Model Railroading > DCC and sound for older Roundhouse shays?

So, to preface this posting. I've been out of table top modeling since the late 1980s, before the advent of DCC. For the past 5 years I've been involved in live steam, an obsession that has fairly consumed my entire life outside of work, as it tends to do. :)

However, I have a few pieces of HO equipment that have been stored for 20 years. I recently pulled them out, cleaned them up and ran them on a piece of test track.

The items, pictured here, are two 2-truck shays made by roundhouse. They have the most god-awful noisy electric motors you can imagine but they run with my now vintage state of the art Tech II power supply.

What I'd like to do is give them new quiet brushless motors, DCC and sound, so I can run them on some friends' layouts.

What will work these items and where can I purchase the equipment from? Ideally I'd like something that I can retrofit with a minimum of fuss. I noticed there are HO engines out there with smoke, is that something that can be added? (I assume it's some sort of heating element with glycerin or other non-toxic stuff.)

What I'd like is something that makes oil burning shay noises, complete with westinghouse pumps. Sort of like the pleasantly noisy engines at Roaring Camp.

Thanks a bunch,

--Mike

Mike Massee
Tehachapi, CA
Photography, Railroading and more..

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After re-motoring I would recommend Soundtraxx Tsunami TSU-750 "Light Logging" decoders. They sound great!

Just had a listen to the demo sound at http://www.soundtraxx.com/dsd/tsunami/showwistle.php?s=llog Not too bad, I like that the pumps are vented through a small pipe like at RCRR. Only thing I don't like about it is the wimpy automatic bell ringer, but I can live. :) Is the sampling rate better than what's on the preview on the website?

-Mike

Mike Massee
Tehachapi, CA
Photography, Railroading and more..

I think you will find the sounds in person are much better then listening to them on the web. Especially the bells and whistles and anything with a lower freq. sound.