Hi All,
what can I do when I have a model of a firewood burning locomotive but the aivalable steam engine sound plays coal shovelling sounds from time to time?

Firewood burning Locos were not only used in the USA, some colonial railways did it, too, when coal was rarely to get. 

As example the Meter Gauge railway of Togoland (the today Togo, West Africa).

Me I do modelling some US American firewood burning Oldtimers and wanted to install any sound decoder, but the coal shoveling sound feature is a wrong feature.

Hi Ingo,

You need to find a supplier who has a sound engineer so the random sounds can be taken out. Or get the hardware/software and do it yourself. Check the decoder manual to see if there is a cv for the coal shoveling volume (or random sound volume), set to zero. Kerosene lamp versus an electric lamp with steam turbine dynamo is another sound you would want to get rid of.

Nigel

Hi Nigel,
please have some thanks for your quickly reply.
I am new to the DCC sounds stuff but addicted to install sounds to nearly all of my locos if it will be possible.
Specially the older locos have a little space problem, so I cannot installing loudspeakers what are needed to work sound decoder successfully.
Since my decission was made to equip all my locos with DCC decoder I allready had nearly 35 analog DC locos. 
Actually I have 4 DCC locos but two of them are allready sound equipped with the digitraxx tsunami wave 1000 series. My two Bachmann 2-6-0 Moguls came with sound these decoders aboard.
It is not dramaticly, it are both coal fired locos.
I have alltogether 15 Locos what are firewood burners, they all will need sound decoders, too.
I am still figuring out how I can add the motor directly into the loco below the boiler, so that would be more space in the tender for a loudspeaker and the decoder after removing the tender motor.

Hi Ingo,

Soundtraxx make the Tsunami range of decoders, not Digitrax.

Bachmann Mogul tender drive. What scale? Bachmann Branchline OO (UK) or Bachmann Spectrum HO (USA)? GWR or other? Good idea to move the motor and gears to the boiler. There are issues. If you want a speaker in the boiler there is usually enough space on modern model locomotives to install one in front of the motor. Even more space of the motor is in the tender. Probably have to modify any weights in the boiler. You will need to drill holes in the bottom of the boiler (not visible) and possible the bottom of the backhead, and through the chimney if possible otherwise the sound is blocked. If you put the decoder in the tender run speaker wires from the tender to the boiler using a micro pin connector at the tender end (so the tender can be separated from the engine), cover with flexible heat shrink tubing so it looks like one of the pipes from the tender to the engine.

You do not have very much choice for moving the drive if the Mogul is a UK GWR model. A) New chassis, motor and gearbox (Comet in the UK for example for the frames), usually the best approach.  B) Remove one wheel and put a gear, gearbox and motor on. Matching the available gears with the axle diameter may be an issue. C) If the axles are 1/8"/3.175mm then Markits axles and wheels can be used. D) Keep the motor in the tender and put the decoder and speaker in the boiler, which means 4 wires to the tender (BRGO). Two 2 pin micro plugs, heat shrink, looks like the 2 water lines. If you put the decoder above the motor in the tender just remove the "coal" and replace with a higher heap of real coal (or wood) on a new higher styrene base. Then just 2 wires to the speaker in the boiler. E) Motor in the tender, speaker in the boiler.

It might be better to consider using a new frame in the tender, and using a small can motor and gearbox. That would get rid of the noisy gear train and that large lump with visble gears underneath, and generate some space for the decoder. High Level Kits in the UK do a tender chassis kit for several tenders. Again, if this a GWR Mogul the Collett tender kit would work. Or you could get a Bachmann Collett tender and try putting a motor and gearbox in.

Hollywood Foundry in Australia make nice motorized chassis for tenders, the owner however is currently moving premises and not manufacturing.

It has been a long time since I did this with a Bachmann Mogul, but those are some of the possibilities. I kept the tender drive, cut the "coal" out, put the decoder above the motor, made a new coal support, real coal on top, ran the speaker wires to the boiler, cut down the weight for the speaker (I think, all this is from memory), drilled holes in the bottom, and made a new shorter connection between the engine and tender. Hope that helps.

What make are your wood burners?

Nigel

An interesting question for the hobby   This is a question about what suppliers are prepared to supply. If there is a demand, it will be met, if not, it will be on the periphery.  I've tried recording sounds myself, and using software to improve them, but it isn't easy and I don't have the programming skills for decoders.

A great "standard" would be if there was a general "sound" decoder which could then have specific sounds downloaded.  I am told this is possible but it would need a worldwide standard and the freedom to change sound packets if there was a better one available.  The technology is there…. but is there the will of producers?