Senior editor Dana Kawala recently installed a WOWSound Steam Version 4 decoder and 28mm high-bass WOWSpeaker with enclosure from Train Control Systems into an HO scale 2-8-2 Mikado. The upgraded TCS decoder includes a new Calibrated Proto Chuff feature. Hear the new decoder in action as the HO scale steam locomotive speeds along the main of the Model Railroader staff’s Milwaukee, Racine & Troy model train layout.
Video: TCS WOWSound Steam Version 4 decoder
By Angela Cotey | October 25, 2016
| Last updated on February 11, 2021
See and hear a demo of this upgraded TCS WOWSound Digital Command Control (DCC) decoder
I installed a WOW steam decoder in an older Proto 2000 0-6-0 and love it. I really like how easy it is to switch sounds and to adjust individual volumes. The prototype feature of hitting the brakes to stop is also fun, but took a bit to get used to. That can be turned off. The only problem I had was that the decoder must be very sensitive to voltage drops, because when I first put it in, I would lose function control of the locomotive and it would run on it’s own. I needed to stop the loco numerous times with the emergency stop button. This was remedied when I turned off the DC option. Since then it’s worked perfectly.
Did you synchronize the chuff with the wheel rotation? I think I count about three chuffs per wheel rotation (should be four).
Jack Cutler
Was the chuff rate synchronized for this decoder install? It sounded to me like you were only getting 3 chuffs per wheel rotation (should get 4).
Jack Cutler
Its nice that its synchronized with the movement of the pistons, but, in my opinion its too high a pitch, too tinny sounding, it needs to have a deeper bass to sound realistic.
Hi guys,
Just an FYI – if you read the review and watch the video you’ll note that I installed the decoder with a high-bass 28mm WOWSpeaker with enclosure.
Dana Kawala
Senior editor
I too thought the start up was awful, sounded like a cheap chug sound effects. The quill on the whistle was exactly what i want. Could this be adjusted to do a similar effect to the steam chuff? Sure hope so. Thanks
Daniel is correct about the speaker making a difference. For my January 2017 DCC Corner column I will show how I installed the same TCS decoder in a brass steam loco. For that installation I used a high bass speaker with a metal cone and the difference is amazing. The bass really comes through–you can almost feel the water droplets from the stream whistle as it passes. As soon as the article hits mailboxes next month I’ll have a video on my DCC Guy website comparing the sound uisng a standard 1″ diameter speaker and the high bass speaker–Larry
Larry Puckett
Contirbuting Editor
http://www.dccguy.com
I’ll go along with Larry about replacing the speaker with one of better quality. Other than that, this is a fairly good decoder once you figure out all the ways to encode CV’s. TCS is not as straight forward in this respect as say Soundtraxx. I have one engine with an older TCS “WOW” decoder installed. I may eventually get it programed to my tastes; particularly the individual sound volumes.
Maybe it’s just my headphones but the sound quality when the loco was starting up sounded awful. Once at speed it sounded alright but the slow speed start under load was bad.
It would be nice to hear the WOW Sound decoder being directly compared to other equivalent sound decoders for a given locomotive type (possibly a future article idea?)
One thing you do not have except for the newer Broadway Ltd. sounds is the deep bass of the exhaust. The small speakers just make it sound tinny otherwise.
sounds quite promising. Dana, TCS was reported to have reliability problems in earlier versions. Have they addressed this in V.4?