Bachmann / Soundtraxx "Thomas family" OEM decoder

Released in early 2018, is a small decoder that can be included in some of the Thomas series sets, and some of the locos. As of January 2018, it is only available by itself, or it is shown for the Thomas and Percy locos. (Notice the copyright date of 2016 on the decoder itself?)

Interestingly, it has sounds for 9 of the "Thomas family"

Below are 2 pictures of the packaging, that give some of the specs / features:

 Here's the board itself, bottom:

Top of the board

Below is a picture of a TSU-4400: notice the similarities:

I figure that I can figure out where to connect the keepalive from this. 

Here is the manual: Click Here

There are different sounds available depending on CV115 "Character Selection"

So there is a whistle, F2, and a short whistle F3, and a blowdown F4.

Only on Toby there is a bell, but no whistle.

So, this is pretty lame, but it was fairly cheap. The quality of the board is not great, be very careful soldering to it, several copper lands came loose when I soldered to it, luckily they were on the back side. Use small wire and be quick.

I have not tried the lights yet. But that will be something to install later when I open the tender and add some weight.

So, it's small and has the correct whistles for the different Thomas family trains, but really lame no other sounds. This "limited" version is typical of SoundTraxx oem, they always remove something.

New finding, if power is interrupted briefly, the loco will stop. It will not resume, even if it is in contact with power. You must reduce the throttle to zero, and then start again. Very weird behavior, like an on-purpose safety system. Soundtraxx typically "cripples" OEM decoders it makes, and it seems this is no execption.

See my installation in the Bachmann "Emily" CLICK HERE