RailSounds upgrade questions

The ERR board is a big improvement over the older RS4 setup.

The custom GN #375 is likely to have that cab number in the crew talk.

Replacing an RS4 board with RS5 or the new ERR Railsounds board will give you intelligable crew talk. The horn may be different though maybe not significantly better. Not sure, given this is an electric, the motor sounds will be significantly better. If this were a steam or diesel engine the improvement would be more obvious.

Replacing the k-line speaker with a full size fatboy will likely yield the best improvement.

Pete

In another post someone mentions that ERR has added sound file links so you can hear them.  Go to their site and check them out

Here's a direct link to the ERR sound samples:  ERR Sound Clips

While the RS 5 boards sounds are technically better sounds, they are also WRONG sounds.  The EP-5 doesn't sound anything like a GG-1. Not the horn, not the general sounds.

Well, the RS4 boards also had the wrong sounds, at least the ones from ERR...

The sound sets are all that we have available.  Truly an electric does not have a prime mover sound, but folks also were unhappy with silence or Blower Sounds that are typical of an electric.   Right or wrong is not the question, does it add play value to your locomotive is the question. 

Jon, I agree with you.  The ERR has been a good system.  I am a toy train guy and enjoy all the sounds.  Guys, no matter how detailed they are, they are still toy trains.  Relax and enjoy them 

I'd feel cheated if the GG-1 made no noise as it ran.

The sound set has the correct horn for a GG-1.  

The EP-5's have a tugboat sounding "whistle" that's not even close to the "blaatt" that the Leslie Typhon on the GG-1 makes.

Air Chime

Typhon

Are all of the sound sets on all of the EP-5's that Lionel produced (including the PWCS units) wrong?

Boy, I could not agree more, I only wish I had said this.

Ray

They are toys but they come with the following write up in the owners manual.

The K-Line has the GG-1 sounding horn.

Yeah, I saw a video.  

The K-Line units were originally offered with something called K-Sounds as well as RS and horn/bell only.  I think that the K-Sounds may have the air chime.  I saw an K-Line unit running at a show and the horn wasn't the Leslie.  

I have one of those boards but there are no diagrams available for hooking one of these up. It's ok if you needed to do a swap but not very useful otherwise.  These were released right around the time of the original license agreement with Lionel for TMCC/RS.  These boards were supposed to have more than horn/whistle but I've never seen any documentation on how you were supposed to trigger the sounds.

I don't know what sound differences there would be between a generic EP-5 board and the custom GN #375. I also don't know the significance of "Must contact Lionel to order" - are they made of unobtainium?

Lionel does not sell Railsound 5.0 boards. They will only sell you one if you send a defective one back and will only replace it with the same.

That is a RS 5 board.  I don't know what's on it since the GN never owned any EP-5's?