DO YOU REMEMBER THE FIRST TIME YOU HEARD LIONEL'S REVOLUTIONARY RAILSOUNDS?

Lionel's ACL F3s.  First time I powered them up I was blown away.  They only got better.  Bottom Right.

A fun thread to be no doubt.  My first time story follows.

Nebraska had an away game with the Cal. bears in Berkeley. I wanted to fly out to meet up with some folks in the bay area and see the game.  I also wanted to revisit my old RR stomping grounds in Truckee.  So we flew to Reno, rented a car and drove up to Truckee.  This was around 1990 I believe.  Stopping in Truckee we walked the main street again and there was a train store.  Inside was a small set up of about 10 feet with track.  On it was something SP, a diesel with Railsounds.  I was totally amazed by what I heard and the slow operation of the engine.  I knew then that I would be getting back into trains after years of absence.  My wife and I and youngest daughter were able to revisit the big double track  shed guarding the mouth of the big hole.  What a trip. 

When I was 6 I went to the club I belong to now, my dad became a member and the president now had 2 C&O Texas when I heard the Whistle, I was sold on Lionel's sounds.

In 1991 there was a cataloged but un-boxed Frisco Freight set that caught my eye.  One of the cars was the 6-19229 Frisco RailSounds box car.  I was hooked.   I remember when I first read about it I was like ehh.  How could a tiny speaker sound like a real train I thought.  Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised.

Tony 

I remember the first TMCC locomotives. I was so blown away, I took them into my classroom and invited the principal in to see them. He gave me a curious smile.

I worked at P&D when the first real railsounds engine arrived. The scale 0-6-0. Until then I was happy just to have the static SOS till I heard this one. Bought 2, sold 1, wish I had kept it.

I remember getting a Rutland diesel Railsounds boxcar in the early 90's. I think it had only 2 diesel rev levels once you were moving. Had to run that thing a scale 300 mph to get the diesel sounds to ramp up, usually flying off a corner first.

When I was a toddler, TM had recently released their video magazine Toy Train Revue, and that video first exposed me to Lionel's first generation of RailSounds (since they played them constantly), and I was quite dazzled by the sounds and I still am to this day.

Of course, when I first heard the C&O Yellowbelly Hudson equipped with RailSounds 2, that overshadowed the older system, then the PWC Texas Special F-3 and the Century 773 Hudson, and it just went on and on.

I was a little late to the party... Christmas 1992 my bride bought me the Lionel GN Empire Builder passenger set. After the house emptied I set it up and just had it going around and around. About 3 AM I remember my wife yelling, are you coming to bed!! Ah, those sounds!!!

My first exposure was with the purchase of a SD 40 Milwaukee Road engine. First time on the tracks I was blown away and from there on I have never looked back..............Paul

I picked up my Reading T-1 by Lionel on an icy night, drove 45 minutes to pick it up, came home and put an oval of 072 on the dining room floor, my cat and I sat in the middle of the oval and just listened to it run. Since then, sounds have gotten better, but I still have the T-1, and it still runs great, needs occasional oiling and the four wire tether replaced, but still has "presence", for want of a better word. No fan driven smoke, no steam from the whistle but still my favorite loco.

My dad's Conrail SD60M.  It was awesome.

Our first was a late 90's B&O GP-9 with Railsounds 2.5. I have to admit that I wasn't really blown away. It sounded small and tinny to my ear. I was trying to figure out what all of the fuss was about. However, fast forward to the mid 2000's first release of the Legacy scale GP-7's and that blew me away. Rich, deep sounds all the way around.

Absolutely! I was at Trigg Marine in Boardman, Ohio in the early 90's.

People look at me funny, but RailSounds and TMCC are the two technologies that took me from a casual model railroader to a total nut for trains. I had always had HO, O, and even N and they were fun, but it wasn't until I heard the sound on the Scale Hudson repro that I REALLY got interested. I will never forget seeing that engine bellow smoke and hearing those fantastic sounds. My Jaw hit the floor.

Perhaps it is because music/sound is very important to me? I grew up with a father that ran a recording studio for most of my childhood so I was exposed to all kinds of music. Perhaps it is because we lived two blocks from the tracks and I would hear trains everyday? Not quite sure WHY it was so important. I only know that RailSounds was THE catalyst for me taking my model railroading to the next level.

I'm still a sound snob to this day

Sure do remember, I had a steam rail-soundsbox car  that I could put behind any post war steamer. I loved the whistle. It sounded like the train was 3 miles away...Haunting sound....

I'm going way back to the "Mighty Sound Of Steam".  Back in the late '70s.  By today's standards, it was quite primitive, but a huge leap from no sound at all.  Then in the eighties I purchased a Nickel Plate Berkshire.  The sound system was a bit improved with standing sounds of the locomotive panting.  By the time all of the newer sound systems came on the market I was out of O gauge and into large scale.  

Yes, it was Norm C.'s trains featured on "I Love Toy Trains"

It brought me back to the hobby. Sound is awesome.

My uncle bought one of the B6's when they first came out. I guess I was 7 or so at the time. 

The chuff was such an improvement over "The Mighty Sound of Steam" and there was a bell! I remember being more amazed at the bell than anything else. 

We have come so far since, but I will always have a place in my heart for those early Railsounds locos. One of these days I am going to pick up a 1-700e and a 6-11711 F3 set!

My first hands-on experience was with the Century Club 1 Berkshire. Decent sounds and nice whistle, but Gilbert's AF choo-choo mechanism had it beat in the steam engine sounds department, IMHO. The Century Club 1 NYC F-3 was my first exposure to RS for diesels and I remember being suitably impressed. Railsounds, however, has become VERY much improved since the mid-90s and long ago left the competition in the dust. The first issue of N&W 611 with RS5 mid-century last  was the OMG departure for me.

Happy listening!

Bob

I remember all to well on December 26, 2014 I received my first legacy engine .  It was the vision line Big boy.  I reprogramed the specific address to that engine and as soon as I hit the set button on the cab 2 remote, the sound just blew me away!  The wife looked at me and said "Where on earth did that come from"?  There is no trains in Hawaii 

Ha! I was late to the playing field.... 2005, picked up a set of F7 A-B-A with rail sounds 5.0 at the Lionel visitor center for 300.00. At the time I was putting the HO on hold and investigating going to all S scale. And what Lionel was producing was VERY limited in S...

So I brought these home and put them on the loop of track on the basement floor and my jaw dropped.... wow 3 rail has made a huge comeback!

Packed up the HO and S, or I displayed them as shelf princesses... and NEVER looked back!

Oh, you're not talking about Lionel's "beans in the wheel" found in some tenders are you?

So railsounds came out before MTH had sound?   What about DCC sound decoders?  Before, after?  (Not important, just curious)

In 1995 I went to a train show in Omaha, NE with my dad and I got my first taste of railsounds in the form of an add on tender with 1993 printed on the back.  We bought for $100 and it works great to this day. We liked the fact that it could be added to any of our PW engines. The sound was better than anything we had heard previous and it had a bell!

Before that, the "mighty sound of static" and the "rolling rock" tenders were as good as it got.

Jim 1939 posted:

I worked at P&D when the first real railsounds engine arrived. The scale 0-6-0. Until then I was happy just to have the static SOS till I heard this one. Bought 2, sold 1, wish I had kept it.

I do remember that the scale 0-6-0 was issued first, but, didn't hear the system until the Reading T-1 was issued.  That 0-6- is a beauty, and a vivid illustration of the knowledge and experience of the avid Lionel collector, Richard Kuhn, who had assumed the helm of Lionel.  The sounds of that engine are also very appealing as you strongly intimate.

Severn posted:

So railsounds came out before MTH had sound?   What about DCC sound decoders?  Before, after?  (Not important, just curious)

I'm  99% sure that Rail sounds came out before MTH had sound.  As I recall, Mr. Neil Young, formerly of Crosby, Still, Nash & Young, and Richard Kuhn, then head of Lionel,  formed a company called LionTech, and Railsounds was one of the results.   As I also recall, Mike Wolf was working with Lionel at the time, and, Mr. Wolf was instrumental in the creation of the Reading T-1 locomotive.  I think Mr. Kughn owned a 1-1 Reading T-1 at or near that time.

H1000 posted:

In 1995 I went to a train show in Omaha, NE with my dad and I got my first taste of railsounds in the form of an add on tender with 1993 printed on the back.  We bought for $100 and it works great to this day. We liked the fact that it could be added to any of our PW engines. The sound was better than anything we had heard previous and it had a bell!

Before that, the "mighty sound of static" and the "rolling rock" tenders were as good as it got.

Those tenders, and, many of the more sophisticated ones that follow, can be paired with many Williams steamers to change the operating experience dramatically, depending on your preferences at any given time.

1989 Barrilarro Toy Trains in Colchester, CT.  Pennsylvania B6sb.

Jon  

We had our hobby shop at the time and remember the B6 switcher's arrival. My manager (who didn't particularly care for trains) would often step out of the shop whenever my train friends/customers would drop in and I'd naturally have to demonstrate the new sounds.

Before that however, a customer had brought in a brass R.O.W. articulated steamer with sounds and we were amazed at the effects of the haunting whistle with reverb.  That was my first exposure to 'modern' trainsounds!

When Mike produced his scale Hudson, it sounded better than the Lionel model, especially the bell which was the 'clearest' bell sound I had heard to date.

I certainly do.  They were copied from Right of Way sounds which were demonstrated to Lionel a year earlier. There was a big meeting held at Overland Models in Muncie Indiana hosted by Tom Marsh. RoW had Benson, Ed Pinske and me. Lionel has Kughn, Piesner, Cooney, Braga, and Dean. This was a suit and tie meeting.  Since Benson and Kughn were restoring Reading 2100 together, Benson thought it a good idea to sell Lionel some of our technology.

First RoW suggested using a brass shell and sideframes on the GP9 chassis to make the latest real world loco, a GE dash 8. Lionel decided they could do a cheaper job of it with plastic. We found that out when GE called and said Lionel was there looking for blueprints. 

Then we suggested  an updated and detailed brass shell for the berkshire chassis. Hence the Lackawanna 4-8-4. 

Then I demonstrated a digital sound system with whistle, bell, and chug. I found out from Mike Ledyard (VP of engineering) in a discussion at York in the Gold Hall that Lionel opted to get custom made sound chips from someone in California at the price of $25,000 per chip design. Way more than what RoW would have charged.  

So in a funny sort of way, I do remember.  

Regards,

Lou N

Lou N posted:

I certainly do.  They were copied from Right of Way sounds which were demonstrated to Lionel a year earlier. There was a big meeting held at Overland Models in Muncie Indiana hosted by Tom Marsh. RoW had Benson, Ed Pinske and me. Lionel has Kughn, Piesner, Cooney, Braga, and Dean. This was a suit and tie meeting.  Since Benson and Kughn were restoring Reading 2100 together, Benson thought it a good idea to sell Lionel some of our technology.

First RoW suggested using a brass shell and sideframes on the GP9 chassis to make the latest real world loco, a GE dash 8. Lionel decided they could do a cheaper job of it with plastic. We found that out when GE called and said Lionel was there looking for blueprints. 

Then we suggested  an updated and detailed brass shell for the berkshire chassis. Hence the Lackawanna 4-8-4. 

Then I demonstrated a digital sound system with whistle, bell, and chug. I found out from Mike Ledyard (VP of engineering) in a discussion at York in the Gold Hall that Lionel opted to get custom made sound chips from someone in California at the price of $25,000 per chip design. Way more than what RoW would have charged.  

So in a funny sort of way, I do remember.  

Regards,

Lou N

Thanks for posting!  Great story, "in a funny sort of way" as you state.

At that time, from the "outside", I specifically remember the ROW locos, and, the Williams, "Crown Edition", hand-made brass engines leading the movement to 3-rail scale sized locomotives.  I never owned a ROW steamer, but the Williams Crown Edition SP Daylight steamer is the reason that I had 0-72 curves to run the Lionel Reading T-1 on my layout that New Years Eve. The Williams wasn't as detailed as the new locomotives, but, it sure looked great on those wide radius curves instead of the earlier Lionel (MPC?)compressed  rendition.  

I'm sure that many 3-rail hobbyists aren't aware of the significant contributions by ROW and Williams in the steady march to scale.  I'd bet that those companies helped ignite the spark in Lionel (+Mr.Wolf at the time) and, then, MTH to create all of the beautiful scale locos available today.

I certainly never realized that they were "copied from Right of Way sounds".  From a hobbyist's standpoint, the RailSounds in the Reading T-1 were remarkable, and, memorable. 

Dennis GS-4 N & W No. 611 posted:

Lou N posted:

I certainly do.  They were copied from Right of Way sounds which were demonstrated to Lionel a year earlier. There was a big meeting held at Overland Models in Muncie Indiana hosted by Tom Marsh. RoW had Benson, Ed Pinske and me. Lionel has Kughn, Piesner, Cooney, Braga, and Dean. This was a suit and tie meeting.  Since Benson and Kughn were restoring Reading 2100 together, Benson thought it a good idea to sell Lionel some of our technology.

First RoW suggested using a brass shell and sideframes on the GP9 chassis to make the latest real world loco, a GE dash 8. Lionel decided they could do a cheaper job of it with plastic. We found that out when GE called and said Lionel was there looking for blueprints. 

Then we suggested  an updated and detailed brass shell for the berkshire chassis. Hence the Lackawanna 4-8-4. 

Then I demonstrated a digital sound system with whistle, bell, and chug. I found out from Mike Ledyard (VP of engineering) in a discussion at York in the Gold Hall that Lionel opted to get custom made sound chips from someone in California at the price of $25,000 per chip design. Way more than what RoW would have charged.  

So in a funny sort of way, I do remember.  

Regards,

Lou N

Thanks for posting!  Great story, "in a funny sort of way" as you state.

At that time, from the "outside", I specifically remember the ROW locos, and, the Williams, "Crown Edition", hand-made brass engines leading the movement to 3-rail scale sized locomotives.  I never owned a ROW steamer, but the Williams Crown Edition SP Daylight steamer is the reason that I had 0-72 curves to run the Lionel Reading T-1 on my layout that New Years Eve. The Williams wasn't as detailed as the new locomotives, but, it sure looked great on those wide radius curves instead of the earlier Lionel (MPC?)compressed  rendition.  

I'm sure that many 3-rail hobbyists aren't aware of the significant contributions by ROW and Williams in the steady march to scale.  I'd bet that those companies helped ignite the spark in Lionel (+Mr.Wolf at the time) and, then, MTH to create all of the beautiful scale locos available today.

I certainly never realized that they were "copied from Right of Way sounds".  From a hobbyist's standpoint, the RailSounds in the Reading T-1 were remarkable, and, memorable. 

 

This was a very interesting experience. Piesner had no idea about trains. Cooney was just a nervous wreck. Braga was very shy, I think it was his first big meeting. I spent time talking with Mike Braga. He was in a sportcoat, not a 3 piece suit like the rest of us. Beginning of a long friendship.  Lenny Dean liked the SW9 cow and calf idea. Dick and I spent time talking about Thunderbirds. 

RoW was going to make the T1. I already had the sounds from the restoration going on in Hagerstown. RoW already has a brass prototype.  RoW needed e units so Bill allowed Dick to make the T1 if Lionel would sell RoW e units for other locos.  Moot point ultimately as RoW used QSI e units. 

And please don't misunderstand.  The railsounds were well done. Dick really liked what I had shown. Especially the addition of a bell. Business is business.

Lou N 

MartyE posted:

Lionel's ACL F3s.  First time I powered them up I was blown away.  They only got better.  Bottom Right.

Marty,  thanks for the excellent pix!  Your layout is gorgeous-  the detailing  mixed with four differently colored F3's really makes for a stunning mix.  In this regard, I've always had a soft spot for that Hew Haven paint scheme - McGinnis?

Your description of being "blown away" by the Lionel RailSounds is an apt descriptor. The other posters above frequently express a similar sensation, and I know the sounds had the same effect on me.  

Back in the Spring of 90 or 91, when I visited a store called the ToyCenter on Midlothian Turnpike in Northern Chesterfield County, I heard the newly released steam and diesel RailSounds box cars.........I was hooked.....I got the steam one for my birthday in June.........in addition, the 2  salesman at the store, later started Chesterfield Hobbies that had a great 20 year run as our local train shop until their retirement in 2013.

Peter

I do remember.  When I left toy trains in my early teens I was running a Lionel FARR UP Berkshire set, and the air whistle and mighty sound of steam was what it had (still have and love that engine).  Like many, I was away for several years and started becoming interested again when I picked up the 1994 and 1995 Lionel catalogs.  I was so curious, what was RailSounds and the TMCC system.  The descriptions in the catalogs were really pulling me in.  I wondered what is this MultiWhistle and Diesel Roar they talk about?  I think sometime in early 1996 I was in the Strasburg Train Shop when across the aisle I heard the most realistic diesel horn ever.  I hurried over and the employee was demonstrating the new Lionel NYC GP9 with strobe light (remember that one?)  It was my first time hearing Railsounds, and I couldn't believe it.  Bought the locomotive and TMCC system and have been hooked since.  

Later on I attended the Greenburg show they used to have about 2 weeks before Christmas at the Fort Washington Expo center (I still miss that show).  One of the layouts was running an MTH Santa Fe steam engine with PS1, maybe the 4-8-4, I don't remember.  I do remember, though, being very impressed with MTH sounds as well, especially when the steamer was at idle.  

I do love model railroad sounds, especially today's Vision Line Big Boy.  That whistle sound, with the 3 speakers and the sound running and echoing between engine & tender, is just unbelievable.  I wish Lionel would include this effect in more of their steam engines.  

Sorry for the long post, but thanks for a great thread!  I love reading about others' memories of this hobby. 

Rob

I was kind of late to the show.  I was content running my post war and MPC trains in conventional mode.  I had seen a review for the new Atlas O SD35's and was interested in seeing one.  I liked the scale look and detail.  I actually gave no thought to the sounds or command control.  

I'm not sure of the year, maybe 2000 or 2001, but we took a family vacation to Niagara Falls.  As we left to head home, I mentioned that I would like to stop at Niagara Hobby in Buffalo, NY.   While there,  I happened to walk by a display case with several Atlas locomotives in it.  I asked to see the Pennsylvania SD35.  I'm one who likes to see and feel something like this before I purchase it.  I was impressed by the heft of the unit, as well as the accurate detail.  The sales person must have seen the drool coming from my mouth and asked if I would like to see and HEAR it run.  He placed it on the test track and handed me the Cab-1.  This was all foreign to me.  He showed me how to operate the command features and sounds.  Needless to say, I was hooked.  My wife was not in the best mood at this point and I should have known better than to ask for her permission to buy the locomotive.  Somehow, all sanity went out the window and I told her I would like to have the engine and asked if it would be okay to buy it.  She gave me the "Look" and told me she would be waiting in the car with the kids. "Do what you want" I was told as she walked out of the store.  I thought to myself that she is really pi**ed and I have an eight hour drive home.  I decided that she is going to be pi**ed either way, so I might as well have the engine in the car with me.  She actually got into a better mood about two hours into the return trip.  When we got home she asked to see and hear my new toy.  I think she was actually quite impressed.

Tom