New Soundtraxx Tsunami "Soundcar" Decoder

To All:

At the National Train Show in Cleveland Soundtraxx unveiled their new "Soundcar" Tsumani decoder. The intent of this decoder is to realistically replicate railcar sounds, such as the clickety-clack, flange squeal, flat spots, generator, brake cylinders, and glad hand release. It also includes a selection of user-adjustable horns, bells and whistles for cab cars and cabooses. For even more realism, the decoder has four Hyperlight lighting outputs for interior and exterior lights.

I immediately had our expert Master Decoder Installer Keith Robinson order me one and sent him my brass Overland Orange & White Caboose #1260 for installation. The car is making its maiden run on Rick McClellan's Frisco Northern Division as I write this. We chose not to try and light the red direction lights as they were quite small and in a location that would be a tricky fit.

One other neat feature of the decoder is a new "Intelligent Consisting" option that allows the car or cars to be consisted with the locomotives so that when the speed is either increased or decreased the sound features of the decoder will respond accordingly. Other options include replicating flat spots and a choice of 4 or 6 wheel trucks on the cars. Since this one is installed in a caboose the Hancock Air Whistle will be a welcome grade crossing addition on my River City RR.

Another feature of the “Intelligent Consisting” is the ability to turn the sound on and off by waving a magnet over the top of that particular car. For example, if a train pulls into a town and cuts off a car or caboose while performing switching, one can mute its sound.

Soundtraxx intentionally made a couple of decisions including the lack of reverb and the use of Teflon wires vs. the ones they regularly use to try and keep the cost down. Keith did verify that this did make these wires harder to strip. Part of the rationale in this decision is that for maximum effect they recommend putting one of them in about every 5[SUP]th [/SUP]car in a train. The MSRP for the decoder is $42.50 or $112.95 for a 3-pack. Soundtraxx also recommends using one of their “Currentkeepers” decoders with every install to keep the “Soundcar” decoder alive while going over dirty track, turnout frogs, etc. The “Soundcar” decoder has a built-in plug to accommodate this. Of course one would need to add a speaker of choice and I believe Keith chose a “sugar cube” one for mine but he would have to verify this.

If you are still curious and would like to see and hear the decoder in action, feel free to visit Soundtraxx’s site dedicated to it:
http://www.soundtraxx.com/dsd/soundcar/soundcar.php

I did speak with Keith briefly this morning while he was on his way to Rick’s and he verified it sounded “really cool”. If anyone wants more information from him I’m sure he would be glad to oblige.