Railpro Steam Install Video

[LW93Rcode]

I picked up a DCC ready Bachmann Spectrum 2-8-0 recently and wanted to install Railpro to run around the Christmas tree.  While the tender is very spacious there is a plastic stud in the center to hold the shell to the tender frame with a screw so the module would not fit without modification.  It was also not tall enough to leave the module on top of the light board since the 8 pin plug was smack dab in the middle of the board.  I ended up hard wiring it using the directions from TCS's website since Bachmann does not use color coded wiring and placed the module where he original board was.  It sounds pretty good.  I was havng some trouble trying to get the chuff synchronized but it doesn't help that my knowledge about steam is limited too.  Here is a short video, hope you like it!

-LW

[William Brillinger]

Well that's COOL!

[LW93Rcode]

Thanks Bill!  I wanted to add in a scene to use Ring's water fill sound too, except I wasn't quite sure where on the locomotive the water fill is.   If someone could help me figure that out I could go back and add it in.   I did a quick search for an image of a 2-8-0 filling water but came up empty, lol!

-LW

[hirailer]

I enjoyed your video very much, almost makes me want to go out and buy a steamer

The water fill cover is placed near the rear top of most tenders. It is quite large in diameter to accommodate the large filler spout from the water tank. The tender is divided in two sections with a sloped sheet of steel, the forward portion for coal or oil, the rear portion for water.

Mel

[nodcc4me]

I have the same engine and also their PRR 2-8-0. They are good runners and are good candidates for RP with sound. Thanks for the video.

[ngdave28]

The steam exhaust sounds good.  Were you able to delete the default diesel sound from LM-2S and then load steam sound from the HC-2?  In other words you didn't have to load steam sound from their website?  Did you select light or heavy steam?

If you want closer chug syncronization, note that there are 4 chugs for each revolution of the driver wheels.

Dave

[LW93Rcode]

Thanks guys!

Mel thanks for the info on the water fill.  I still have to add some details and snow under the tree so I'll try and get a shot of that after and maybe make another short vid.

Al, you are definitely right about them being good runners.  I actually picked up two ,NYC 1142 & 1136, for the price of a new one, albeit the new would have been decoder equipped.  I was surprised how well they ran on DC before the install.  I'm not sure if I will install railpro in the other or not.  I'm tempted to try a wow steam in the other.

Dave, yes I did delete the default diesel sound.  I actually took this module out of a previous install in a GP40, so I was deleting the 645 prime mover, which also caused a little problem I didn't foresee.  After deleting all the diesel sounds, I installed both light and heavy steam from the HC-2 after loading them onto the HC-2 from Railpro Assistant(that took forever).  I started with the light steam.  The chuffing wouldn't start right and was making odd sounds. I thought, maybe it didn't download right and switched to heavy steam and it did the same.  Turns out, since I was using a prime mover before, I had the auto compressor sounds enabled, so that was trying to play and just made all the sounds go haywire.  I ended up just leaving it with the heavy steam file and deleted the light In order to install more sounds like the water fill and coal.   I'm not sure what it should have been prototypically, maybe somewhere in between the two?  Also,  thanks for the tip on the 4 chugs, that should help alot. 

-LW

[yvesmary]

I think it sounded pretty good, especially the whistle.

Makes me anxious to install the LM-2S in my brass steamers.

Yves
Ponoka, Alta

[KPack]

LW - the reason that the steam sounds probably weren't playing correctly when you first loaded them is because you may have kept the diesel prime mover button to play the steam sounds.  If using steam sounds you MUST use the steam locomotive icon to play them.  The steam loco icon is programmed to correctly play the steam sounds.  It allows smooth increases in chuff rate as the throttle increases.  If you accidently use the diesel button nothing will sound right.

Like Dave said there should be 4 chuffs per revolution of the drivers.  I think the chuffs hit at the 12, 3, 6, and 9 o'clock positions.  Have the steamer running at a constant speed (not too fast so you can see the rod position on the wheels) and adjust the chuff rate in real time until it hits right where it is supposed to be.  At that point it should be correct through all speeds.

Thanks for posting the video!

-Kevin

[LW93Rcode]

Ahhhh, thanks so much for that info Kevin!  I did change the icon at some point and must have not realized thats what made the sound better.  I must have used the incorrect steam icon as well because I never saw a place to adjust the chuff rate in the advanced options!  I just swapped the icon and voila, it came up!  Thanks.  Time for work, but now I can't wait to get home and adjust it!!!!

-LW

[LW93Rcode]

Ok, I got the kiddos off to bed early so I could play with trains, ha!  I think I got the chuff synchronization close, but since I'm a newbie with steam sound I'll ask your opinions.  Here's a short video that hopefully is good enough for you guys to tell me if I'm good or still off.  I'm at 56% rate so not much room to slow it down if need be.  It only goes down to 50%.

-Laurence

[KPack]

Looks like you might need to slow it down more, or speed up the locomotive using the current settings.  I'm not a steam expert but the way I wrote it above is how I understand it to be.  If you're unable to go below 50% then that is something that needs to be brought to Ring's attention.  IMO it should be adjustable from 0-100%. 

-Kevin

[nodcc4me]

Have the steamer running at a constant speed (not too fast so you can see the rod position on the wheels) and adjust the chuff rate in real time until it hits right where it is supposed to be.  At that point it should be correct through all speeds.

-Kevin

Kevin, that hasn't worked for me. I have done the setting exactly as you described, but can not make the chuffing linear. That is, I get it timed just right but it goes off synch as the locomotive speed changes.

[William Brillinger]

Call Tim Ring during the week and talk to him about it. He'll be able to help you. And let us know what happens!

[LW93Rcode]

Kevin, it shows an adjustable chuff range of 50%-150% for me.  Anyone else the same?

-Laurence