I guess we will soon start reading some reviews from the 'actual' owners of these models regarding the performance of the locomotive and the quality of the sound. I hope there are no bad review on these models... as the next run will have some road names I'd be interesting in.
Went online to see if anyone had posted a review on performance yet and came up short. What I would hope to see is that these have a decent slow scale speed. Something that at full throttle only gets a scale 50 or so MPH and has a nice slow speed creep. That then will make it a useful loco to me and something that I can pair up with my S-4.
Great to hear, I ordered two undec units from one of my suppliers. Would be awesome if they had them at the show this weekend.
My two Southern units arrived yesterday. They are my first ESU sound decoders. I also own a number of sound equipped BLI E8's and PA's for comparison. The sound volume is not nearly as loud and there is less bass sound. I need to wear my hearing aids to hear the sound clearly. I RTFM'd both the Atlas and ESU decoder manuals to get the basics of how the CV's were laid out. Using JMRI I adjusted some basic parameters such as accel/decel, and 3 point speed curve to get the desired momentum and speed. I also set the maximum sound volume and put the bell on slow ring. The locos worked well right out of the box and much better after my tweaks. The sound occasionally drops out at certain spots on the track but the sound picks right back up, whereas the BLI units typically rerun the locomotive start up sequence, which I find annoying. I would think that with up to 6 axles for pickup this wouldn't happen but I was wrong. The S2 otherwise track well; no complaints. The paint and detail are comparable to my other Atlas units, with which I am totally satisfied. Overall I am very pleased with my new additions and happy I spent the extra $ for sound.
Got mine yesterday ....... the quality of the Loksound decoder is without a doubt the best and loudest of any decoder I have ....... my only complaint is that I can't hear the brake squeal ........ still wringing it out
Just setting the acceleration and deceleration, and maximum top speed of about 45 mph. I use the min, mid, max for speed control. The locos run really well over the whole range.
IF...I can get one thats DCC with NO sound. IF...it runs smooth. IF...it runs at a nice and slow...(yard speed). IF...it will pull at least 10 cars. IF...there are any availiable when the funds are available. I am sure one would look perfect in Lucky Penny Yard.
I did some experiments last night. It could pull 6, 2 bay hoppers plus caboose up the 3% grade. This is similar pulling power to the VO-1000, MP-15, and NW2. The S2 has comparable critter power pulling capacity to the others. I am getting to like the Alco prime mover sound, just gotta wear the hearing aids to hear it clearly.
I am focusing on this comment because I had a custom installation of ESU LokSound in a Kato SD70ACe unit and immediately noticed by comparison with the BLI E-units the volume is much less in the SD70ACe. The horn is very faint. Based on your comment, I wonder if this is typical for ESU LokSound. I have watched YouTube video of other ESU LokSound installations that seem to have more volume, but that may just be by virtue of the speakers on my computer. I made a YouTube video of my locomotive and the result is amplification of the locomotive sound. ????
Echoing George's post with the exception of DCC. I have yet to find a performance post on the non sound DC versions. I see checking my favorite pusher of train related stuff that those versions are quickly selling out. So they are out there on some layouts somewhere. My interest again in them is whether they have the same slow speed performance comparable to the Alco S-4 since my plan is to double head at least one with the S-4. If not then I will simply spend my money on another S-4.
Someone posted this on YouTube showing a DC version pulling 14 cars on a level surface. It starts to stall halfway through the curve. [video=youtube;VR2sZ-GFF74]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VR2sZ-GFF74[/video] If mine will do this, I'll be happy!
I'm usually pretty lucky at receiving great running locos. My first EL Alco S2 arrived today, it has a pickup problem, it won't even run down clean track without the headlight blinking.
That a mess of car. I don't have enough level track so all of my tests involve grades up to 3.5% and 12" curves to define tonnage limitations.
