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As you all may or not figured out I have a thing for my Tunnel motors. The SD45T-2 is my favorite engine of all. I have 6 of them and just bought my seventh in the form of a Union Pacific one.
What I need to know is I would like to add sound and DCC to them but have yet to find a good one that I want. Any one know what would go good in an Athearn SD45T-2 and have the best sound for them. All mine are quick plugg ready all it needs is the decoder with sound.
Lots of choices out there now, Don. The cheapest, and probably the least liked, are the standard MRC sound decoders, which is what Athearn uses in their sound equipped locomotives. MRC has kicked it up a notch with their "Sheer Brilliance" line, which has much better sound and a correspondingly higher price. Next would probably be a tie between Digitraxx and QSI. Loksound is the next step up as you start getting into $130 sound decoders, about twice the price of an MRC. I'm not sure one is out for a second generation EMD yet. When it finally comes out, the diesel Tsunami should be king of the hill but you'll be looking at about 175 bills each. I would give one of the guys at Tony's Train Exchange a call and talk it over with them. They'll give you some good advice about the different decoders and they'll make you a good deal if you want to buy six at once.
I hope that if they do that the sounds have all the trottle settings. My SD40-2 from BLI has only three differant throttle levels. I think I may get about three at a time or so six would just be two expencive unless they give me a good enough deal on them. I at this time have 6 engines that are DCC and sound equept my BLI I put in MRC decoders like the one that they had installed on there instruction page at the BLI site.
I was unaware that they didnt have any Second generation emd sound, However I thought that the SD40-2 and the 45's sounded simular. any case better sound will be worth waiting for.
It will be the EMD 645 Right? cant find a page that says other then its the V20 which has to be the 645 prime mover?
Don, the SD45T-2 uses the same 20 cylinder EMD 645 prime mover as the SD-45 and SD45-2. The SD-40 and and SD40-2 use 16 cylinder prime movers. If you listen to recording for both types of engines, there's a definite difference in sound, especially as the motors spool up. My hearing is really not good enough to tell the difference any longer and I would be happy with SD-40 sound if, as you say, they have more realistic throttle sounds.
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