Whyyyyyyyy?!?!?!?!?!

 Why do I do this to myself?

So for my new-to-me Kato locomotives that I finally got all put together*, I decided to go with the good old XL Systems sound decoder. Why? Because I decided for some reason I wanted sound, the XL Systems decoders are about as low priced as you can get for sound decoders, and since I picked a pair of custom painted shells they weren't going to match up with any other railroad, so it didn't really matter if they would run with anything else.

I have written about XL systems decoders before, but to recap, they are a horrible decoder with  fantastic packaging arrangements. They used to make MRC decoders (and maybe they still do, MRC only has 3 and they all look very similar to the XL systems decoders with the same numbers), and to date MRC/XL Systems decoders are the only functional decoders I have ever thrown away.

The fantastic packaging arrangement is the inclusion of the speakers on the board, so they are true drop-in decoders. The new Kato decoder (1960B) has a cubic speaker that really sounds good, but the round speakers on the plain 1960 board is more than acceptable. They come pre-programmed with different horns, bells and prime movers to choose from, but unfortunately they have not seen fit to publish a table that tells you what setting is for what sounds. But that's not what makes them horrible. What makes them horrible is their speed table programming.

At speed step 1 the sounds notch up but the locomotive does not run. Well, one of the decoders I ordered for the Katos was defective, so when I sent it back for repair I asked about it. It turns out that CV2 (start speed for you non-DCC folks) has to be programmed at an insanely high level. XL says to start at 100 (which is at or above where you would normally program CV5 for top speed in any other decoder) and go from there.

There is also a kick function in CV65 (this is supposed to spike the voltage to get the loco to move slowly) that doesn't seem to have any effect. They also do not creep like Katos are capable of. With a TCS decoder, for example, the Kato diesels will crawl at 0.1 scale MPH, but with the XL decoder the slowest I could get the loco to consistently move was about 5 scale MPH. 

Setting the start speed so high also makes setting the top speed impossible. Try as I might, I couldn't get CV5 to slow the top speed down below about 175 or so; with the TCS (or Digitrax, or NCE) decoder the speeds can be scaled down to more reasonable prototypical speeds (I normally program mine to 50 in the middle and 100 at the top so that they roughly correspond with throttle percentage settings). At CV5=255 the loco zips along at a scale 350 MPH, but even if CV5 is set to zero (normally this doesn't work, with any other decoder brand the minimum CV5 setting has to be above CV2) the loco still runs exceptionally fast.

So I now have two Kato sound equipped locomotives with custom paint that run exceptionally fast that I can run together at the train shows. They should work out well there because train show trains at actual prototypical speeds of 65 scale MPH bores the onlookers, they really do look way too slow on the large layouts.

*I actually swapped out one of the new chassis for one that I had because the trucks and tank were black on one and UP gray on the other. I put the Chicago & Northwestern shell on the black trucked frame and used the chassis from one of my Union Pacific dash 9's (which I have more than plenty of) for the second custom painted locomotive. I used the UP's non-sound decoder on the CNW loco so it will run with the rest of them and put the XL sound decoder in the ex-UP chassis with the custom painted shell. That way my custom locomotives match, and I have a really cool CNW locomotive.

These Are Not The Same

 Last month the train club had a display at New Bern for the Coastal Carolina Model Railroad Club's annual event. It's always a good show, and as always we had a great time there.

While I was there I happened to find a pair of Kato locomotives for a very attractive price. Attractive meaning $25 each for one C44-9W that appears to have started life as an undecorated model and one AC4400CW that appeared to have started life as a Canadian Pacific unit. 

Both of these units had been rather horribly redecorated with red paint and some sort of turtle decals, but a bit of work with some IPA and a short-bristled brush cleared that away in short order. The dash-9 unit was also missing a sill piece, creating a space between the tank and the body.

These sill pieces were apparently made of unobtainium, because I was not able to find them on the Kato website. In fact, the handrail sets for the C44-9W listed on the Kato website looked nothing like the pieces that I had installed on this locomotive.

At first I went to the mailing lists and there were some folks that had complete body shells that they were willing to part with. I made some purchases and found that, although they fit the mechanisms, they were different in that they not only did not have that sill piece, they didn't even have provisions for it.

I was finally able to find it as a part of the handrail set for the AC4400CW, so all was well. However, it did spark my curiosity, so I looked at the other Kato dash-9's that I have in my collection, and as far as I have been able to tell there was a change in the model. 

Which one came first? I don't know, but the shells that came with the $25 units were the type that had a sill plate and the ditch lights are mounted on top of the porch, as on the BNSF locomotive pictured above. In the other model the ditch lights are below the porch and there is no sill plate, as on the UP locomotive. The gap in the second version is filled by the fuel tank, in the first version the sill sits behind the protrusions in the fuel tank.

 

Note the tank protrusions and the sill plate on the BNSF model. In my opinion this is the better looking version of the two. Unfortunately I didn't notice the difference in the ditch lights until after I had taken these pictures, so I haven't illustrated that difference. The dash-9 shell that came with the $25 mechanism is this type.

Note the lack of sill plate on the UP locomotive and the extension on the top of the fuel tank. The bottom of the walkway has protrusions that fill the gaps between the loco shell and the trucks, and the gap between the tank and body shell is filled with the tank extension. All the dash-9 shells that I purchased separately are this type.

Also notice the protrusions on the front and back bottoms of the mechanisms. The ones on the UP version are longer than the BNSF model. They are also thicker at the extreme ends, and they are stepped, where on the BNSF model they are not. The two $25 mechanisms are identical, and are the same as the BNSF version.

In all other aspects the mechanisms are the same except for this bit of casting in the front and rear. The part numbers molded in the side frames are the same as well, even though those castings have that minor difference. Note also that this is the exact same mechanism as is found on the AC4400CW and also on the Kato ES44AC (those models have the non-stepped versions of the chassis).

The upshot is that now I have two fully functional Kato locomotives for around $30 each (I only needed one sill plate and it was found in that $6 handrail set mentioned earlier) including parts and the paint for the undecorated unit. They are in matching red livery, but they are now decal-less. I could just order some Canadian Pacific decals, but I think I will have to come up with something special for them.

I also have some body shells that need the extended gas tanks. Fortunately Kato has them on their website, so I have ordered a few. One of the shells was the Chicago and Northwestern 8727 in Operation Lifesaver paint, so that may find its way on one of the two mechanisms instead of a red shell.

Either way, my diesel fleet continues to grow.