Athearn Challenger Sound Module Problems ?

[Nato]

  On the Yehaw (Yahoo!) N Scale List Marty Young posted that he had recieved his second run locomotives, that the wheels were the same oversize Flanges on tenders (which is true) then went on to say a friend of his had replaced the MRC Sound Module with a LockSound Mini module. Reason for this was after four hours of continious running the original had failed and Young went on to say that every Challenger in his club had had the modules fail after four hours of continious use. Anybody else out there heard of this problem occurring? I have run my first 2 locomotives quite a bit,but certainly mot continiously for four hours. My 3rd loco is just getting broken in. If I take these to the Wasatch Division NMRA Train Show in November should I rest them for awhile between say half hour runs? Would turning the sound off for awhile prevent this or is just having the loco running going to cause a failure? I 'am running them in DC and I assume Youngs club is usuing DCC .                                                                                                                                     Nate Goodman (Nato). Salt Lake, Utah.

[dclyde]

I've run mine for close to eight hours continuously with no issues to speak of.  The only complaint I have is that I'm having problems with the sound level being too low.

After many hours running at home as well as the BANTRAK layout at various shows, I have no appreciable complaints with the loco.  In fact, I recently put in a reservation for the Athearn Big-Boy that's due out the beginning of next year.

Dave

[UP_Phill]

I've replaced both MRC decoders in my Challengers with Tsunamis. The first with a TSU-1000....was that a tight fit! The next with a TSU-750. The difference is phenomenal. The sound quality, different types of sound and programmability beats the MRC hands down.