Now that I have so much new track, I have been having much joy running one little train around headed up by my little 10 ton Bachmann Shay. If one is fun then certainly two would be funner. I have had a Bachmann Climax, another small logging engine, on the shelf for about three years and a matching Soundtraxx decoder. I never took the time to install the sound decoder and run the engine. Tonight I decided I had waited long enough.

Most people don’t install their own sound decoders any more since so many engines come with them pre-installed as an option. Installing sound decoders is not the easiest task in the world as it requires stuffing the proverbial 10 pounds of crap in a 5 pound bag. The Soundtraxx instructions are great and simple to follow. I will not repeat them here.

Here is the list of tools I used:

• Pencil type Soldering Iron and Rosin Core Solder
• Flush Cutting Rail Nippers
• Long Tweezers for holding screws, wires during soldering, plastic washers, etc
• Wire Strippers/Cutters
• Small Phillips Head Screw Driver

It took about 30 minutes and I was off and running, literally. Here is a picture of the installed decoder before I put the tender shell back on.

The new Climax next to the Shay, ready to make another loop. Looks like the Shay needs to hit the wash rack to clear off the accumulated dust.

It was a fairly simple project that I was easily able to complete this evening. This was followed by an hour of running two trains around the layout. I could feel the stress of work escaping with each chuff of the cylinder.