I'm a holiday loop runner. Last season I had three loops which I plan on expanding to four this coming season. I run mostly post war and also have a few older MTH with the QSI boards. I run conventional with a ZW and KW to control trains and a Z, KW and a couple of HO power packs for lighting, accessories etc.
I'm not a big fan of the the constant chuffing of steam or humming of diesel. It's neat for a short while but after about 10 minutes I want to turn it off. I much prefer the sound of the wheels clitty claking on tubular track. Just an old geezer I guess. However i really like different sounding whistles. I never much cared for the PW air whistles or the buzzer in the 2343's.
I installed a True Blast diesel into my MTH alco pa's and a true blast steam into the tender of my 2046. I like the results so far. I was looking at the Sound commander 2 boards. I listened to the sound files on their website. I love it. There are three different steam whistles and about different 5 diesels.
I was looking at their installation instructions. It says the chuffing is muteable by command mode. In the center of the board is a three pin connector labeled RPM Mute and Chuff sw. Can an on/off switch be wired into that connector so I can manually turn the chuffing on and off and keep the whistle on all the time? I didn't see anything that directly addresses that option in the online manual.
Does anyone have any experience with this board or any other suggestions for electronic whistle boards I can install in a tender or piece of rolling stock that would give me control over the chuffing sound by a switch in the car. I really don't have the desire or deep enough pockets to convert to Command especially considering the trains are only up 3 months a year.
