GS4 4-8-4 DCC Southern Pacific #4436 (Sound)

I have several of Bachmann's Sound Value line of steam engines and their virtue (relatively low price for DCC and Sound) is also their common problem. There is one drawback as far as the sound goes in all of this series of engine. Overall the sounds of the bell, whistle, exhaust etc. are pretty good. The problem is that there is no accurate synchronization between the sound of the exhaust and the rotation of the wheel and includes the visual action of the side rods, cranks, eccentrics etc. for the stroke. As a result, at higher scale speeds the sound is way ahead of the actual speed of the loco. For me that’s not a deal breaker problem as most ops, including passenger trains on my layout are at relatively slow speed operations and the difference is far less noticeable. But if your going to run at higher scale speeds the failing is much more than noticeable. As for the rest of the features it gets higher marks than average for appearance, detail and, most importantly it runs well, smooth and quiet, if running with the sound muted in a test hop. As said I have several of these series of engines and if were unhappy with them I wouldn’t have more than one of them. That's why these engines I rated as good in my opinion as a non-expert.