Marx E-7 diesels with diesel roar accessory

A quick search turned up this chart at the TCA site:

http://www.tcaetrain.org/2d-ar...7_diesels/chart.html

Looks like the green and yellow Western Pacific and the Santa Fe E7 can be found with a diesel roar unit from the factory. Here's a link to Youtube showing a set of roar equipped Santa Fe E7s pulling a long string of passenger cars:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9rIdT0Y9i0

Trainman, I often find Google search easier to use than the forum search function. Many times when searching for something via Google, I get led back to this forum. So I was curious about your question, did a search, and found this:

https://ogrforum.com/...ly=83931444217727889

Steve "Papa" Eastman seems to be pretty knowledgeable about all things MARX.  I also found this video of a MARX E7 with the diesel roar effect.

 

 

The roar unit was available in the early Santa Fe and the green WP. Really not much more than a buzzer or clapper, but we are talking about the 50’s. The roar units did not have a long production life, but the E7 shells continued to have the two mounting holes long after the roar unit production stopped. Here’s one from a green WP I picked up a month or so ago. 

Steve

 

The Marx sound unit is kind of a mix of American Flyer diesel roar unit and Lionel HO horn in loco.

Like the AF unit, it uses a vibrator mechanism to produce the diesel engine sound, but the sound is made through a speaker.

On the Lionel HO Alco B unit with horn, the vibrating mechanism uses the plastic shell to resonate the sound of a single chime horn. Considerate how primitive the unit were, and they are toys, they didn't sound too bad.

Yours does sound similar to mine. It seems Marx used that magnetic solenoid to activate every accessory they ever made.

brianel_k-lineguy posted:

Trainman, I often find Google search easier to use than the forum search function. Many times when searching for something via Google, I get led back to this forum. So I was curious about your question, did a search, and found this:

https://ogrforum.com/...ly=83931444217727889

Steve "Papa" Eastman seems to be pretty knowledgeable about all things MARX.  I also found this video of a MARX E7 with the diesel roar effect.

 

Wonderful collection of Marx E7-type engines and passenger trains. Were those nice looking Marx passenger trains factory-painted/lettered offerings or custom-painted/lettered?

Andre

Can't hear a thing other than PW Marx (and other's) typical buzzing and so forth.

What "roar" am I missing? (I don't have high expectations.)

D500 , Well, it IS similar to an e-unit buzz. Like an e-unit that is supposed to buzz loudly. Only slightly better than "bean wheel steam". 😁 Marx's static generator beat that & Sound of Steam barely improved on that 🤣.

Hooked it up to my Santa Fe E-7, (mounting holes already there) and it sounded like an office buzzer with a stuck button. More irritating than entertaining. Quickly removed it, and put it in my ebay pile.

trainman48 posted:

Yours does sound similar to mine. It seems Marx used that magnetic solenoid to activate every accessory they ever made.

There were two styles of the system. I can’t find the pictures I took of both types. Overall same principle though.

Steve

D500 posted:

Can't hear a thing other than PW Marx (and other's) typical buzzing and so forth.

What "roar" am I missing? (I don't have high expectations.)

Like the Sound of Power, Mighty Sound of Steam etc from that era, the open frame motor and tinplate wheels drowned out most of the sound. It was a start as a beginning to the great systems we have now.

Steve