
Moved the engine to my loop track on my brand new digitrax radio system and checked it out, yesserree, it works plumb right. yaayayyyy.
Whistle is correct and different bell. When you first power it up, it grinds some then doubletoots, nice style thing to do there. This will be a fun engine to run, you put it at speed 1, and I mean speed 1 on the 128 speed step, and it slowly starts to crawl. Just a nice job all over making this engine.
Don't use the EZDCC on this baby, you need the full real deal.
overnout.