Greetings list:
Just returned from a very fun weekend of running trains and showing the flag
for S scale (and gauge). For the last three years, my eight-year old son
and I have been helping Howard Sheffield of Howard'S Trains at his booth
during the Roseville (outside of Sacramento) International Railfair. This
is the largest train show in our local area and we had a very big turn out
this year.
Howard has a 5 x 10 display table where he has flyer, hi-rail and scale
loops. My son runs all the flyer accessories for the kids and we have
parents and their kids sometimes standing 5 deep watching. He makes a great
ambassador for S. He tells everyone why S is the best and it makes an
impression on the parents to see someone as young as him running all the
stuff.
On the scale loop I hook up my Digitrax system and we run the scale "show
and go" stuff. I usually bring my SP DCC engines and cars to run. The
"serious" folks who model in those smaller scales you can hardly see or
handle are always impressed by the size and quality available in S scale. I
keep telling them to sell that dinky stuff on fleabay, like I did, and to
move up to a real scale. <VBG>
This year, however, we had a challenge because my DCC F3's had a mishap on
Sherman Hill a couple of weeks ago (yes, believe it or not folks, that ol'
dinosaur Arden has finally gone to DCC) and they needed some work. So
Howard slyly suggested I run one of the new S-Helper DCC 2-8-0's. As I
previously reported on this list several months ago, the engine is a work of
art. Howard had a few beautiful Southwind Brass models set up on display
and the Connie looked right at home with these pieces. The level of detail
is incredible. As an aside, I had one flyer guy (who shall remain nameless
for his own protection) tell me he was afraid to buy the engine because it
would make the rest of his flyer look like junk. He bought one anyway.
<VBG>
So I carefully unpacked the box - what a packing system! There is the
familiar yellow and green box with a Styrofoam box inside, then a plastic
cocoon creating a display case, which comes off in three parts. I knew I
was trouble as I was unpacking the little beauty - I was having way too much
fun and I had not even run the engine! However the real thrill was yet to
come.
We set up an hour before the show, so the hall was relatively quiet. When
we applied track power and she fired up (that is the right word too), it was
fantastic! The Tsunami Sound is the real deal folks. What makes it even
better is that Don and crew have the tender speaker installation nailed.
The sound was clear and crisp at default levels. Dynamo, blowdown,
injectors, even the sounds for water stop were all there. The coolest part
though was the way the engine and Tsunami performed. After carefully
following the break in procedure, since I did not want to wreck "Howard's"
engine, we really put the engine through the paces. The slow speed control
was fabulous. We could creep the engine along without any herky jerky
motion. For you ops oriented folks, this engine is perfect for a local run
handling the switching chores. The engine ran very smoothly at all speeds,
as well as any of the S-Helper diesels I own. The Tsunami default
programming had a very nice acceleration and deceleration curve and I found
the chuffs matched the wheel rotations at all speeds- very impressive.
Unlike the old DSD equipped F3's, there was no annoying electric hum from
the motor. I will be very glad when Soundtraxx releases the diesel Tsunami
and I can dump my DSD decoders.
My son had a blast making the engine bark during accelerating and then
backing off to listening to the rod clank. Even at default levels, with the
hall filled with people, you could still hear the chuff, bell and whistle.
We did not change any CV's except for the whistle. No offense B&O fans, but
the default whistle just did not sound right to this SP guy. For those of
you wondering, there are 8 whistle choices you can set with CV115.
It's a puller too my friends. At one point we were hauling 23 cars and a
caboose on a level track without a slip of the wheel going around 28" radius
curves. If we had the room, I know we could have pulled twice that number.
I had a fun time watching the HO guys drooling over the engine. Most people
could not believe how well the engine ran and how great it sounded. I kept
hearing comments like "I wish we had something like that in our scale", "it
runs and sounds better than my brand _________", etc. One fellow took a
picture of the engine with his cell phone and sent it to his buddy, then
called the guy and stuck the cell phone next to the engine and had my son
speed up and slow down, blow the whistle, ring the bell and operate the
other sounds. We found that pretty amusing.
So very big kudos to S-Helper, you have built the best steamer in any scale
in my opinion. Oh, yes, in a classic case of impulse buying, I bought the
engine which is an undecorated version. Unfortunately since this beauty
does not even remotely look like an SP consolidation, I am not sure what I
am going to do for a road name. But that is another story.
Cheers,
John Gibson
Rocklin, CA
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