Athearn ICC Caboose comes Factory Equipped with SoundCar

[@ricter591]

Thanks George.

[@SoundtraxxDCC]

Thanks for watching.

[@carverparrish]

Sometimes,the hobby that we play with can cost alot of time,money,and Frustration. But when you get into buy blue boxes and other stuff that's fun And when you spend money on these New Locomotives.and other cars that's the price we pay to enjoy this Hobby.i personally love M.0.W stuff.. but soundtrack have great stuff to put into All of the older items that we may get from Ebay or other small stores

[@SoundtraxxDCC]

Thanks for the feedback, we are glad that you are enjoying our products! :D

[@roystevens4333]

Love the fact that manufacturers are embracing this underutilized product. One of the reasons it's underutilized is the PITA that the wired version is to install in anything. Athearn got a PNP8 version of the soundcar which would make installing it SO much easier in many things. Will this be available to 'regular' consumers and small scale installers like me?

[@SoundtraxxDCC]

Thanks for the feedback, we will keep this in mind. In the meantime, our support team is available for install advice: [phone] ext. 22 or [e-mail]

[@BNGreen970]

These are great cabooses. I have three with two more on preorder. i especially like that the unique UP lights all work. Great job both Athearn and Soundtraxx.

[@SoundtraxxDCC]

Thank you!

[@luiselapostolfeliz2421]

SoundTrack, on the next product, will you add a sound of cars colliding on tracks,

[@SoundtraxxDCC]

Thanks for the feeback we will keep this in mind.

[@luiselapostolfeliz2421]

@@SoundtraxxDCC You're welcome Soundtraxx you guys rule.

[@SoundtraxxDCC]

Probably not. Wrecking sounds is not something we need to go out and record.. grin! Thank you for watching! ~G

[@FirstnameLastname-tp4zw]

​@@SoundtraxxDCCI think she/he was thinking coupler slack. From far away, ba bom, boom, Boom, BOOm, BOOM! 😂🎉

[@thomasgrassi8817]

George Nice update. I knew someone would come out with a car already installed with a sound car that makes it easier But I like doing them myself now.

[@SoundtraxxDCC]

Thanks for the feedback!

[@Form44208]

Does this have a capacitor in it or a way to add a capacitor?

[@SoundtraxxDCC]

Yes, you can add a capacitor or CurrentKeeper. Contact our Support Team for help doing so: [phone] ext.22 or [e-mail]

[@chrisp.bacon_exe]

Any chance we are getting more factory installed sound cars? I feel my soundcar installation the sound is so quiet compared to the locomotives

[@SoundtraxxDCC]

That is up to the model manufacturer. So ask them! In the meantime you can always contact our Support Team for advice on your installs: [phone] ext.22 or [e-mail]

[@jrisner1951]

I need one. What roads are covered?

[@SoundtraxxDCC]

This particular car was form the original release last year. Refer to Athearn's Website for their current production, www.athearn.com Thank you for watching! ~G

[@michaelhathaway9583]

I bought A the arthearn caboose I have tried everything to pair it up with locomotive. A the and says do factory reset that made worst. I am not getting anything. They say f8 4 times nothing.

[@SoundtraxxDCC]

Contact our Support Team for assistance with this: [phone] or [e-mail].

[@rogerball6265]

@George, I have the Athearn HO Caboose CA-9 UP w/ Lights & Sound. I can't change the cupula light from green to red. The cupula light on the other end does not respond to caboose direction. How do I fix these things? Other question: shouldn't the cupula lights at the end, stay on whether or not the train is moving forward or backward? Can the cupula lights be set to stay on no matter the loco direction?

[@SoundtraxxDCC]

I do not have a UP caboose with the SoundCar inside, so I cannot test this. Contact our Support Team and in the meantime we’ll try to find the CV defaults and see how it was set up to perform: [phone] ext.22 or [e-mail]

[@user-de1hg8cf6b]

I get the realism idea but a sound card in a caboose is a waste of time. Now if you wanted a sound card in something that would make sense. A sound card in a refrigerator car. With the sound of the refrigeration mechanisms, and compressors running. Or a sound card in a cattle car with a faint occasional cow moo or pig squeel. Just a thought Have a blessed day everyone

[@SoundtraxxDCC]

Our SoundCar decoder has sounds for refrigerator cars and livestock cars as well. And in this video, George explains how cabooses are used as shoving platforms and you can model this and use the air whistle for grade crossings.

[@Nealeb1970]

I have always wanted to add lighting to my Guards Vans(N.S.W) Caboose(U.S) but to have sounds aswell would be awesome. But I still don't understand why you can't have F11 Engine Brake and F12 as Train brake. If your shunting a long train in a yard you use the train brake but once you cut off to move to the next shunt you use the independent(engine brake), it's always hard to remember which brake is turned on?off. It just seems so much simpler, especially as I move the brake to F6 so I can see on my Procab if the brake is off or on, I would use F5 and 6

[@SoundtraxxDCC]

Legacy. So, let me start by saying that on the Tsunami2 F11 is brake application for both independent and automatic brakes.. The F12 simply selects which brake effect is active. So, going back to the original Tsunami, where F11 was brakes because customers wanted F5 and F6 to be lights (Athearn still does this now BTW) we set F11 to brake application so that you had access to it, but at the time, not many people used it. Personally, I map it to F8 since I barely ever mute a loco, but F8 is mute again for Legacy. So the Tsunami sound car was developed and we made F11 brake application (by default) so that it would be easily compatible with a stock Tsunami. Enter Tsunami2, so we set up F11 as the application and F12 as the select as mentioned above, so that no matter which brake system you used, F11 would still be the application to match SoundCar and any prior release Tsunami, so they would all work together. The good news is this is remappable as you do to F5, F6 or wherever you want to assign it to. That’s the benefit of how flexible and customizable the decoder is to set up so that it works the way you want. If you need to discuss this further, contact our support department: [phone] ext.22 or [e-mail]

[@SOU6900]

I heard the first run of Soundcar equipped cabooses had terrible lighting because of the early decoders. Regardless I want one and also hope Athearn eventually adds this decoder to boxcars.

[@SoundtraxxDCC]

The light brilliance was set per Athearn's development team. They did not inform us that the light then would traverse a few bends in the light 'pipe' to the final destination. I know we did adjust the brilliance on the latest versions for them to help remedy this situation. For SoundCar in more rolling stock, contact Athearn and let them know. Nothing speaks louder than voice of the customer. We already have the decoder here, just need settings for a boxcar! Thank you for watching! ~G

[@waynemiller7382]

George I appreciate you have said before that modelers suggest a variety of potential different sounds they would like Soundcar to be able to do, and you have explained that getting a good scale sound out of a freight car has its limitations. However, what modelers would really go for is if in a future version of Soundcar, you could add the hollow sound of an empty tank car (or perhaps hopper etc) being switched, or going over wide rail joins etc. Please can you/your R&D team experiment trying this. I can image it really boosting the market for this product. Please consider this.

[@SoundtraxxDCC]

We will certainly take these suggestions and other we have received in mind when we revisit the SoundCar product line. Thank you! ~G

[@ron045]

Cool... How could I use with Blunami? Not sure how hard this would be, but when doing demos like this, you might consider a mic on the table near the car.

[@SoundtraxxDCC]

We have tried different types of microphone arrangements and when dealing with sound out of models, it is a little more difficult to get the right balance. But suggestion noted, and we'll try to do better on next time. Also, these sounds are inherently quieter be default. The flange squeal at a much louder volume with a few of them all playing at the same time would get the be annoying very quickly. Each sound effect has its own volume so you can turn it up more for your personal taste. We chose to leave them quieter on this video. I hope this helps. Let us know if you need any further assistance at [e-mail] Thank you for watching! ~G

[@SoundtraxxDCC]

I forgot to address the Blunami part.. ha! At this moment, to use with the Blunami, then you need to be using DCC. The SoundCar has not yet been upgraded to the Bluetooth control at this time. Perhaps as we get further along, it can be added to the Blunami product line! Thank you!! ~G

[@captainbill12]

I have one question. Can you re-map the F8 button that triggers the sound car to join the consist or is it permanently set to F8?

[@SoundtraxxDCC]

Bill, yes you can, any F# command 0-12 you desire. Set CV 228 sets this and is, of course, defaulted to a value of 8.

[@josephcox4319]

This is all well and good but let's be real about the hobby, it's getting way to expensive and out of reach for the common working man, when I started seeing a single rail car go for $40.00 to 100.00 a piece, locomotives in excess of $300.00 each, and the cost of everything it takes to build a layout, I lost hope for the industry as it basically caters to rivet counters and clubs, the ego of a lot of these techy folks is a major turn off and the keeping up with the Joneses mentality has steered me and a lot of modellers away completely from the hobby, I'm happy buying blue box, atlas and Walther's used items on ebay and tearing them down and redoing them myself and taking pride in what I've built and detailed for a fraction of the cost.

[@SoundtraxxDCC]

Unfortunately costs will always be a hurdle - for all industries. We do our best to be competitive. We love this hobby and one of the things we love about it, is how many different ways you can be involved. For us, our favorite part is realistic train operation. Therefore, we build as many realistic features and sounds into our decoders that we can. Others may not enjoy this aspect as much as we do, but many do. We just hope that you enjoy the hobby!

[@josephcox4319]

@@SoundtraxxDCC Not saying I don't love how far the industry has gone at all, I have a few DCC locomotives and love what they can do, just saying that I miss the days when the hobby was accessable to everyone equally no matter the budget a person has available, I understand costs and the hard work of R&D that goes into everything as back in 70's thru the late 90's I myself was fortunate to do some design and manufacturing and custom building until bigger businesses put a stop to that as well as supply issues, of course if a person has the means to plop big money, there not going to see eye to eye with my point I'm trying make and that's alright I spent 20 plus years in the Marines to defend people's rights to have free opinions, ideals and speech, I will always be gratified in the hobby as it's satisfying for me to take raw materials and do the research and build a 100% accurate model of anything then incorporate it into the layout.