MTH box car with sounds?

I have the Lionel Frisco boxcar with excellent diesel sounds, I use it with my Postwar & MPC locos.

   Bill

I don't believe that MTH ever did such a sounds boxcar.....  And Lionel only did the Railsounds boxcars in 3-4 road names, 2 steam & 2 diesel... for a year or two back in the very early 90's (I believe).   They are kinda hard to find, although you may hit luck on E-Bay.

Ok flight of fancy answer. You could probably make one by canabalisng a working ps2 or ps3 electronics and sound system, stuffing that into a box car, adding appropriate wiring for track power... And replacing sound clips using sandiego mark's mtg sound editing software.

http://www.silogic.com/trains/ADPCM.html

MTH made cattle cars with mooing sounds in them. The sound system was made by OTT.

Someday I hope to get my sound module finished for production so I can do more boxcars.  I have done a couple with this module.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Someday I hope to get my sound module finished for production so I can do more boxcars.  I have done a couple with this module.

 

I am a big fan fan of the QSI cars that later MTH acquired and sold as well, what do you have here GRJ, 

The funniest boxcar with sound I've ever seen/heard was a Ball Glass Jar car.  As it jiggled over the rails, all you heard was breaking glass.  LMAO.  Probably a one of a kind.

Dennis

Squirrelstrains posted:

I am a big fan fan of the QSI cars that later MTH acquired and sold as well, what do you have here GRJ, 

 That's a prototype of my sound module, I build a few for my use, but I haven't set up to produce anything in quantity.

Dennis posted:

The funniest boxcar with sound I've ever seen/heard was a Ball Glass Jar car.  As it jiggled over the rails, all you heard was breaking glass.  LMAO.  Probably a one of a kind.

Dennis

I agree the breaking glass is my favorite as well, its a challenge to set off cars or make up a consists without breaking all their wares.

I havent seen that one in a while, if anyone has one, or the glass sounds chip for the boards id really like to have one, its a holy grail item for me.

I found a board from adafruit that has 11 trigger points and you can load your own sound files in it for $20, its on my project list.

GRJ,

Wish you would produce those or baggage cars for passenger runs.  If you don't mind a question, where do you find quality speakers?  I've tried a couple but they don't sound good, even with enclosures.

A few comments....

Just about a year ago, I finished work on a Boxcar Sound Module.  Posted an explanation of how I did it on the forum.  Told others I could make 'em up as a for-sale item, not as a business but as a hobbyist to hobbyist sale (like the items sold on our forum.)

see thread here:   https://ogrforum.com/...57#72383129414353157

I explained that there were features that differed from the fixed-sound Lionel version in a number of ways....

Self powered so not track power loss issues...rechargeable with about 5 hour runtime between charges... sounds stored on micro SD card... multiple files stored on the same card... diy sounds.... noisy boxcar track included (like Lionel's only nicer according to those who have heard both)... repeating loop tracks... modular...install in almost any boxcar...controls (volume, tracks, repeat) are accessed thru boxcar door... easily changed to seasonal boxcars...decent speaker... etc.  They are not triggered by motion, but are turned on and off so I guess if you start and stop a lot, that feature on the Lionel boxcars may be important.

Using a sound card, no bluetooth is involved.... so no pairing issues, no dropouts, no need for a phone or tablet,

Building these myself after lots of trials and errors, I introductory priced 'em at $75 plus shipping with sound card, complete module, rechargeable battery, and boxcar sound track.  Not much interest.  A few commented to me on the price (as too high) even though the less capable Lionel version costs even more and is built into the car and is not easily modified to a different line.

Between buying the required parts, building each one, and shipping it, I felt that I needed to cover my costs and time... but not a lot of response.  Unlike many of GRJ's (very nice) projects, this was created by joining a bunch of available modular boards and wired together to fit in a small space.

Then the thread moved into a discussion on "how to do it for $10" or "can you use if for triggered stationary sound tracks?" ( completely different project!....see thread)  So, with some frustration, I put the project aside.. sold a few, it is available, and works well... more info available by contacting me via email in my profile.

On the positive side, I have used it on our club's modular layout and people seem to appreciate the additional ongoing sounds on the train.  The Thomas module is a favorite (of course).  Those who have one like it!

More recent project... a remote control system that launches helicopters (using slightly rewired MTH helicopter cars) as they run down the track... always playing with new ideas... As I'm sure GRJ would confirm, "designing it" is most of the fun!

Before QSI made a deal with MTH to provide their sound and reversing units, they did offer electronic reverse units for old and new engines (Weaver, Williams and even Lionel used them) and live action sound units (LASU’s as they called it) which included the glass breaking unit as described above as well as various animal sound versions ranging from cows and horses to circus lions and monkeys. These aren’t easy to find now, sadly, but I have found a couple and are still fun to use.

QSI did offer a few Protosoubd 1 boxcars (steam and diesel like Lionel) under MTH in about 1997 or so as part of a dealer appreciation products. These are rather hard to find nowadays, but they did exist.

Lionel is still cataloging RailSounds boxcars for American Flyer. This is from their 2018 Big Book:

Cheers!

Keith