I finally got around to connecting up my NCE PowerCab and trying out my first DCC fitted loco., a Bachmann 37 672. After trying for some time to reprogramme the chip as 672, I realised that the cheapo decoder installed will only accept addresses between 1 and 127! So I set it to 72 and it ran a treat on the layout.

However, I will be changing to a Lenz Gold decoder and installing sound, and will use these decoders in all my locos.

First of all congratulations for your move to dcc you will not regret it.
I have been using dcc for several years. The first piece of advice I can really give is not to be frightened of dcc. Treat it with respect, yes, but there are no black arts when it come to wiring etc. Its all very easy.
If you are going for sound for your 37 then the all in one loksound will do the job for you rather than using lenz gold and a seperate sound board which really make the installation needlessly complicated. For non sound locos lenz silver is good, you do not need the extra expense of the golds for non sound locos. Southwest digital are good loksound projects but there are others.
I am going to have a pair of 37's with sound myself. (don't tell Darryl but I already have the 66 with sound).

d6841 wrote:

I am going to have a pair of 37's with sound myself. (don't tell Darryl but I already have the 66 with sound).

Good man - I see you have your priorities right then!

Darryl wrote:

Good man - I see you have your priorities right then!

Actually I consider that Bachmann got theirs wrong. If they had brought out their sound 37 first I'm sure they would have sold a heck of a lot more. I want two, several others I know want a pair, but who is going to pair up 66's
Hopefully I should get to see the new 37 on thursday and then I can make a decision on what to buy and what chip to go where. With what I am going to do and a few other in my club there are about 40-50 locos getting chipped in the next couple of months and our new dcc layout Airthrey Park will hopefully debut at Ayr show in September.

A lot of work for the workbench between now and then.

d6841 wrote:

If you are going for sound for your 37 then the all in one loksound will do the job for you rather than using lenz gold and a seperate sound board

I have had this advice from the DEMU guys also. I am looking forward to making my 37, 31, 60 and 08 a bit more noisy!

Hi Alan. Interesting to see you now have DCC. It's a VERY black art to mee. Know nothing about it, except I think it may me good and I am considering taking the plunge.

The stuff I have read so far is like explaing the mysteries of splitting the atom.

I looks like installing sound to locos is going to cause all kinds of headaches. Notwithstanding fitting lights to the locos.

I assume one will need a speaker in each loco in addtion to other extra bits and bods. This all sounds expensive per loco and will require a fair amount of space. Would all this equipment fit insde a 7mm 0-4-4 T for instance.

Another query is do you get different steam & diesel sounds to represent differnt locos. For example, a GWR Dean is going to sount a lot different than a Stanier 2-6-2T, including totally different whistles.

Then there is the difference between a class 08 and a Fowler diesel mechanical. Is this all too much to ask of DCC. (Indeed, of yourself too)

(Bye the way, It's the Bachman Dynamis Command Sytem I have been looking at.)

Regards ken

Ken, I thought dcc was very daunting until I tried it, but it really is quite simple after a short time playing with it.

Don't know about steam sounds, but the diesel ones are specific to the loco type, and are recorded from actual locomotives under various operating conditions. (Start-up, accellerating, full speed, etc. plus all the ancillary sounds.) - The SDW 37 even has flange squeal at the push of a button!

That sounds 'hic' good Alan, thanks.