# The PCC Trolley is finally coming



## Nicholas Savatgy (Dec 17, 2008)

Well it looks like good and bad news at Aristo for the 1st of the year.

art23302 *pcc trolley brooklyn 287.00 is coming


But no site of the connie yet, this is a good start thou.....









I will have 2 please..............

Do these things make sounds or should i just run them silent ?

Also SS Wheels due in as well.....Cha Ching $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$


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## Nicholas Savatgy (Dec 17, 2008)

What, no one going to buy any of these ?????????????










What !!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## Tom Parkins (Jan 2, 2008)

I hope these are well accepted. When placed on "mainline" railroad they tend to look small. But remember that they are a trolley not a train. 

Sound: Whirrrr, grind, clunk, clang clang. Does anybody even have a sound card for these? Even in O scale, do they have streetcar sounds?

Should be fun.

Tom


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## livesteam53 (Jan 4, 2008)

Phoenix Sound has trolley sounds


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## Nicholas Savatgy (Dec 17, 2008)

Posted By Tom Parkins on 25 Nov 2010 06:28 PM 
I hope these are well accepted. When placed on "mainline" railroad they tend to look small. But remember that they are a trolley not a train. 

Sound: Whirrrr, grind, clunk, clang clang. Does anybody even have a sound card for these? Even in O scale, do they have streetcar sounds?

Should be fun.

Tom



Tom,

Im buying 2 to run at the train shows


I think they will be neato even with no sound on a back and forth track...........










Gollie i luv this hobby

Keeps getting better every day


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## markoles (Jan 2, 2008)

Nick,

I saw the one at the ECLSTS in March and thought it looked pretty cool. I'm probably not adding one for a while. But I'd have to get one if they did the "Terrible Trolley" Pittsburgh one.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Phoenix has 3 different street car sound files. We can install these in your PCC car, and set them up for DC and DCC Nick. 

Regards, Greg


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## Nicholas Savatgy (Dec 17, 2008)

Posted By Greg Elmassian on 25 Nov 2010 11:13 PM 
Phoenix has 3 different street car sound files. We can install these in your PCC car, and set them up for DC and DCC Nick. 

Regards, Greg 

That would be cool Greg 

DCC Please

I will have to go on there web site today

I have about 10 un used 2k2s in the draw. wonder if they will work with DCC ?


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## Nicholas Savatgy (Dec 17, 2008)

Posted By markoles on 25 Nov 2010 08:18 PM 
Nick,

I saw the one at the ECLSTS in March and thought it looked pretty cool. I'm probably not adding one for a while. But I'd have to get one if they did the "Terrible Trolley" Pittsburgh one. 
Mark,

I was wondering what the Green Hornet one was ? no pictures yet.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Yep, the 2k2's are fine with DCC, in fact you will be able to control the most sounds using DCC, vs triggers. 

So for the PCC, maybe a phoenix and an inexpensive small motor only decoder. Will have to see what the current draw is, but maybe an NCE D408 would be fine. $62. 

Greg


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## Road Foreman (Jan 2, 2008)

Greg, 

You need to look @ the Digitrax DH465 decoder with a SF004 Soundbug added.. This will set you back less than $100.. You can put a bigger speaker on the Soundbug.. You can also install different sounds in the bug.. If you need help talk to Bob Grosh.. I think he has all the answers.. 

BulletBob


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

In this case, I was looking at the fact that Nick already has the 2k2's, so that was the thinking process, just lowest cost motor only add on with at least 3 amps capacity. 

I have heard a number of things about the soundbug, and I know Bob well, and he is indeed the digitrax and digitrax sound guru. One negative thing I have heard is that the power output is anemic. 

I cannot find the DH465 anywhere on their site, under mobile decoders... the H usually means "HO".... what is the current rating? 

I don't believe the PCC trolley will be able to work on an HO decoder, they are usually 1 amp, and I suspect the PCC trolley will draw over that, but that's an educated guess right now. 

If I was to want a small HO decoder, the new Zimo MX642 is a killer, very small, sound and motor control, about $100 and has the BEMF-coupled sound capability. I have 2 of them working in small locos, and they perform much better than the HO Tusnami's I took out. 


Regards, Greg


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## Cougar Rock Rail (Jan 2, 2008)

Greg, out of curiousity how are you programming the Zimo decoder? 

Keith


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## Road Foreman (Jan 2, 2008)

Greg, 

Go here.. 
http://www.digitrax.com/prd_mobdec_dh465.php 

BulletBob


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Thanks Bob, I cannot find how to locate that product from the main page, it's not listed under current or past products. 

What gives? Is it so new it's not right on the site? 

Keith, I have the Zimo programmer "dongle" which is a serial port device. I believe a USB one is on the horizon, but this works well enough. 

Regards, Greg


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## SteveC (Jan 2, 2008)

Greg

Digitrax Home Page > What's New Box > 5th Item down.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Thanks guys! Looks like it's so new it did not get filed on the regular pages. Specs look good. As always, need to get the reports in that the capacity is really "there" but I might buy one to test out. 

The price/performance is right up there, so this looks even better than the NCE. 

Regards, Greg


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## aceinspp (Jan 2, 2008)

Yep Nick you will be good to go with the 2k2 Phoenix for DCC. Just make sure you change to the DCC mode when you get ready to go to DCC. I even asked the question on Aristo forum as to if the cars had speakers. Like Lewis thought I was nuts. I may wait to buy one and see how they are after some folks give us a run down. Later RJD


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## lownote (Jan 3, 2008)

I just posted a review of the DH465/soundbug combination at this link

Short answer--good sounds, passable volume, sort of a pain to program, but a good lower cost alternative


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## George Schreyer (Jan 16, 2009)

DH465 is $47 at Litchfield. SFX004 sound add on is $40. The SFX004 is a full up sound only decoder in it's own right. It uses an integrated NMRA medium 8 pin plug. The DH465 has an 8 pin socket on it to allow the SFX004 to piggy back onto it.

$87 for 4 amps + sound is the lowest price point yet for large scale. I have several Digitrax sound decoders. The sound is overall marginal. The sound quality good enough although the "complexity" is low. The volume tends to be low so you have to pay special attention to the speaker and mounting. The sound sets are user programmable. It is fairly easy to substitute the .WAV files in any given set for other ones. It is much harder to write a whole new sound set. Entire sound sets are easily changed out with the SoundLoader software from Digitrax (mostly PC only). I have never got the soundloader portion of JMRI to work at all although others claim that it works.

There is on generic sound set available for download and preview (either in SoundLoader or in JMRI) on the Digitrax web site at http://digitrax.com/sounddepot.php.


Fred Miller's website

http://fnbcreations.net/projects.htm

has the Peter Witt car sound project AND two PCC car projects. The PCC projects actually sound like a PCC with the funny gloop-gloop sounding air compressor and suppressed gear sounds. Many older cars, like the one in the Digitrax generic and Peter Witt sound files, have pronounced running gear noise. The PCC cars were much quieter.


I used the JMRI sound editing function to preview the sounds for all the sets. 


If I get a PCC, I will probably try this combo.


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