After looking at the Kato SP Morning Daylight threads I have been wondering how many of you are thinking about ordering, or have ordered the Con-Cor Aerotrain, and which road you would choose. HO and N AeroTrain Model I'm thinking about getting the UP "City of Las Vegas", but the SF "SanDiegan" is tempting also. So many trains, so little cash.
ConCor has been making some very unique trains over their long history. One of the problems I encounter with their products usually deals with the running quality... or lack thereof. Some products are great out of the box... while others are problamatic. According to their website, ConCor does not have a 'repair department'... they will make attempts to correct flaws with their products within 30 days of purchase. I have taken the stance of 'try-before-buy' (at an LHS) with their products.... therefore I have not pre-ordered any Aerotrain nor M10000 sets. I would probably do the Rock Island Aerotrain if my LHS has one left over. I also might want the Santa Fe San Diegan. PS: I own a Pioneer Zephyr which ran great out of the box. I pre-ordered a 'Galloping Goose' which was 'okay' foregiving of some of its acceptable shortcomings. I am not saying that ConCor products are bad... but... I prefer to run them first before committing large sums of money to a product. I purchased a ConCor GS-4 (4-8-4) engine which does not run particularly well... I did NOT 'try-before-buy' on that one. Its pretty much 'buyer beware' when purchasing most items sight unseen... its one of the risks of pre-ordering. ConCor is not the only manufacturer which has had issues with their products. I'm becoming more sensitive to certain types of products and certain manufacturers when deciding to pre-order.
I have only heard praise about the Zephyr . I have both , the UP Aerotrain , and the M10000 on reserve , and all the extra cars as well .
I love my Zephyr... and this time I'm talking about the Con-Cor, not the Digitrax. Now should I buy that 4th car or not??? Richie; Did you put a sound controller in your Zephyr. If so, what controller and what sound set are you using?
If they used the same mechanical 'architecture' from the Pioneer Zephyr, I would imagine that the AeroTrain and M10000 will run very well. Still... I have my 'reservations' about reserving ConCor items.
I never said I boughr a Zephyr , and I don't dance the DCC . All I have heard about the Zephyr was good news .
Does either ESU LokSound, QSI/Quantum, Soundtraxx/Tsunami or MRC/Brilliance have decoders which will drop into the 10 pin DCC receptor in the Pioneer Zephyr? Also... do any of them have a sound track for the Pioneer Zephyr? It would sound strange to have a chuffing sound or a typical Alco diesel sound eminating from the Pioneer Zephyr.
I would very much like to have one in GM demonstrator colors, if finances permit. But I'm also not a big fan of Con-Cor. I think they're overpriced for the quality.
Zephyr DCC Connector is Actually 8 Pin I know the Con-Cor web site says its a 10 pin connector... I don't know if they did something weird in the HO model... but the N Scale uses an MNRA standard 8 pin connector. I couldn't afford the sound decoder at the time, so I put in a Digitrax DZ123PS. I think all the manufacturers you mentioned make 8 pin sound decoders. The harness reaches from the loco to the 2nd car. The under-carriage of the 2nd car is vented at the rear of the car for a speaker to mount there. The documentation gives the phone number to call SoundTraxx (1-970-259-0690) to ask what decoder they recommend. They also give the numbers for NCE (1-585-671-7478) and Digitrax (1-770-441-7992). Best!
There is a Pioneer Zephyr project file on the Loksound Yahoo group. Supposedly, Tony's will program the ESU Loksound decoder of your choice with this file if you request it. (probably, any dealer with the programmer would do this) Keep in mind, it is a "project", but of course you can always reprogram an ESU decoder if it doesn't suit you. I have not tried it yet although I intend to when I get time/money.
I thought it sounded strange... I ran the 3 car set as it was developed in DC mode, and never really thought about putting a sound decoder in the thing. I was disappointed in the sound quality of the PCM E7 and figured I would not bother looking into a sound module for the Zephyr. The Athearn Challenger renewed some interest in sound though... actually made me rethink the possibilities of sound in N scale. Until you brought up the sound issue for the Zephyr... I didn't know if it really could be done. The ConCor website didn't appear to be correct... but, I wasn't going to claim that it was wrong. I looked at ESU LokSound and found Six Pin connectors for their 'micro' sound units... so... I wasn't sure if 10 was impossible. Eight Pin connectors seem to the the 'industry' standard for DCC. I'm interested in finding out more about the sound units for the Zephyr... I'll have to read the documentation to get a better idea of what can be done now that I've moved towards DCC.
I'm in for the City of Las Vegas (Basic set + 2 add-ons). I own a Pioneer Zephyr and it is EXCELLENT!
Too pricey for now - I would grab one up if I could get a better deal on the price. I like this doggone thing for some reason. Never actually saw one of these - kind of reminds me of when I was a kid and my dad came home from work early one afternoon - he came home to get me because the United Aircraft TurboTrain had broken down near where he worked. We got to go aboard and the Conductor gave me some flyers on the train. It was advertised to go 170 miles per hour - but it was dead stopped because apparently the air intakes gut clogged up by the fuzzy white seeds that came off some kind of trees or bushes along side the tracks... I have the flyer that they gave me right here - man, what a thrill it was to see this marvel as a kid. I always thought of the TurboTrain as a more serious offspring of the GM AeroTrain. And wouldn't you know it - we didn't even think to take a camera with us when we saw it! Wish I could find some movies of the TurboTrain - it made a wonderful sound when it fired up - it had Pratt & Whitney Aircraft ST6 Turbine Engines! Now that is a model I would dearly love to have - with sound!
A DCC book (which I can't find at the moment) lists three NMRA standard connectors for various scales. The 8 pin connector (two rows of 4 pins) is listed as the standard for N scale. And yes... I typoed MNRA in my prior post. How embarrassing to find it out on Google.:tb-sad:
