Conventional Railsounds

Good question!

 

I have only one locomotive with the earliest version of the so-called "Conventional RailSounds" and to be perfectly honest, I didn't think much of it.  It may be much better now.  If so, and if enough folks come forward saying it's really pretty darn good, there may be another engine or two on my want list.

I had the scale 0-8-0 Switchers with railsounds. I was disappointed
In the chuffed. They cut out frequently. And the sounds were not lound enough. By the time the engine got up to speed the chuffed sounded like a machine gun. The smoke was poor as well. The only cool feature was leaving it at the yard in neutral at 16 volts. It than smoke great and you could hear the sounds

I also had that problem.

Can these early railsounds be simply upgraded or do they require a totaly new system in order to improve the quality of the sounds?

 

Steve A.

Yeah my Lionel T-1 has first-gen Railsounds and its... underwhelming.  I would love to upgrade it (at least to something with a battery that doesn't cut out when I cycle the e-unit) but I don't want to spend a million dollars converting it to TMCC or Legacy when I really just want to run conventional.

Railsounds 2.5 to 4.0 is pretty good. I did a lot of conventional conversions from Digital Dynamics. Electric Railroad now offers it. RS4 is or can be a stand alone sound system or work with TMCC if the engine is equipped with it. It is in itself not a command system. Fidelity wise it is as good as or better than MTH PS1 or PS2,at least the units I have.  One problem is limited sound choices as Lionel will not release its library. About 4 diesel and 4 steam chips are available.  Skipping chuff rate can be fixed with a reed switch and some magnets and 4 chuffs per revolution can be had..  I think you guys are speaking of RS1 or "trainsounds". Not so good.

 

Dale H

I think that it will be interesting to hear what the new 'Railsounds RTR' is like when the new sets hit the stores.

My experience of 'Trainsounds' is limited to one locomotive, so I'm no expert on that. It is only a single sound channel though, so chuffing stops when the whistle or bell are in use. But all things considered, I think that it is not too bad when one considers what you are getting for the price. And it's a whole lot better than not having any sound at all.  My biggest problem with it, is that it doesn't like 50Hz at all. Hopefully the new system will resolve that, and I won't need to switch to inverter power anymore when I want to run one, as I'd really like to add the 'Grand Central' set to my roster.

Yes, that at least is what I am referring to, NOT the original RailSounds or any later versions (which are all excellent).

That is correct. Trainsounds. My 0-8-0 was scale but with trainsounds. The bummer is if you up grae with TMCC the sound boards have be replaced.

It's pretty good, at least in the conventional Atlantic and Mogul from the 2011 Signature catalog.  I have recent recent (2011-2012) conventional and Legacy Railsounds and frankly it sounds to me like Lionel uses the same electronics in both the conventional and Legacy versions - with conventional you just can't program and control the sound like you can with Legacy, so you just get default settings, but the chuffing and such is good. 

 

One thing I have noticed, tender size seems to make a noticeable difference.  the Mogul has a really small tender, and speaker, apparently, and is the worst of the lot, with much less depth to the sound. 

 

I'm at work for a few hours this morning even though it is a vacation day, but I promise to post videos with sound of several locos for comparison by early this afternoon.

50hz AC?  How ancient?  Where?  Canada?

The chuffing cutting out is the chuff switch most of the time, not the board.

Here are the videos I promised earlier.  Everyone can make up their own mind.  

Below, I go from traditional railsounds gradually up through conventional and then various Legacy locos to Vision, step by step.  I add a PS3 loco just for the fun, at the end. 

Traditional Railsounds.  From about 10 years ago or so.  This is my best (of four) "railsounds tenders" - the only metal one I have.  This isn't the tender that goes with this loco (I used the loco because it was already on the track). A pretty basic sound - low chuff rate, too, but in a metal tender, nice and loud (all three plastic tender Railsounds are much quieter). 

Conventional Railsounds.  This conventional Atlantic is from the 2011 Signature catalog, I think -- a very recent one, anyway.   This sounds a lot better than that traditional Railsounds.  Of all the "Railsounds" locos here, conventional or Legacy, this has the smallest tender by far.

Next are several Legacy Railsounds locos: all two-cylinder locos, presented in increasing size of the tender: I think bigger tender size gives better sound even if the speakers/enclosures are the same.  To me, in person, these all sound like the same electronics (and the same as in the Atlantic), except for a noticeable "tender quality" effect: the bigger the tender, the better the sound.  And they all definitely sound identical at idle , but the chuffing differs a bit in depth (depending on tender size, once they get moving.

Legacy Blue Comet (the most recent one)- it's a big loco but has a tender only a bit larger (1/2 longer, 1/4 inch higher) than the Atlantic.  Frankly, to me, it sounds only a tiny bit different than the Atlantic.

Legacy Southern Crescent (yes this is a Southern Crescent from the most recent catalog, but it's been repainted).  This sounds just a tad richer than the Blue Comet, which I put down to its bigger tender (almost 1.5 inches longer, a much bigger increase than the Blue Comet over the Atlantci) but otherwise the same basic chuffing sound. 

ATSF Northern, again, from most recent catalog.  An even bigger tender and it sounds even deeper still, with no other distinction in the sound I can discern.  

Yellowstone - yes, again from the most recent catalog - for me that was the most budget-devastating catalog ever.  Anyway, this has a big tender - arguably as big or as the Northern's (but rounded edges rather than square.  Its a bigger loco and has a very different rolling sound to it due to all the wheels, but the chuffing does not sound that different from the Northern, to me.  it sound have twice the cylinder noice etc. and it does not sound nearly that more complicated to me.  Identical to the Northern at idle. 

Vision Hudson.  Now this sounds different than the others. More complicated.  Not sure that difference along would be worth much of anything to me (its more diffierent than better in my opinion) but throw in the swinging bell and . . . 

MTH PS3 241.A.  Finally, MTH's latest, and I assume, its best.  In person this 241.A does not have as rich and deep a chuffing bass as the bigger-tendered Lionels have, but it does have a sharper steam blast at each chuff and it sounds complex, like a three cylinder ought to - that comes through nicely here.   Beautiful loco, too.

I like the one in the Vision Hudson the best.

A lot of MTH stuff could benefit from a better speaker baffle.

Lee.

 

Thanks for the sound demos.  That is really a very nice comparison, and helpful.

 

George