Walthers Mainline D&RGW SD50

This has been out for a while, but I recently got one to complement the SP ex-D&RGW unit on my roster. SD50s and conventional cab SD60s have been favorite locos of mine. I really like the stretch proportions with the Spartan cabs.

The Walthers models are very smooth runners and very heavy. They're reasonably priced, and the cost differential between DC only units and those with sound and DCC is only about $40, which makes the sound version a real bargain.

Some runs have ESU sound decoders. These have built in extra acceleration and deceleration momentum, unlike standard DCC decoders. I find this extra momentum a bit much for my medium size layout, and it also adds complexity for speed matching. As a result, I set CV 3 and CV 4 to 0 when I set the loco up. It also may be necessary to adjust CV 2 to 10 or 20 or so to be sure the loco just starts rolling at speed step 1.

Here are some photos on its maiden run as I adjust it for speed matching in a consist: