S-Helper Service General Note | Historical Note

S-Helper Service

General Note

Historical Note

Soundtraxx to QSI DCC Decoders

Don Thompson provided the following on why they switched DCC decoders.

We installed Soundtraxx' Tsunamis sound decoders originally, but we noticed on the display layout with three 2-8-0 locomotives (two double-headed and a pusher on the end) of a 20+ car train up and down a 2% grade, that after 6 to 8 hours one unit would overheat (engine would stop, and front and rear light would blink). Over several shows we tried different things to prevent this, such as leaving the tender water hatch open, slower speeds, etc.

But it wasn't until we started installing the QSI 2-amp sound decoder that this scenario ended. We loved them, as we had a section of track hooked up to a Windows computer and we could directly download sounds for our diesels or our 2-8-0. This eliminated having multiples of different decoders on the shelf. Plus once we had the CVs exactly how we liked them, a click of the mouse uploaded all of them to the engine's decoder.

The stereo feature came after SHS' tooling was sold to MTH.