# Back into it.



## railman537 (Oct 15, 2016)

Like most here, I've gown up with trains. The old Lionel set that appeared every Christmas...and the tyco HO distraction set to keep us from playing with dads precious heirlooms.

I got back into it around 2006 for a bit when I had my own house with alot of room by buying a Bachman HO scale DCC F7A nickel silver train kit. Added on and on until I could run 3 seperate trains at once. Right around 2011 the divorce happened and it all went away to storage.

Bounced around to apartments until a few years ago when I bought my new house. I never had a reason to set it back up until my grandson started showing a heavy interest in trains.

Which bring us to currently, 2 days ago I cleaned out a corner in the man cave and laid a 4x8 sheet of foam insulation on a spare dining room table and threw a layout together. :appl::appl:

So now I'm going through everything and I have half a dozen DCC loco's but NONE have sound.

I think this will be my primary objective off the bat.

I have:
Bachman F7A, SD35, GP35, GP50
Atlas SD35, U30C Phase 3

Any input is appreciated regarding this, I see there is a dedicated DCC forum but I haven't searched long enough yet to post there


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Welcome to the forum.  Glad to see new blood.


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## time warp (Apr 28, 2016)

Welcome aboard! You'll get some excellent advice on the DCC stuff here, don't be afraid to ask questions. We all learn that way.


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

Hey, nice to see another Nutmegger here! Welcome!

Do I understand correctly that you are planning to convert to sound as your next step?

If your locos are plug and play, adding sound should be pretty straightforward. If there is some surgery involved, and you don't feel like your skills are up to it (or you just don't feel like spending the time), check out Tom's Trains in Wethersfield. If you buy the decoder from him, they will install it for a nominal fee.


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## railman537 (Oct 15, 2016)

Thanks for the welcome 

Sound is the priority since I think that would bring the biggest smile to the grand kids face.
My locos are mostly still NIB from around 2011 and say dcc on board/ dcc encoder equipped so I would assume (haha) they are plug and play. If not my Hakko soldering station should be able to handle the task.
Apparently Loksound is popular now. Am I really looking at $100 for each loco? Seems like I'm paying alot now for not paying a little back then.


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

railman537 said:


> Thanks for the welcome
> 
> Sound is the priority since I think that would bring the biggest smile to the grand kids face.
> My locos are mostly still NIB from around 2011 and say dcc on board/ dcc encoder equipped so I would assume (haha) they are plug and play. If not my Hakko soldering station should be able to handle the task.
> Apparently Loksound is popular now. Am I really looking at $100 for each loco? Seems like I'm paying alot now for not paying a little back then.


Those locos already have the motor contol chip in them, so all you would need is the sound controller and a speaker. That's probably closer to $40 - 60 a loco, depending on what you get. Loksound isn't the only game in town. Consider offerings by Tsunami and TCS Wowsound as well. You can often find good prices shopping around, and save substantially buying in quantity.


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

How do you do that when you already have a motor decoder and want to add a sound
decoder? Is there a Y harness that both decoders plug into?


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

mopac said:


> How do you do that when you already have a motor decoder and want to add a sound
> decoder? Is there a Y harness that both decoders plug into?


I don't honestly know. Both the Digitrax Soundbug and MRC sound -only decoders claim to be "plug and play", but there doesn't appear to be a plug, only wires.


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## NAJ (Feb 19, 2016)

railman537 said:


> I never had a reason to set it back up until my grandson started showing a heavy interest in trains.


I love hearing stories like this.
My world revolves around my Grandchildren and it was due to my three seven year old Grandson's(I have 6 Grandkids, 5 boys and 1 girl) that I got back into trains after 40 years.

Hope you and the Grandkids have fun and enjoy the trains. :smilie_daumenpos:


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## Lemonhawk (Sep 24, 2013)

If you have just a little more room you might consider 5x9, makes the turning radius bigger and you can keep the rails from going right to the edge where they can fall off.


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## flyboy2610 (Jan 20, 2010)

5x9 is the standard size for a ping pong table. Any home center could order you one.


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

It would be simple to attach additional plywood to a
4 X 8 sheet by screwing 1 X 3 or 1 X 4 
strips spanning the joints. The outer frame should
maintain stability.

Don


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## ErnestHouse (Sep 6, 2015)

@railman537: Hey, you left us O scalers hanging! What happened to Dad's cherished Lionels?


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## railman537 (Oct 15, 2016)

Mom developed a gambling habit and pawned them for probably pennies on the dollar without dad knowing. Well until the next Christmas came.

no joke


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## NAJ (Feb 19, 2016)

railman537 said:


> Mom developed a gambling habit and pawned them for probably pennies on the dollar without dad knowing. Well until the next Christmas came.
> 
> no joke


Sorry to hear that.


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