MPC Era RDC upgrades?

Thanks!  I'm never sure if they have dubbed in sound or not!

Jon  

Jon, I have a an RDC with an early ERR sound board made for the RDCs. It has a dual chime horn that is pretty pleasant. I have no idea what a real RDC sounded like but the current Dash 9 horn is closest to the early board. 

Pete

I transferred the TMCC guts from a mid nineties GP7 into one of my MPC RDC's.  Maybe it's just wishful thinking, but I find that particular set of sounds suits the RDC, even though I can't actually recall what an RDC sounds like. 

Today's ERR kits only take up half as much space, which is handy if you plan on illuminating the interior.   Adding things like LED lighting, marker lights and electric couplers are made easy with ERR. 

I don't think the RDC has blowers or turbos, so I'd consider something like the Alco sound set, it's more of a plain diesel sound.

But the ALCo sound set is too gurgully! The GP 9 sound is closer. The GP9 sound file doesn't have too much of a blower sound unlike an SD 40.

Great topic! I've been thinking about this myself for a little while. 

Pete and Brwebster, Are the sounds from your speakers able to overpower the sound of the motor? 

Here's what they sound like:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXMdxRMB5t4

As you can see from the valve cover, the power is by General Motors and, therefore, the sound is more like a truck engine than a locomotive prime mover.  Accepting that ERR has a very limited number of soundtracks available, I believe that their GE with an idle set somehow at about the 4th or 5th notch could do the trick.

Good luck, I'll be interested to see what you come up with since I'm planning a similar project.

Interesting how each road could adapt their own horns... so really I need to match the correct prime mover, and almost any horn will work...

Jon  

bigtruckpete posted:

Great topic! I've been thinking about this myself for a little while. 

Pete and Brwebster, Are the sounds from your speakers able to overpower the sound of the motor? 

I installed mine in a Williams RDC so motor noise is not a problem.

I found lots of videos of RDCs still in service. I agree most have different horns. One video has the camera and mic near the motor and the tappet noise easily drowns out the exhaust note.

These engines were rated for 275HP, later 300 and there were two of them. I suspect the sound would be closer to a well muffled  semi truck rather then a locomotive prime mover.

Pete

I don't think the GP-9 is as close as either of the Alco sets, but it's your RR, and you get to run it any way you like.

We had some Budd cars in Detroit and when they accelerated they sounded like a Greyhound bus to me...

Marty