Hi folks. Well, I just couldn't resist. I tore out the stuff in the Bachmann Berk's tender, and replaced it all with an ESU LokSound and a Knowles Dumbo speaker. While I still like the Tsunami's basic sound better than the ESU Heavy Steam file, the engine runs more smoothly with the ESU and the bigger speaker makes a huge difference in the sound. See what you think: [video=youtube;cg524UIXwVU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cg524UIXwVU[/video] John C.
John, WOW!!! That last horn blast echoes! Wow! I have always liked the loksound, and will definitely have to use that speaker/soundbox arrangement the larger tenders afford. It echoed!
John, That sounds much better, to me, than the 750 and the engine is much smoother running. BTW, the light weathering added to the loco as well. I have a Dumbo made up to put in my GS-4 but may put it into my FEF that I am installing an ESU decoder into. Can't decide if the Fox unit will be good enough. Great work, John. Carl
Hi Carl. The Fox won't be as good - there is a huge performance improvement from the Fox to the Dumbo (or now, the Grand). I used an elongated enclosure that took up most of the space under the coal load, and it just is night-and-day better than the 15mm round speaker Bachmann uses. The Fox was better than the Bachmann speaker, but not nearly as good as this. John
Well it sure sounds better, but it doesn't seem to run much better than my stock one. IMO to get them to run better one would have to go to a much better motor. Back in 1970 I visited a n scale layout that was all steam, all his locos used coreless motors/gear heads and PFM sound, the PFM unit was in a boxcar behind the loco. Best running n-scale steam locos I have ever seen. This got me into n-scale. I haven't done one because I'm not much into steam, only own 4 steam locos.
Thanks JD, I wondered how long you could be happy with the original decoder. It is a great locomotive and I love it but it can be so much more as you have proven. Harold
The "half-Tsunami" that Bachmann uses is really not much of a sound decoder and even less of a motor decoder. I'll end up converting my other two to the LokSound as well. The aggravating part of this is that if Bachmann had just sold the engine without a decoder at all, I could have upgraded to sound/DCC without paying for it twice. Ah well. Life goes on. John C.
Wow, John! That is very impressive. I watched a couple of your other videos, too. The sound of the FEF is sweet as well!
Seltech can provide the Dumbo speaker from Knowles. Contact us if interested - davin.moorman@seltech-international.com
