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train-set or large-scale throttles. With DC layouts, you have very little control over
the sounds of your model.
— WARNING —
Rapido products are designed to operate safely between 0V and 16V.
Voltages in excess of 16V - as well as irregular waveforms, voltage spikes
or short circuits - may cause severe and sometimes irreversible damage to
the product. “Train set” power packs are known to suffer from any one of
these unexpected irregularities, whereas higher-end systems have safeguards
in place to prevent this. Rapido always recommends using a power supply
system that matches the quality of the models you are running. If you’re
reading this, you’ve obviously invested in top-of-the-line, museum-quality
motive power and equipment, so we hope you’ve made the same investment
with your model railroad power supply too.
While many power supply systems exist, some are known to have caused
problems with model train circuitry in the past. If you have any one of the
following systems, PLEASE DO NOT USE IT until you contact us for more
information: MRC RailPower 1300/1370-series, Bachman Spectrum
Magnum, Atlas 313 Universal Power Pack.
The DC lighting is limited. Some throttle manufacturers produce special gadget-like
thingies which are meant to trigger the sounds in locomotives on DC layouts. As
we have no involvement in the development of those gadget-like thingies, we have
absolutely no idea how they will affect your F59PH, for good or for ill, for richer or
poorer, in sickness and in … sorry, wrong transcript. As always, we’ll try to help you
fix your F59PH if one of these gadget-like thingies turns your locomotive’s circuitry
into something akin to burnt toast, but we can’t guarantee we’ll be able to.
It is usually at this point in the manual that Jason inserts a gentle dig at his fellow
modelers who won’t switch from DC to DCC. The rest of the staff continue to repeatedly
remind him what happened the last time he did that. Something about being chased
down the county highway by a group of townsfolk wielding transformers and
potentiometers. As long as we can keep reminding him of this event, he’ll be nice to
DC modelers. Not that we’re calling DC modelers Luddites.
OPERATION – DCC (SOUND)
We go to extreme lengths for accuracy, in sounds as well as in looks. Our sound
decoders are LokSound V5 decoders by ESU, with Full Throttle functionality,
