Large Scale Central

Custom Steam Whistle Sounds for RailPro

Electronics Power and Sound
#1

I’ve been working on creating custom whistle and bell sounds for my Railpro locomotives. The sources are Youtube videos. The audio is downloaded as an .MP3 using a freeware tool, then edited using freeware Audacity.

Jackson & Burke #4 was the first of my road locomotives to be completed. It utilizes the whistle from EBT #12. I started with a great recording of 12 at a grade crossing. I was able to isolate the grade crossing as one sound, then split it up and modify it to make a file for one, two, and three short blasts to handle movement signals. I also made a loop file that acts like a normal Railpro whistle sound. It’s far from perfect, but it’s coming along.

Once the EBT whistle was loaded, I wasn’t happy with the bell sound, so off to Youtube is search of bells, I found a video of most on the bells at the “NMOT” museum. For #4, I chose a bell from a Fisco locomotive. The video has several others.

I plan to continue this project for the rest of my road locomotives. C.V.S.Ry #4 is sceduled to receive EBT #14’s whistle and #4 to get EBT #15’s whistle. For D&RGW #345 I’m torn between EBT #16 or a more proper Colorado locomotive’s whistle.

Here is a short video of J&B #4 showing off her new whistle and bell…

3 Likes
#2

Wow. Quite the improvement. Well done.

#3

Nice!
I’m using the ones I had Robbie program from the standard library.
He sent me a “Heavy Steam” with a diesel horn, and I still haven’t figured out how to delete that and add a heavy steam whistle.
Any tips?

#4

Sure John, I can help you IF you have a PC. If you live in the Apple world, all hope is lost :open_mouth:

Without a PC, you would need to take the LM out and send it to me to program for you.

#5

Jon,
Now that is cool, sell it to Ring so we can all use it :grinning:
Have you come up with the Shay sounds yet? and what about the chuff? :grinning:
Come on man we are all waiting :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes: :wink: :smiley:

#6

Unfortunately, Ring won’t publish his proprietary method for creating speed dependent sounds like steam engine chuff. Other than the Shay, his steam sounds are good, and if triggered with a simple on/off switch the chuff timing works pretty good with a couple of notable exceptions.

Regarding selling the sounds to Ring… He won’t pay; wants them donated. I don’t have a problem with that, but I’d rather post them on the RPUG website. I will do that once the project is complete.

1 Like
#7

Jon, I bought a Dell laptop just to deal with my Garmin, Phoenix, and Railpro.
Those three are not Apple friendly.
I have loaded all the Apps on it for them. According to Al at SanVal, before he passed, I bought the last PC USB Phoenix software he had.
I bought the RailPro interface,
so I’m ready for a lesson, (I think :smiley:)

#8

Super. We should get together over the phone.

Pre-requisite: Download & install the RailPro Assistant and the Hand Controller Simulator from Ring’s website to your laptop: Ring Engineering RailPro Software

Once you have those installed you are ready for the next step; using RailPro Assistant (RPA) download some steam whistles & bells.

Once you have the files you want stored in RPA, they get copied to the HC Simulator. Once in the Simulator, they get copied to your Locomotive Module.

All these copy steps take quite a bit of time. Be ready to multitask while it loads!

Once you have the sound(s) copied to the loco module (LM) the horn button can be changed to the new sound, and maybe the bell too.

That’s an overview. I can walk you through individual steps.

#9

I would like to find a diesel sound for my LGB #50 Switcher that sounds somewhat correct for this engine. I’m using a EMD sound that Rail Pro uses in their larger diesels, with the sound turned down somewhat to what it would be in the larger diesels, it does pass for the time being. After watching some videos on YouTube of this engine running at the Colorado RR Museum there is a big difference in the sound, so I will hope that RP will offer a sound like this in the future. I will say that no one has commented on the sound yet, so it’s ok for now, only I know what it should sound like.

#10

John, I used the alco switcher with single air horn for my LGB 50.
I don’t know what the original sounded like, but it suffices for me.

#11

I really wish Ring would release either a tool to build prime mover / steam engine sounds. They (he is more accurate) is very slow to release new sounds and seems to only be interested in modern diesels.

I run several GE 45 ton diesels that have two prime movers. Ring has nothing even close, so I installed really funky early diesel sound that I like.

#12

I’ve spent a lot of time on this project this week. J&B #4 is complete and I’ve moved on to my C-19s, starting with C.V.S.Ry. #4 and #8. I am continuing to use EBT whistles grabbed from Youtube videos.

I’ve not been real happy with what I’ve been able to come up with for Forward & Reverse signals using 15’s whistle for my #8. Now I’m trying to decided between 3 examples that I’ve created of the Reverse signal. Here they are. Feel free to vote!

Sound A:

Sound B:

Sound C:

#13

B, appeals to me. A is to sharp and C is just a variation of B that doesn’t rhyme.
Just my 2 cents.

#14

That is pretty much the way I feel. I made B because I felt A was too fast. Then I thought B was too long, so C was a variation. They all came from the same source, so the note(s) should be similar. Of course steam pressure variations made by the engineer’s hand on the cord can change pitch quite a bit.

I was really happy with my second attempt for Bruce’s #4 taken from EBT 12: