Rapido Trains Amtrak NPCU F40PH, Operator'S Manual

Page 1: ...OPERATOR S MANUAL MODERNIZED F40PH MANUAL ON REVERSE ...

Page 2: ...erred to as foreigners we can t avoid it completely Chances are we ll miss a few plugs about snow igloos and maybe a beaver as well Sorry eh There is always the possibility that you ve found something wrong with your locomotive Maybe a loose grab iron maybe there s a fingerprint on the model or perhaps it actually doesn t run on its own Whatever it is please don t hesitate to get in touch More war...

Page 3: ...erating If you press F4 but don t press F5 YOUR LOCOMOTIVE WILL NOT MOVE That s right the locomotive will NOT move when just F4 is pressed Press F5 if you want it to move Those of you who read the rest of the manual will find out why If you have a really short attention span and you simply can t read manuals then you can wonder about this odd feature for the rest of your life or until someone expl...

Page 4: ...ve Address 10 Turn On the Sound 10 Functions 11 Functions More Information 11 Sound Volume Settings 14 Factory Reset 16 Awesome Slow Speed Thingy 16 More Information 16 Limited Lifetime Warranty 17 Acknowledgments 17 Notes 18 AMTRAK NPCU DCC FUNCTION QUICK REFERENCE F0 HEADLIGHT F1 BELL F2 HORN AND BELL F3 DOPPLER HORN F4 GO INTO OUT OF STANDBY F5 GO INTO OUT OF RUN F6 DITCH LIGHTS F7 DIM THE HEAD...

Page 5: ... we were powering it The truth is when accounting for the decoder lighting electronics and all the time invested by our staff on the project adding a motor and gears to a locomotive adds less than a dollar to the cost of each unit So you d be paying almost as much for a dummy engine With that in mind most passenger trains can be upwards of 7 or 8 cars which can become a struggle for most locomotiv...

Page 6: ...t if it is a matter of gluing a grab iron back on you can do it yourself in less than a minute with a drop of white glue If you really want to send your model back to us for us to install that grab iron we would be happy to But if you do send it back to us for us to put that one part back on and other stuff falls off when we send it back to you then you are on your own If there are big gaping hole...

Page 7: ...ou have a DC powered train set please contact us before operating your NPCU as it may not be safe for your engine and or your wallet for you to use your controller Some train set throttles put out a very high maximum voltage that is not suitable for scale model trains The maximum recommended voltage is 16 volts DC Similarly controllers designed for large scale trains put out a much higher voltage ...

Page 8: ...ound seven volts See the note above in Operation DC Silent about using train set or large scale throttles With DC layouts you have very little control over the sounds of your model WARNING If you have purchased a sound equipped NPCU and you operate your trains with a Model Rectifier Corporation RailPower 1300 series DC controller stop what you are doing immediately Do not pass Go Do not collect 20...

Page 9: ...o F40PH or for whatever reason a Rapido LRC then simply replicate its operation with your NPCU Press F4 to put your NPCU F40PH consist into Standby The prime mover of the F40PH will rev up to 720 RPM to simulate providing power to the train but not to the traction motors All you need to remember is that when in Standby mode YOUR LOCOMOTIVES WILL NOT MOVE EVEN IF YOU ADVANCE THE THROTTLE With your ...

Page 10: ...ep in mind that some DCC systems do not have sufficient power to program sound equipped locomotives on the mainline If your sounds do not operate correctly on a Digitrax DCC system this likely means that you need to clear the memory on your system achieved by clearing slot 36 A basic summary of how to do this can be found on the NPCU page in the Support section of our web site More detailed inform...

Page 11: ...t really bugs you there is probably a way to turn it off but we have no clue how to do this Go ask Matt at ESU and tell him Rapido sent you The default horn is one of many recordings available of a Nathan K5LA Many Amtrak F40PHs and NPCUs were modified with this horn Other horn options are available should you wish to match a specific unit or you like the sound of them better A company that gives ...

Page 12: ...rogrammer Sorry We keep saying we ll remember to include that important bit of information at the top of Bell and Horn section of the manual instead of at the bottom but we keep forgetting F3 Doppler Horn You can play this when approaching level crossings at speed It is a real recording of an Amtrak F40PH with train approaching a level crossing at high speed with the engineer playing music on a K5...

Page 13: ...prototype F10 Strobe Lights The strobe lights on the NPCU operate automatically with the bell but can also be operated separately by the engineer When operating your model there may be circumstances where you want the strobe lights to operate without the bell hence function F10 While the real NPCUs are equipped with strobe lights that flash at random if you re the type who prefers order rather tha...

Page 14: ...ve sound effect while F21 controls the slower sound effect Each function toggles the sound effects in an on off manner Having both F20 and F21 enabled at the same time may result in your locomotive actually producing spit If you want nothing but silence toggle each function until both spitter settings are silent Please note your NPCU warranty does not cover malfunction due to excess saliva so plea...

Page 15: ...nd which values were used If you ever need to do a reset on the decoder see Factory Reset below then having good notes will allow you to easily re enter any changes that you might want to keep VERY IMPORTANT Before you change any of the volume control CVs please make sure that CV32 is set to 1 CV32 is used as an index selection register and if you don t set it first then we are not responsible for...

Page 16: ...lots of room in front of it on your mainline Set CV 54 to a value of 0 Then get out of programming mode and turn on the bell press F1 We ll say this again Make sure you have plenty of room in front of your locomotive and it is not headed for the layout edge and the basement floor Your NPCU will quickly take off at full speed yes we know it s not powered in real life and then screech to a stop whil...

Page 17: ...ough baking soda snow for a photo shoot to impress your Instragram followers posing it for a photo on the nose of a real NPCU locomotive moving at more than 10MPH setting the throttle to maximum while trying to pull lead a 40 car Auto Train up a 3 grade because you wanted to see how much it can pull lead connecting a live 480V HEP cable to your model or any other damage caused by you that we haven...

Page 18: ...scour the world 5x over to find one available Every year we try to bring a new revolutionary model or three to the American market and we still get the wow factor even from our existing customers NOTES Write your DCC programming notes here draw a pretty picture or try and draw your own NPCU like the one at the bottom of this page Visit rapidotrains com signup to subscribe to our free email newslet...