Suggestion for expensive locomotives with advanced sound sysytems.

You have GOT to be kidding!!!!!!!

Not interested!

I'm suspecting the OP isn't being serious, but here it goes anyway....

 

While it would actually be a viable idea for locomotives to have a concealed port for downloading different sets of sounds if the factory ones are inaccurate / lacking, having a whole media device sticking out of one is just dumb.

 

If you really want, customize a freight car with some small speakers and a dock for your media device. That would be sort of neat I guess.

If you have an MTH DCS system, and a PS3 (I don't know if this works with PS2) locomotive, you can play any aux sound system with the right plug and volume control, also has the ability to use a microphone for doing your own announcements.

 

Doug

 

The feature that would be most important would be that the port be designed so that the smart phone or ipod stuck awkwardly out the top, side, or end of the locomotive.

I doubt that placing the port on the bottom would practical.

 

The ideal design would make the phone or ipod look like a Kelloggs pop tart that had just been ejected by an electric toaster.

Thorazine works! Try it!!

 

Gunny

Trolling.

I just can't see any serious modeler wanting any non-essential train-related device sticking out from their engines.  That would look absolutely ridiculous.  If someone wants to try it, then by all means have at it.  I just can't see anyone wanting an iPhone or iPod running around their layout.  I know I don't.

 

Now, a concealed USB port to upload any latest sound files or sound effects wouldn't be that bad as long as it's under a removable cap or something to that effect.

The ideal design would make the phone or ipod look like a Kelloggs pop tart that had just been ejected by an electric toaster

 

 

 I haven't seen anything like that yet, do you think that it would be a difficult modification to make? I have several Legacy and JLC Steam locomotives with plenty of room either on top the boiler, or tender to do that, I want to make sure they are ready for the next Christmas Layout, is there anyone that you would reccomend to do this kind of work?

 

Doug

No attachments sticking out of MTH engines while they play music.  They used to do it at York on the MTH display layout.

.....

Dennis

KMK I have a better Idea.Why not build an I pod shuffle into the enjine.Then you can download any thing you want onto it from your computer.Includeing Folsom Prison Blues!For real!

Crack is bad for you, doubt it, read the first post!!

Good golly, no!

I believe everyone is missing the point.

 

younger people want everything and anything connected to a computer.

 

if there is a way to get younger people involved, what right do we have to say no?

 

How about an SD card port on the bottom of the engine if you want music or something else besides standard train sounds?

Does anyone seriously think that an engine or any car or accessory with an Ipod or Iphone sticking out of the top of the would look good or worse wouldn't be noticeable? We spend a lot of time and money in this hobby trying to eliminate or hide or disguise anything that spoils the illusion of the model and this sounds like a huge step backwards.

Either that or VOX is back!

 

Jerry

Using SD cards for this application is certainly an idea worth considering.

 

A toy company with a different product line has actually put out something that hooks up to an MP3 type music player.

 

We each have every right in the world to say no.  And I would add an emphatic NO!

 

The young need to break their binding attachment to electronic gizmos; the hobby doesn't need to be bending over backwards to support their addiction (and it IS an addiction).

that what I was thinking of 2..they make those cards in 2 sizes..can use the 1 in my android phone uses..have train chuff sounds and whistles stored in it.can have it load it where the coal load is at or under neath the tender..no more buying sound chips..can down loads the sounds into your sd memory cards..

On what diesels or electric locomotives would you like to see this option installed?

 

Only on YOUR engines

 

I'd be happy with only diesel sounds or steam chuff and maybe whistle/horn.

Whoa everybody, the original poster only threw out a suggestion. No need for some of you to get so critical or excited about it. Take it for what you think it's worth. If it's that farfetched I don't believe any of us need fear a manufacturer will embrace and adopt it, and even if one should, you won't be forced to buy it or even look at it, so chill out.

Some who've posted to this thread have been appalled  and taken back by the suggestion but for me what is even more scary and more of a concern than the original poster's suggestion is the intolence of the ideas of others displayed in the replies of some forumites. The mood of intolerance to not only this thread but other subject threads concerns me more than any idea or suggestion posed since it's not limited to those of a certain age bracket or interest in trains but endemic to our society today. A persausive climate of intolerance to others and their ideas coupled with a general lack of respect IMHO should concern us far more than an out of the box suggestion.

BTW, Allan, I'm certain there are some who consider the amount of interest in trains and the $$$ spent on them by some hobbyists to also be an addiction. Just saying. Just food for thought. 

An apples-and-oranges comparison.  Of course many train people are "addicted" to their hobby, just as those in most other hobbies are similarly addicted.

 

But most of those folks can also lead normal lives and conduct their daily activities without the need for yet another electronic gizmo to affect or even determine their every move and moment. 

 

Go to any public venue and check out any group of young people (in particular) in such settings.  Guaranteed that you will find a good many being oblivious to the real world around them, including those they are with, and focusing solely on a "gadget" of some sort.

 

This hobby is about modeling railroading in miniature.  THAT is where more people really need to focus their attention.

Naturally, Allan, all things in moderation should be the mantra for everyone. Obsession is never good.

Alan is right, (as I further wander from the starter's thread).  But it is upsetting to me to see a mother walking her child home from the bus stop yacking on her **** cell phone, or going to a ball game and see the young adults or teen agers texting, staring into their smart phones.

.....

Dennis

I agree, Dennis, and to digress furher from this thread's originl intent unike model railroading, behavior related to the jse of these devices is negatively impacting both inter- and intra-personal relationships and the ability and willingness to interact with others on a face to face basis. It's already impacting society in a way researchers say is unhealthy and bodes no good for the future. As I've said, "Everything in moderation is okay but obsessiveness is never good."

1) I think it's pretty clear the OP was pulling our chain from the get-go in a very silly VOX sort of way. Maybe this is VOX's new name for the month.

 

2) Guys who are too obsessed with these trains and forums are just as out of touch with reality as the young people who are addicted to their electronics. Just recently we had a big blown out thread about how people who buy cheaper bulk figures from China had no moral backbone and were going to collapse the American economy. It was borderline delusional.

 

3) Smartphones and technology are invaluable tools in today's society. There are certainly those that are addicted to them, but it is nowhere near the epidemic the older less tech-minded generations perceive it to be. Everything in moderation.

It's easy to criticize the youths, but let's be real. These comments are being made on an internet chat forum that many people here frequent for hours a day... Pot calling the kettle black? Ben

How do we know that all those youths on their smartphones aren't just browsing the OGR forum? Ben

Not interested nor is apple i-anything the largest market share anymore.  I can see someone might modifying a dockstation and a rail car on their own for their prefered device, but I am not interested in purchasing it.

Toy trains are electric gizmos.  And for me, building my 12' x 30' empire is in many ways an escape from reality (at least once my daughters are tucked in).  I know when I am running my empire I am oblivious to the outside world at all of its pressures and deadlines. 

 

For me, one of the primary reasons I came to the hobby a few years ago was because of the Legacy remote control and all the features that the Lionel OS brought with it, including swinging bell, whistle steam and uncoupling at the tender with a remote.  Therefore, the advancements in toy trains electronics brought  me into the hobby.  I would not have been drawn in if I had to use a lever at a stationary transformer like I did at my grandpa's house at Christmas when I was a kid.

 

I for one hope that Lionel continues to push the electronics envelope.  I would like to see a SD card based system with speakers that could be placed inside a box car and receive commands from the Legacy remote.  Or speakers with a receiver that would play sounds from sling box-type device.  I wish that Lionel engines and now seemingly extinct Sound Station Dining cars had the capability of uploading new sounds, similar to that of the MTH engines.  When they get a whistle wrong, wouldn't it be smarter to download the correct track from their web page then to pay to ship it to Ohio?  I love my JLC Big Boy, but the whistle is all wrong and there is no way to fix that to my knowledge.

 

So, I for one am all for the continued evolution of this hobby.  Without it, why would it not suffer the same fate as the very steam engines we love?

Not as far fetched as it sounds.  I modified a lionel lines whistling tender to accommodate a radio shack mini amplifier and speaker hooked up to an iPod nano on which I had downloaded the entire Polar Express soundtrack.  Used the shell from the original (non-scale)  Polar Express tender.  Beats the dickens out of any "Christmas Songs" boxcar that Lionel ever put out.  Gotta think outside the box folks.

Here is a link... http://www.radioshack.com/prod...sp?productId=2062620   It includes a mic input so connecting to an iPod is easy.  Cheap, and well made.  I actually took the speaker out of the enclosure and mounted in a 2" pvc cap to make it sealed on the back... acoustic suspension, greatly enhanced the bass response.

"The more complicated the plumbing, the easier it is to muck up the works." --Montgomery Scott

 

Rusty

OMG that would be like.... totally wicked!  I could like listen to One Direction and Katy Perry on my SD70ACE!  OMG OMG OMG!  A SUBWOOFER BOXCAR!  Can we put hydrolics an the caboose?  Get like... three wheel action going?  And lets update the engineer uni's!  And I'm not like talkin about those hoochie girl's LifeLike was pimping on us!  Like some fresh gear from RocaWear or at least Abercrombie!  

 

Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of wheel squeal and air let off like that of the Chisholm Trail stock car, which is the single most entertaining car I own. 

There are endless ways to bring sound to a layout.The sound does not have to come from the trains themselves.I have 6 channels of sound going to my layout fed by a Sony tuner/amp.connected to hi quality hidden speakers.The amp can be fed by I POD CD Cassete Lap Top etc.You can record one sound on the left channel and another sound on the right channel.Does not have to be one sound in stereo.You can buy a good quality used reciever on line now for 50 to 75 bucks.

In most cases, aside from engine sounds, whistle/horn, and bell sounds, the sounds should NOT come from the trains.  At least that sure applies if you're aiming at somewhat realistic operations. 

 

Standing trackside, one would normally NOT hear crew chatter; radio transmissions; sounds from inside dining cars, club cars, and coaches; and that sort of thing.

 

Truth be told, most contemporary sound-equipped locomotives already have more sound features than are needed for realistic operation.