I am thinking of building a new, and first for me, HO layout. I plan on at least 2 steam locos and cars. I plan on buying the locos DCC ready and will add DCC to them. I also would like to add electronic sound at the same time. To do this I believe I will need both a sound control station and a command station. Is this correct? The more interesting question is do I need two decoders installed in the Loco or tender or can I get away with one so I just have to add an extra speaker to the Loco/tender? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks
All you need for sound in DCC is a sound decoder similiar to those made by Soundtraxx or Real Rail. The command station that comes with any NCE/Wangrow/Lenz/Digitrax system should support the sound functions. I use NCE and the ProCab has a button for the bell and horn. Drew
You have a couple of options with sound. You can have a DCC decoder and a separate sound decoder or you can have a combined unit. Depending on what locomotive you plan to install sound in, there are even plug-n-play sound decoders that already have the speak in them. Soundtraxx has a website and Tony's Train Exchange http://ttx-dcc.com also has a lot of information. No you don't need a separt unit from the command station. As opposed to the PFM system of days past, everything is now on the decoder board. All of the sounds are generated on the board. You can run a sound equipped loco on any DCC layout but you will need a system that supports all of the functions. Basic systems like MRC and Atlas may not support as many functions as you need to access all of the decoder's functions.
Hi RPG. In a DCC system every engine needs one decoder. If You want to add sound, You can either add a soundboard to the excisting decoder or simpler get a combination decoder (DCC-decoder and sound in one unit). That usually takes up less room in an already crouded engine. If You are interested in a decoder that allows You to change the sound, have a look at ESU. You don't need a sound control station with this. Have fun, Art
I know that Soundtraxx makes some pretty good decoders. Unless you are familiar with decoder wiring, I would let an experienced installer put one in. But that basically applies to all decoders. Also sound decoders may require more power from your programming track than your system puts out. Some Soundtraxx decoders, cannot be programmed very well with NCE. But there are fixes. Places like Tony's Train Exchange, Soundtraxx and NCE have websites which will help you. There is also a good NCE group on Yahoo.
