MRH:
Tell us a little about your company history.
ST:
SoundTraxx began as Throttle Up! Corp., in Pocasset,
Massachusetts in 1989. Our first product, introduced in
January of 1990, was not actually a sound system, but a
lighting system called the Hyperlight. The Hyperlight was
the first lighting system to use a microprocessor, not only to
provide brilliant lighting effects, but also to allow the user
to select the desired effect from within one model. Our
Hyperlight effects are now part of every sound decoder (and
some motor decoders) we make.
Our first sound system, the SoundTraxx D220-IR Diesel Sound
System, was introduced in 1991. This was the first sound and
throttle system to incorporate wireless control.
This was followed a year later by the SoundTraxx S220-IR Steam
Sound System, the first digital sound system to offer ‘playable’
whistles. By this time, everyone was calling us SoundTraxx, so
we began marketing and doing business under that name.
We moved the business to Colorado in 1994 and settled in
Durango in 1998.
We designed and
built a modern
building for
our corporate
headquarters
and main
manufacturing
facility.
We announced the
first Digital Sound
Decoders in 1996,
DCC Impulses Column - 2
1: The first SoundTraxx system from
Throttle Up! (D220-IR) circa 1991
1
MRH-Oct 2013
