Large Scale Central

A poll........ Sound or no sound in your trains

General Discussion
#21

Sound!

#22

figure out how to pipe in Glenn Miller and Artie Shaw… otherwise, no.

#23

Gotta have sound!

#24

I to like sound.
But I refuse to sell my first born to get it.
Being just about retired I have to be even cheaper than I have been previously.
Trying to live on half the money is really hard.

#25

I have outlayed a small fortune on sound units, particularly with the DCC equipped locomotives. However, after running for about 30 minutes or so, it is eternal bliss to turn the units off and enjoy the complete abscence of sound. Apparently, diesel sound is more monotonous and irritating than steam and gets turned off more often.

I could not live without sound, but it is essential to be able to turn it off to simply enjoy one’s trains.

#26
Tim Brien said:
.... but it is essential to be able to turn it off to simply enjoy one's trains.
That's probably half my problem with sound (the other half is it still doesn't SOUND like a real steam engine)--- I worked too many shows stuck beside the yahoos selling sound and smoke who insisted on cranking both up for the duration.
#27

“. . . . . . . or better yet follow along with the train aka “be the engineer” and blow the whistle where it’s called for and ring the bell in the same manner.”
Sorry H-JM, LGB doesn’t provide that option in its Mikado.

#28
Andrew Simpson said:
...........

Mylocosound - $95au
Dallee - not found on dealers website
Piko - $256au
LGB - $317 au
Phoenix - $390au


Andrew,
basically, the Mylocosound is the only one to work out of the box (aftern intensive fine tuning). Dallee, fortunately, you could not find it listed on the dealer’s website as you saved yourself a few dollars. You would have been very disappointed.

        Piko supplied sound is a Dietz DCC decoder and requires a motor decoder and DCC system to utilise.  Not a standalone unit.

        LGB sound unit will work out of the box on analogue,  but still requires a capacitor sound storage unit ($140) to enable idle sounds (unless one leaves around six volts minimum constantly on the rails) or a 4.8 volt NiCad pack directly connected to the unit.  Bell/whistle can only be triggered by magnets when on analogue.

        Phoenix is fine on analogue,  but one really needs to outlay another $100 or so for software/electronics to get the most from them.

        Price for all units is a starting point only.  As I have DCC,  it was not economically feasible to consider Mylocosound as the cost of the unit on top of the price of a decoder,  I could have almost purchased a digital sound/motor decoder.
#29

In a lot of cases, it isn’t “Sound”, it’s constantly repeating NOISE…as you get older, in this World of constant noise, where some think that the volume has to be turned up to the top…it is so great to spend an hour or two, operating a locomotive, and cars, in relative silence…

#30

My steam locos go choo-choo, but that’s because they are steam trains. True, I have a few big diesels with ULTRA-EXPENSIVE sound systems in them, but TBH they are relegated to shows and show-n-tells that we attend to get the rubber-neckers interested. Running them in our backyard, in a little village where we are surrounded by kids, has failed utterly to attract any atttention whatsoever over the years, even turned up loud to attract 'em.

I agree with you all about the stratospheric pricing of these rather simple bits of circuitry - the cost of a single Phoenix sound system here in UK actually exceeds that of an Aristo-Craft Dash 9 to fit around it.

Last year I celebrated my 65th birthday - and the card I got from my well-wisher played me the Alleluya Chorus, in full polyphonic [if slightly tinny] choral sound. All for about $5, if the money she borrowed from me to pay for it was anything to go by.

I also bought myself something I’d always wanted, but just didn’t know - a large radio-control firetruck with ALL the sounds - engine start-up and revving, bells, horns, sirenes, words of command - ‘Get to work’, ‘Get more pressure here, NOW’, We’ll need breathing gear here…’ ‘Stand back from the hose’ and so on… - less than fifty bucks.

HTH the makers of loco sounds can justify their appallingly-high prices goes way over THIS boy’s aching head.

tac, ig & The Seaside Traffic Circle Boys

#31

Had a thought, that 'splained my position. The current sound units are a lot like the audio version of toupees… An expensive one still looks like a rug, and a cheap one looks like a dead animal sitting on your head.

(http://blog.pawshpal.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/trump_dog.jpg)

#32

I find that the sound that I generate inside my brain housing group to be far more satisfying than anything on the market so far.

If some smart EE was to design a sound card-R/C-DCC card that actually worked together, without having to purchase a third interface card. that fella could make a mint. Tony, Del, any ideas?

And keep the price reasonable, so us retired folks could afford them…

#33
Steve Featherkile said:
I find that the sound that I generate inside my brain housing group to be far more satisfying than anything on the market so far.

If some smart EE was to design a sound card-R/C-DCC card that actually worked together, without having to purchase a third interface card. that fella could make a mint. Tony, Del, any ideas?

And keep the price reasonable, so us retired folks could afford them…


I dont need an expensive sound unit, I have my little ones wooden train whistle. Cost $6

#34

I have souind in my RCS bateery powered NW-2 which i enjoy. Would like to add sound in at least 4 other locos but short on $$$$$$, retirement check just goes so far.

#35

Sound, definitely. Any more, it’s my primary consideration when picking electronics for whatever loco I’m working on. The realism of Phoenix and QSI are hard to beat. You can program them to behave pretty much exactly as you want, and the variation in the chuff as the loco accelerates and decelerates is phenomenal. I don’t run my sound very loud at all. I don’t want to hear the loco if it’s more than 30’ away from me. I like to hear the loco approach and fade away as it passes. (It also keeps the neighbors happier–especially when I’m running at night.) So when I’m running, I never find myself getting “tired” of hearing the sounds as I sometimes do on railroads where the sounds are turned up so loud you hear them over a teenager’s stereo. That, and bells and whistles triggered by magnets in the track so they make noise at exactly the same place EVERY time are probably my two pet peeves when it comes to sound.

Later,

K

#36

Sound, definitely. Waiting for the Revo-with-sound receivers myself.

#37
Bob McCown said:
Sound, definitely. Waiting for the Revo-with-sound receivers myself.
That will be interesting. Let's see if Lewis, or Scott does this one well.
#38

Well, I had sound (of sorts) “way back when.” I had American Flyers for 22 years. All my steam locomotives had smoke and “choo-choo,” even the 0-6-0st Docksider had smoke and “choo-choo,” but no lights. Now, this low-tech system, either by design or accident, had only two chugs per wheel revolution. That is probably why a lot of us AF kids were happily unaware that we were running our trains at the toy-train equivalent of Warp speed.

Presently I have four large scale steamers with sound. The LGB C&S Mogul #6 and the chubby-boilered 0-4-0 with the Vandy tender have the analog sound. I added “poor man’s” sound to the 2018d Mogul by putting the guts from an old AHM HO sound gondola into the Mogul’s tender. (It’s fairly soft, but I’m told that the old wood burners were soft-spoken - probably due to their spark-arresting stacks.) Finally, I have a Bachmann Indy with the noise generator. The Indy starts out chugging, but soon turns to a steady “Woosh.” I should be disappointed, but this is a Brandywine & Gondor locomotive that is “fired” from the breath of a small dragon perched on the tender. SO, to me the “Woosh” sounds just right for a dragon’s fiery breath.

That said, I can handle about two locomotives making sound at a time. (Only was ever able to run two American Flyers at a time as well.) Once the third locomotive gets into the mix, the cacophony of noise becomes too much, and I’m ready for “stealth” mode.

Just my $0.02,
David Meashey

#39
Kevin Strong said:
.... That, and bells and whistles triggered by magnets in the track so they make noise at exactly the same place EVERY time are probably my two pet peeves when it comes to sound. .............

K


I couldn’t agree more. That is why my RailBoss Plus controls include the option of controlling your magnet triggered horn/whistle. It is user programmable to trigger anywhere from 0 to 100% of the time it passes over the magnet. The random triggers make your railroad unpredictable, more fun, and much less annoying. You can also enable or disable the track whistle from the transmitter, on the fly. And of course, you can always trigger up to 4 sounds directly from the transmitter at any time you wish.

#40

No sound. cost to much and drives me crazy after about 5 minutes.