Large Scale Central

Thomas the Train Upgrades

Hello Everyone-

Been busy over the last few years building the new house that my family and I now live in. I have a temporary workbench set up now to be able to work on some projects. Hoping that in the winter of 2020 I can work on finishing off my train room which is roughly 30’ x 50’. Plans are to have an indoor Large Scale and HO scale layout.

For my first project I decided to upgrade a Bachmann Thomas the Train locomotive. I’m adding a DCC sound decoder, lighting effects, and a cab interior. I figure this may give my kids some interest in running trains with me some day. I’ll be installing a Soundtraxx TSU-4400 Steam-2 decoder for motor, lighting, and all of the sound effects except for the whistle. For the whistle I’ll be using the Soundtraxx/Bachmann sound decoder. I’m using this decoder because of the authentic Peep Peep whistle for Thomas.

Hope you enjoy has I go through the process I took to work on this.

Thomas the Train

Screw removal

The red arrows point to the screw location.

Removing the Face

The face pulls straight off. Now the body can be pulled off from the frame.

Sound Decoders installed

The Soundtraxx/Bachmann decoder is mounted to the left, on top of the mechanism that makes the eyes go back and forth. The Soundtraxx TSU-4400 decoder is mounted towards the right side. A Soundtraxx Currentkeeper can be seen underneath the TSU-4400 decoder. I used double stick foam tape and polyimide film tape to secure the decoders in place.

Added two slide switces

Being that I have two decoders in one engine I wanted a way to program the decoders individually. Both decoders are programmed to engine #1. The Soundtraxx/Bachmann decoder has all sound features turned down to 0 except for the whistle volume. Likewise, the TSU-4400 decoder has only the whistle volume turned down to 0. I used the original slide switch to turn power on/off to the Soundtraxx/Bachmann decoder. I then added a second slide switch to turn power on/off to the TSU-4400.

I assume you are driving the motors from the TSU-4400?

The Bachmann OEM has the nasty problem that when power is interrupted, it won’t resume until you go to speed step 0 and then resume… I’ve got one in an Emily and I need to set up keepalive caps to stop this from happening (power pickup crappy)

Greg

Correct, TSU-4400 is driving the motor.

Only reason for the Bachmann OEM decoder is to have the Thomas Peep Peep sound. The TSU-4400 has a British whistle that sounds good, but I just want the true Thomas peep peep.

That’s a lot of expense in decoders but I bought the bachmann OEM for my Emily/Stirling for just for the whistle. Surprised there’s little else in the decoder, but SoundTraxx has a history of pulling out features for oem decoders like the chuff trigger input.

Greg

I have 2 Bachmann HO locomotives with “value added sound” decoders in them, and they both went silent. I have reset the one a few times, but it refuses to do more than one “chuff” before it goes silent again. I am not impressed with the Bachmann/Soundtraxx decoders.

Yeah, i’ve had mostly negative experiences… some of the CV settings on the OEM units just disappear as compared to the “full retail version”.

Greg

You’re correct Greg, that’s a lot of cost for decoders. But when I bought the OEM decoder I was left unimpressed, figure might as well put it to use and still get a peep peep out of it.

Yeah, a disappointment to me too. I would have thought they could have added something else like a bell.