shut the engine sounds off

It is also a great troubleshooting technique for listening to mechanical noises. I have an MTH 2-8-0 that had a squeaking noise.  When I turned off the sound and ran in stealth mode there was no squeak!!  It was part of the sound file.  

I feel the same way. Not all the time, but every now and then it's fun to just hear the machines work.

With my conversion from PS2 to BPRC (Battery Powered Remote Control) I've left off putting sounds my steam engines so far.  Other than the "cool factor" I don't miss them all that much and I'm not sure if I'll ever install any sound systems in the future.

 

I've done 4 steamers and have 3 to go.

I find sound best at scale levels, which means somewhat on the quiet side enhancing the distance factor.

 

Loud colors and loud sounds are to "in your face" IMO.

 

OTOH, when relaxing with 700 watts of #3985 playing I like cab level sound!

I've tried running the engines with the sound off, but it just didn't sound right.  Like Tom,  I run my engines at a low volume so I hear the engine only as it passes by.  Once they pass, I can easily hear that wheel clatter from the cars.

My engine sounds stay on "all the time". I love them personally.

The only engine sounds I like are standing next to the prototype; in model trains I find them generally annoying.

 

I love the engine sounds, but every now and then it is fun to turn them off and just listen to the natural sounds of the train. I find it kind of relaxing.

 

Also, I like to turn the sounds off every now and then because it helps me assess the health of the mechanics of the train. With no sounds I can easily hear every squeek, rattle, rub and grind that might be indicative of a problem that needs fixing.

 

-Eric Siegel

Oh how I love prewar. The rattle and squeaks as toy trains roll along on tinplate track. It's a matter of choice and opinion.

The sounds are what drew me back int the hobby in the mid 90's...so they stay on 

Well yea they could be too loud sometime I guess but I like them.

Lionel static SOS was a welcome addition to my train world. AF had chuff, us Lionel guys had E-Unit buzz.

Jim

I'm in the "I'm for sound" camp.  Yes, I occasionally turn them off just to evaluate the running gear, but if I'm running for fun, it has sound.

Sound is ok, not for me, but I don't mind it when I hear it elsewhere. I think crew talk is somewhat lame, though. The thing I have found is that, on a large layout (like the public train gardens here during the Christmas season), the sounds aren't loud enough to actually hear, and one ends up with some sound but is unsure what it is or from what it's originating.

I don't often use the crew talk, though I love the other sounds for the VL-BB.  I can pull under the coal tower and fill the coal, then move to the water tower and fill up, great stuff.

 

I'm pro sound also. It's what I paid for in VL and legacy engines, hence I like to get my money's worth so to speak.

I started my layout in about 1985, with tubular track. No sounds back then, the sounds came from the electric motors and the tubular track.  I remember they did have some chuffing sounds and a boxcar with a speaker in it to make the rail and engine sounds.

• How cool is that.

I do like to turn the sounds off and run them

"Lionel Historically Correct".

Gary

Cheers from The 

Engine sounds to me are like music videos.

 

There was the big con of music videos in that they added a predetermined mental image and emotional response to the visual you are experiencing. 

 

Before the day of music videos you listened to the sound, and your mind/imagination filled in the creative details.  You created a mental image and experience to the visual...and YOUR emotional response.  Hearing or experiencing that song at  a later time recalled a particular experience, emotion of personal feeling. It could be a  deeply personal thing.

 

No more.  One is plugged-in to a pre determined set of auditory and visual stimuli to create an artificial experience.  As scale-like as models progress the sounds are still  toy like. It's as close to railroading for the short attention span instant-gratification as you will get because the manufacturer fills in the gaps for you in the railroading experience.  This is also a reflection of society's exposure to past / contemporary railroading as in decades past railroads were a huge part of the any man landscape...you grew up with them in common society.  No more, railroads and railroading are distant from the experiences of the average individual, let alone model railroaders that may seldom (if ever) venture near tracks.  So, we're left with manufacturers having to recreate the experience our father, and forefathers, experienced everyday. Mechanized, artificial, robotic, by-the-numbers. 

 

Turn them down...turn them off. 

 

Coming clean here...it's one reason I'm venturing down from O31 to O27 for fun projects...AND up O 2 rail. Both ends of the mainstream because I can't stand the ridiculous complexity and "learning curve" of O (the kids wanted to make the train go but they have to read the manual first and decipher the knob turns and computer nuances.

 

The same reason I eschew the new computerized technology complexity for other past times....I want to do..I can do. No computation lessons or tiresome learning curve needed.

 

A Luddite I am not but in it's place simplicity works wonders.

 

 

Crew talk is just irritating, IMHO.  How about we just get on with running the train is always my thought! 

Volume turned up to MAX.

 

They're trains, so they're supposed to be loud.

 

If there was a way I could pipe the sounds from my locomotives through external speakers I would consider it. I want the walls to shake as if I was standing 10' away from a 1:1 scale freight train.

So does your audiologist.

 

Rusty

I like sound though I keep it at a lower volume since I have a small layout in a spare bedroom. The sound, smoke, lights and action are all part of the fun.

When I got my 1st sound making locomotive, I did enjoy it, then quickly turned it off.  It was new and novel, but I could do without having come from N.  But I guess that couple days of sound was enough as after a couple of weeks, I had it back on, but volume turned down some, and it's been on since.  When I play with my LEGO trains with my son, I keep thinking how I miss the horn and bell buttons.  I love the sounds, and even crew talk <shudder> is growing on me.  In fact I wish I could somehow amplify the sound output on a couple older K-Line RS equipped locomotives I have as even at full volume I can hardly hear them from the other side of the room.

Well, you could tap off the speaker and transmit the sound via Bluetooth to a static setup with some 24" woofers!

 

Sorry but, I disagree. I can't see spending well over a thousand dollars (actually approaching $2000) for the latest, prototypical sound equipped, steam locomotive models, then shutting it all off. Not my cup of tea.

You can bet the volume on the VL-BB is up full when I run it, and it sounds and looks great!   I use all the smoke units as well, and I regularly stop under the coal tower and "fill" up the coal.

 

If you don't want sound, buy older 3rd Rail brass stuff, good looking locomotives and no sound, or at least pretty poor sound.

 

Whatever floats your boat.  For me, I love the sounds. Especially on steam engines. I like scale engines with loads of detail that look as realistic as possible and part of that realism is the sounds of the engine with the synchronous chuffing smoke.   I can take or leave the crew talk and I hate when a steamer has radio talk. If you prefer silent engines or no smoke, that's OK. Enjoy the hobby as you wish but for me, give me loud realistic sounds and plenty of smoke effects. 

 

I like the sounds as I like the smoke, highest setting possible.

I run Sound on but at levels I set, Whistle & Bell Max, Chuffing, ect 1/2 way, other sounds less than 1/2 volume. And since my DCS Engines have no crew talking unless sitting still, when I park them for more than a few minutes, I shut them down. Crew does shut down, then no more talk. You also have the option of short or long Start up and Shut down sequences, What more could you ask for.

I have the same PRR engine,  the Premier Empire State has the same squeak built in.   Kinda cool...........

 

Mark

Well for me I LOVE the sounds.. I will put my head lower to the track to hear and feel my trains passing by...I agree that some can be on the loud side but we have control of the volume to suit our own taste... have you ever heard  a quiet train pass you on the tracks ? As some one else said " It was the sounds that got me back into this hobby"

PennsyDave,

I had the same problem with a used Premier B&O Atlantic that I bought from a forum member.  Since the wear was minimal, I believed the seller that this unit had set on the shelf for a while.  I lubed it and a squeak came from the tender.  Not thinking, I gave each wheel another drop of oil.  I took it to the North Penn O gaugers open house Saturday, and Gunrunnerjohn, pointed out he couldn't hear the squeak.  I just thought running for an extended period had made the oil finally distribute to the nasty spot.

 

Yesterday, I put it back on the layout, and fired it up.  As soon as it started to move, there was the squeak.  Then it dawned on me.  I am pretty dull.  I turned off the sound, no squeak.  Turned on the sound it squeaked.  I had to laugh at myself.  All this time I was disappointed I couldn't correct the squeak, but it was in the sound file.  With all the trains running, and people talking at the open house, no one could hear the squeak.

 

I'll check later to see if I can tone down one of the sound items to make the squeak quieter or go away completely.

 

On to track.  I do like the clicketynclay clack of tubular track that I don't get with other track.  However, the locomotive sounds are what I really like.  I do keep the sound low in a small bedroom.  John turned the sound way up for the full basement club environment.