TheStantonCab - 3
lowonstoredbatterypower.When it stops, youknowyouareout
ofpower. The locowon't runwith theDCCpower through the rails
if thebattery isdead.
On theMason, thebatteryandpower supplycircuitfillup the
fronthalfof the tender top, so the locohas tohaveavery full
loadofwood tohide it. InSMR'snew locos, thereshouldbe room
inside the tender tohide thewholesetup, as thenew locoshave
boilerdrives.
TheStantonsystem is intentionallydesigned tobesimple. So the
CVprogrammingoptionsusing theStantoncabare limited. It
candosomeof thebasicCVssuchas1,2,3,4,5,6,29, and65.
It tooka littleexperimentationandanemail to theNeil Stanton,
thesystemdesigner,but Iwasable toprogram the locoso it starts
smoothlyandhasmomentumonstartandstop.Bottom line is
that the loco is99%ofwhere Iwouldwant it in termsofopera-
tion. Theonlycomplaint is that theminimumspeed isabout1-2
MPH faster than Iwould like.
I alsoorderedaCVPAirwireT5000 throttle,basedon the recom-
mendationofGeorgeSebastian-Coleman, anotherStantoncab
user.With that throttle,which iscompatiblewith theStantonsys-
tem, I amable toprogramallCVson thebattery loco. Iwanted to
disable theheadlightdynamoandairpumps, asmyengineshave
oil lampsandnoairbrakes. Itworkedgreat.
I reprogrammed the speed curveson theS-Cab-equipped
WhitonwithaTsunami decoder. Using theT5000 todo the
programmingwas fairly simple. Theproblemwasmoredifficult
thanexpecteddue to some inconsistencies in theuser docu-
mentationbetween theS-Caband theSoundtraxxdecoders.
Several emails tobothmanufacturers yielded theanswers I
needed. Imust say, bothhaveexcellent customer service. Iwas
able toprogramWhiton so that it not only starts smoothly, but
hasup to throttle10 setting for switching speeds. This involved
reprogramming the followingCVs, for youDCCgurus.
3
3: The “rat'snest" that confrontedmewhenplanning the instal-
lationof theStantonBatterysystem. I hadpreviously installeda
QSI sounddecoder in this loco. It had tobe removed toaccom-
modate theTsunami decoder. Iwasable touse thesamespeaker.
MRH-Apr2014
