I have one of the newer FS reefers As far as overall squealing and ambient sounds going around the layout they are similar. In that aspect, the rail joint clatter is much louder on the freightsounds reefer. Its almost difficult to hear on the VL without the sounds turned up.

Having said that. Some folks feel the rail clatter on the FS reefer is too loud and choose to turn it of.  I leave it on , and turn the volume down a bit, and find it acceptable. Its a matter of  personal preference.

FS reefers DO NOT have any remote capability nor any or the following:

1. Loading and unloading dialogue

2. Brake squeal

3. Selectable flat spot sounds

4. An electrocoupler on one end

Heres a video demonstration by forum member Pennsy484:

Overall, I think Lionel did a good job on the sounds on these, but as you can see in the video above as ,well as my photo here the neon yellows and oranges are a bit much:

Thanks, RickO

I just bought my 1st Lionel box car with freight sounds, and am delighted with it.

I anyone has the VisionLine set of 3 freight cars with sounds, which I understand is state of the art and runs on Legacy, I would love to hear about them. Arnold

One of my complaints with the standard sound cars was the lack of remote configuration.  So, I fixed that.   The flat spot sound cars actually end up having three different levels of sound, and you can change them on the fly, but that's only if you can catch up with the car and reach the switches.  It's nice to be able to configure and enable/disable the sounds as you run.

Remote Control for Lionel Sound Boxcars

• Power on/off to the sound board
• Volume step-down from volume pot setting
• On/off control of the two configuration switches

I am looking to pick up either a PS-1 freight sounds boxcar or possibly a Vision line with sounds.

Will the Vision line sounds boxcar work in a uncommand environment? I run DCS on my layout but no Legacy. I run my Lionel trains via bluetooth so I was wondering if they can simply be placed on a powered track and work like the PS-1 freight sounds box cars or do they require Legacy control to work?

Thanks,

Brad

The Vision Line will work in a conventional environment, but why spend the extra money if you don't have TMCC/Legacy?

You might be a candidate for my remote control upgrade for sound cars, here's a couple of threads on them.

https://ogrforum.com/...lionel-sound-boxcars

https://ogrforum.com/...ol-sound-car-upgrade

That's pretty cool. I'll keep that in mind.

The only reason I thought about the Vision line was because it was only $25 more and it has a gyro type mechanism that sets off the wheel squeal noises going around corners. Not to mention the added details of the Vision line.

Thought that was a pretty neat feature. I read about it in another topic here on the forum. I believe it may have been you or Dave Olsen that mentioned it. Can't remember.

Thanks GRJ,

Brad

I don't know if all the Vision line freight cars have the curve detection, there's certainly none in the 6-83545 Vision Line PFE Reefer Parts set.  All I see is the stock RS-Lite sound board and the RCDR TMCC receiver.

I know the Vision Line Tank Cars have the curve detection, it's a simple hanging pendulum affair, but it works.

The 6-27410 Vision Line Ethanol Tank Car Parts set, OTOH, did have the curve sensing.  There's a board with hall effect sensors and a hanging pendulum over it that senses when the car enters a curve.  This is one of the things I found really cool about the tank car set, and they also had sounds in two of the three cars!  They were a great value, which is why I scouted around for several sets.

Great information as always GRJ.

The ones I'm looking at are the 2026130 is the Freight sounds PS-1 and the 2126400 is the Vision line. I was wrong about the $25 difference. It more like $80.

Thanks,

Brad

No parts breakdown for that one, but the description on the Lionel site doesn't sound like it's any different than the other Vision Line boxcars.

The black Southern Pacific Boxcar is Lionel freight sounds. All the reefers (except silver) and all stock cars are Vision Line with rail sounds.

I received my freightsounds boxcar yesterday. Lionel # 2026130 from 2020. I'm very happy with it but I did move the min/max switch to min because the so called "Thumping" sound was more like a chuff sound from a steam engine and was constant. With the switch to min it's more random then constant which I really like with the squealing effect. I think they are a great addition especially when paired with locomotives that have fewer sounds.

Brad

Now you just need to add remote control and it'll be an even greater addition.

Remote Control for Lionel Sound Boxcars

I bought the Vision Line ethanol tanker sets (sound and non-sound) shortly after they came out as I wanted the six different road numbers for two-railing (still not done!), many years later when I finally opened up the sound set to give it a listen, I was definitely not impressed with the sounds. They all sounded like someone inside the tank beating on it with a spike maul. One of the sound cars has an EOT and I thought that, even after two-railing, that would be a neat feature to retain; well, maybe not so easy as ISTR the EOT board is wired into the sound board in some way and may not be easily separable. My thought on the two-rail EOT was a battery inside with a slide-switch on the bottom of the tank (part of the underbody details) and maybe a charging jack hidden there somewhere. Note that I wanted the black UTLX cars but I was too late (2011, they were in the 2009-2 catalog) in ordering as I wanted to duplicate this view that I took in Dalton, GA on 20nov10:

I love the Vision Freight Cars. They add a whole new dimension to a layout. I bought the most recent (2021) ATSF Vision Reefer Set. If you can find them, they are fantastic. Plus, the price is not that bad ($350 or so).

To answer the question of what the differences are between standard Freight Sounds cars and the Vision Line cars, the Vision Cars have Legacy boards so you get more features than just the background sounds.

@Dylan the Train Man posted:

I love the Vision Freight Cars. They add a whole new dimension to a layout. I bought the most recent (2021) ATSF Vision Reefer Set. If you can find them, they are fantastic. Plus, the price is not that bad ($350 or so).

To answer the question of what the differences are between standard Freight Sounds cars and the Vision Line cars, the Vision Cars have Legacy boards so you get more features than just the background sounds.

I got two sets of older ATSF/PFE Vision Line reefers for about $220 each