3rd rail SP 4-10-2 test run

Does the sound unit based as a 3 cyclinder locomotive?

I never noticed the chug as I was watching other areas. You can change the chug rate as well as other things.

Frank

My spies tell me it was six evenly spaced chuffs per revolution.  Be happy with four -six will sound like white noise.

That was a gorgeous model.  Wish they had tapered the boiler.  I gave it very high marks even with that flaw.

I have this model also, and run it a lot. It does indeed have the correct three cylinder exhaust, and at speed it does NOT sound like "white noise". I have been on and around two cylinder, three cylinder, and four cylinder real steam locomotives at various speeds under load, and NONE of them sounded like "white noise", even UP 844 and SP 4449 at speeds over 80 MPH.

The Sunset/3rd Rail model of the SP 4-10-2 is also a great puller, and handles my 30 car PFE reefer train with no problems.

If this is how all 3rd rail engines run, than there are a lot of happy owners out there.

I just pulled a 3rd Rail engine out that I haven't run in a year to test electrical continuity of the switches on the layout I'm building.  It ran like a dream.  I can't say that for the equipment of all manufacturers.

Enjoy that new engine Frank!

I guess I am just deaf.  For me, over a certain speed, the chuffs just become one continuous sound, both on models and on the real thing.  These days, the real thing doesn't run fast enough to blend together.  I only have one ear.

I always suspected the Lionel two- chuff debacle was triggered because others were like me and could not hear the individual chuffs above some fairly low speed.

By the way, I did have the PS-2 challenger here for a test run, along with the TIU and associated pieces.  At low speeds it sounded just exactly like the 3985, even to the double chuff when the engines were almost aligned in phase.  I was too young to know the difference, but I am sure as a kid I heard at least one 5000 go by.

If your third rail model ever falters, add a wire between engine and tender.  I guess you guys have rollers, so this comment is less than useful, but the 2-rail setup really needed the extra wire.

I agree - the latest transmissions, the Pittmans, and that tooth belt combine to make the very best power trains.

What makes you think THAT?

Hello bob2...........

Does the Sunset 3rd Santa Fe #5011 class come with that kind of drive (Pittman motor and tooth belt transmission)?  I am excited to pick up mine in about 2 1/2 weeks 

the woman who loves the S.F. #5021

Tiffany

I believe they are all like that.  Very high quality drives.  Didn't we do this before?

Earlier Sunset with brass axle gears will need a new bronze or plastic axle gear.  This is not a difficult fix, but requires a quartering fixture.  We are talking about models made almost two decades ago - some are still out there.

Hey, Hot - we are on the same team here.  Either the chuffs blend together at high speed or they do not - with your ears, you have the choice.  You cannot have it both ways.

For my ears, a Challenger at track speed does not have individual chuffs, but the tiny narrow gauge engines I ride behind now rarely exceed eight mph.  I can hear every exhaust event, and can tell when they are out of square or have leaky packing.

Videos with dubbed sounds drive me nuts, because of my obsessive counting of driver revolutions.  Be better if I knew nothing about chuff rate.

OK. A roar at the stack at 50 to 60 MPH for a 63" to 69" diameter drivered locomotive is one thing. But, "white noise"???? NOT in my experience!

Well, pure white noise is a mathematical abstraction.  It means equal intensity at all frequencies, or something like that.  Obviously a roar out of a fast steam engine is not really white.  But anybody who says they can count chuffs at 30 mph is a lot better at hearing and seeing than am I.

I have only one locomotive with sound, and really cannot wait to get it factory reset so I can hear the bell and whistle.  set the chuff rate myself, because I changed the gear ratio.  Once it gets to track speed, the chuff, which starts at four per revolution, is just static with a little ripple.  But when slow, it is really a Joy.

Since there are some limitations in simulating steam engine exhaust, I try not to exceed a speed where the exhaust still sounds crisp, with my steam engines.