Box Cab!

Well I didn't feel like doing "construction" work on the module this evening, so I took it a bit slower and started assembling what is actually the first locomotive kit I've ever done.  Given that I'm re-creating the "Montrose Terminal" portion of the San Juan Central, you know I just had to build one of these guys...

Yes!  Grandt Line still makes this little guy.  Apparently it went out of production for a number of years because of unavailability of the motor, but it's back now, and with a smaller motor.  Now the above shot was really a lot of tape to get it to that point.  This is really how far I am...

And, what's a fun little industrial diesel without.... DCC sound!  Yeah, I'm going for the gusto on this guy.  Warm LED front and rear lights and sound is my plan.  The one holdup so far is that I can't decide on a decoder.  I've narrowed it down to the "Micro Tsunami" TSU-750, GE Cummins sound pack (listen here) -OR- the ESU LokSound Micro v4.0, probably with the Kleindisel "small diesel" sound pack (listen here, 9th one down, click picture of loco then play).

Neither of these decoders are cheap.  They both have cutting edge motor decoders and 16-bit sound.  The LokSound which the street price is about $12-15 more than the Tsunami also has 2 additional features:  1.) downloadable sounds and 2.) no heat-sink required.

From my reading it seems the TSU-750 has some heat issues if it is not installed up against a metal chassis.  The Grandt Line boxcab is almost all plastic so I'd need to introduce some kind of heatsink.  Some have used lead weight added to give the diesel better traction as a heatsink.  The advantage of going with LokSound is that's 1 less thing I'd have to worry about.  At the moment LokSound is the direction I'm leaning, but we'll see what I end up deciding on.