Model Railroading > Putting Loksound into new HO Athearn Genesis WM F7's

A good friend of mine asked me to install sound in his new Athearn Genesis Western Maryland A/B F7 set. This set just came out and has LED's for lights. The new Athearns now come only with the 21 pin DCC interface. I ordered some Loksound 5 21 pin sound decoders and off I went. Athearn uses Soundtraxx as their factory sound but he has standardized on Loksound like many of us. The install is quite simple. Remove the dummy plug, install the Loksound 21 pin decoder which has speaker wires already soldered to it and then solder those wires to your speaker. These F7's come with a non standard speaker location so I just jumped ship on that and found a Loksound speaker that fit perfectly in the cavity above.  I also installed Kadee #58 couplers.(Come on Athearn, get some real couplers)  All in all, an easy install. One note, the electronics board is quite thin and when installing the 21 pin decoder, the board flexed quite abit to the point it felt like it was going to snap so take your time. One of the nice things I like about Loksound is they sometimes have multiple sound files for the same engine that are recorded from different prototype engines. For the 567, Loksound has 6 different files to choose from so I loaded a different 567 sound file on each unit. I set up the correct horns and bells and I was done. Bruce

1st pic. - Motherboard with dummy plug    Athearn still using the archaic black connectors for wires
2nd pic - Funky speaker location that only fits a custom Athearn speaker chamber
3rd pic - Loksound decoder installed

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Pic 1, the Loksound speaker fit like a glove and sounded great also
Pic 2 - I used for the first time the new Loksound engine holder. This is  very well built and is designed so well. I love it. In the middle is a magnetic strip to hold metal parts and screws. Well done
Pic 3 - The completed girls ready for some break in runs

 

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I've always been a closet WM fan. Fun to have them for a few days.

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Looks great! Which decoder did you use, can't make out the number on the box.

Where did you get that foam cradle?
Thanks.

When is Athearn going to get its act together and move the F-unit cab's dashboard forward under the windows where it belongs? Or at least they should offer an after market fix-it kit. These are not cheap model trains! Horizen takes us for such dolts, may be because we are!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/24/20 15:48 by RRBaron.

AZSteve Wrote:
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> Where did you get that foam cradle?
> 

http://www.esu.eu/en/products/accessories/premium-foam-train-service-tray/


Most places sell them but they are hard to find as they are popular. Thanks Bruce

trackplanner Wrote:
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> Looks great! Which decoder did you use, can't make
> out the number on the box.

These are blank decoders so if u do not have a Loksound programmer, there are many Loksound dealers who will load the sound file of your choice for you at no charge. Bruce

https://www.modeltrainstuff.com/esu-ho-o-58429-loksound-5-dcc-blank-decoder-21mtc-nem6660/

58429LokSound 5 DCC "blank decoder", 21MTC NEM6660, gauge: 0, H0



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/24/20 14:47 by brfriedm.

Check out this picture. You can see the "Highliners" name and "Paul Lubliners" name still embedded inside of the WM shell's. Remember when Highliner kits were all the rage?



 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/24/20 14:50 by brfriedm.

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I thought for sure we would get a short sound video , or maybe it wasn't loaded yet, anyway nice pics, Thanks

Ed Stewart
Jacksonville, FL

On another note, those Alkem Scale Models DODX flats in the background looks really good.

brfriedm Wrote:
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> Check out this picture. You can see the
> "Highliners" name and "Paul Lubliners" name still
> embedded inside of the WM shell's. Remember when
> Highliner kits were all the rage?
>
>
>
>  

You can still get Highliners bodyshell parts and kits direct from Highliners.
https://highlinersonline.com

Did Athearn get the coupler height correct on the F-7, unlike on my new Athearn Genesis GP-9s?

Nice. Love that service tray. Recently noticed it in another video and it's on my must have list now.

I'm preparing to upgrade some Atjhearn F7s that came with MRC decoders (BLECH!) to ESU V5s. It's been recommended that I use the Nix Trains decoder buddy (since I don't have any sort of interface on the MRC decoder), and the Gulf Coast Customs sound enclosure. Supposed to sound fantastic.

https://www.shapeways.com/shops/clearwaternscale.

To be used with these speakers from Digikey:

https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/CMS-151135-078S-67/102-5002-ND/9561104?fbclid=IwAR1CiXr7UHb6E8fAaCDSfSnYXqO2jtYvNBcr4faW0nnvBVkzwu8AbSX7xrU

I have no financial involvement with either company. Just passing information on to those who might be interested.

Arved Grass
Fleming Island, FL

I really wish that Athearn would consider making a change to their 21-pin motherboards. I have mentioned this to them directly in person but got a bit of a cold shoulder response. I do understand that they aren't just going to make a change for change sake but this one would be extremely beneficial.

Athearn uses 20k ohm resistors on their 21-pin motherboard for the LED lights. I have measured this with an ohm meter. This makes them extremely dim when compared to the SoundTraxx Tsunami2 equipped units which use 1k ohm resistors. Athearn sound units use a custom SoundTraxx Athearn Tsunami2, and not this motherboard, so the resistors are on the decoder itself in the sound equipped units. The lights are much brighter as they should be. How do I know....well I have compared the two. A friend of mine purchased some Tsunami2 equipped units and I had some non-sound units, one of which I had simply installed a LokSound 21-pin decoder into. Comparing the two, the Tsunami2 unit's lights were much brighter.

I also found that on locomotives with ditch lights Athearn's LEDs are glued to one end of a very short piece of fiber optic tubing and the tubing is slipped up in the ditch light housing. The light then is expected to come out of the side of the fiber optic tubing. It actually does seem to work ok when the proper resistor value is used on the LEDs, though it could still be better if the LEDs were pointing directly outward. Now this may not be on all of the units with LED ditch lights but it was on one of their first release SD70ACes with LEDs. They may or may not have changed this design since. 

I have found that I have to remove the Athearn motherboard and wire in a LokSound 5 Direct in order to get the LED brightness up to par. These boards have a built-in 2.2k ohm resistor which is just fine. The added resistance between 1k and 2.2k doesn't make all that much of a visual difference though you can still bridge the built-in resistors on the LokSound 5 Direct and wire in your own 1k ohm resistors if you prefer. By simply using the built-in resistors on the LokSound 5 Direct though and soldering all of the Athearn wires to the "platform" as I call it, I can install one of these in about 10-15 minutes. Granted not as fast as using the 21-pin option but I just cannot stand dim lights.

This is still a great install Bruce and I hope the friend that you installed these for is happy and excited for them. These new LS 5 decoders and sound files are incredible.

Lee Ryan - Rio Grande Fan
Denver, CO
 

brfriedm Wrote:
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> AZSteve Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Where did you get that foam cradle?
> > 
>
> http://www.esu.eu/en/products/accessories/premium-
> foam-train-service-tray/
>
>
> Most places sell them but they are hard to find as
> they are popular. Thanks Bruce

I have one.....they are really nice and they hold things at a good angle and tusting recall thet metal flat spot is magnetic?

Bob