3 Rail Diesel with Blunami
Blunami July Photo Contest winner #2: " Fall of 2023, I found myself and 5 other friends on the way to the York, Pennsylvania train show. On the trip, one of the guys mentioned how they had heard of the possibility of using Blunami decoders in our 3 rail AC trains. Well, I was highly intrigued, and less than a week after returning from the show, I had placed the order for a Blunami.
The Blunami boards quickly earned my admiration as I found them extremely easy to install. Use of the app itself is very straightforward so I could get into operation quickly, but has a high degree of features that allowed for customization as I, and the locomotive moved down the track. The best thing of all? The Blunami decoders have brought life back to three old brass Williams locomotives with a Weaver Cincinnatian on deck. While I took care of a diesel set first, one of the best aspects of the of the Blunami decoders is in the ease of installation in a steam loco. Why? The chuff is integrated into the board! No tach tapes or reed switches here. Install the board and make your chuff adjustments in the app!
My very first attempt was with a nearly 40-year-old set of Williams Sharknose diesels. I can tell you, for the 25 years I have had them, they rarely made it off the display shelf. They were terrible runners because the 3 rail pickups had both been placed to the inside of the trucks… within just a few inches of each other. Because of this, the locomotives just would not operate through a yard. I installed the Blunami along with two CurrentKeepers (with simple instructions from the SoundTraxx technical crew) and that set moved from shelf-queen, to a premier set on the layout. The ability of this set to now creep through the yard area is absolutely fantastic! And the Blunami units run right next to and at the same time as my units equipped with either TMCC or ERR boards!
Hesitant to even try it out? Let me assure you that I am a story, scenery, and paint guy. I am not well-versed in electronics. I am now starting on my 4th install. The few questions that I had were emailed to the SoundTraxx technical staff with answers arriving the next day. If I can do this, so can you!
Now… let’s Highball!!!
Some background on my layout: The Erie Shore and Ironton is a 30X50 double-decked layout. There is about 1000 feet of track and about 70 turnouts. There are 3 main yards. It takes about 20 minutes to complete an entire trip nonstop." -Troy B.
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