Skip to main content

Closed47 replies

Time to upgrade the crewtalk

Patrick HPatrick HOGR Forum Member
Now that Lionel is doing a IMHO a super job on effort in bringing out some of the finest looking, sounding and running engines, I thinks its time to get the "crew talk a little more realistic to match the superb job on the engines.
. I liked the original direction when the cab spoke then the caboose responded at the other . Its been discussed a little here and there, but what a bout you guys who listen to the real thing.

Any thoughts on this? Or New Ideas?
Original Post

Replies sorted oldest to newest

Mike RMike ROGR Forum Member
I personally think its fine the way it is. If Lionel can upgrade it that would be great. You guy's must admit it's come along way from the old Railsounds 2.5.

I'm sure they'll make changes eventually. It's not really a priority for me. The smoke unit, the chuff sounds, and the whistles sounds are much more important to me. I wouldn't want Lionel to be like another manufactorer that keeps re-using old sound tracks in new loco's. That would really be an issue for me.

Not trying to start a fight, just restating facts.

Mike R
K KaneOGR Forum Member
Mike,

I no-longer have any Lionel locomotives, but when I did, I found the crew talk annoying... lame. Kinda had that "golly gee" quality to it.

Real locomotive fans won't appreciate that in their high-end models. Lionel's cab figures are a weak feature, as well. A more realistic appearance would be more appropriate.

Re: the locomotive sound recordings - there is only a finite number of past and present locomotives to record. Once you've satisfactorily captured those specific sounds, the job is done. The prudent thing to do would be to do it right the first time. Once the originals/the prototypes are gone... then any rerecording of old recordings, is probably not prototypical.


Kane
EISEISOGR Forum Member
I kind of miss the old garbled crew talk. The current crew talk just repeats the same message or series of messages. With the garbled crew talk, the message could be anything you wanted it to be. Here is a typical conversation.

Crew talk: Garbled.

Grandson: What did he say?

Grandpa: He says he is starting up his train.

Crew talk: Garbled.

Grandson: What did he say?

Grandpa: He is asking the tower for permission to move.

Crew talk: Garbled.

Grandson: What did he say?

Grandpa: He is telling the tower he is moving.

Crew talk: Garbled.

Grandson: What did he say?

Grandpa: He said is approaching the station.



Much more interaction than the canned sounds.

Earl
cjackcjackOGR Forum Member DIGITAL SUBSCRIBER
If you've ever listened to police comm, that's about the way it is. Garbled. But the officers know what was said, probably the same with the big trains. My wife is a PO (ret) and I heard some once, asked her "what the heck was that?" and she responded with a whole dialog...just have to know the accent/language I guess.
K KaneOGR Forum Member
Mike,

The last two Lionel model's I had were the UP Heritage unit's. The versions that came with the over-sized wheel flanges.

Besides the serious flange issue, those Lionel ACe's were fine models. The Odyssey 2 speed control system... the best I've seen.

Though not deal breakers, for me, the crew talk and crew members, their looks, where the only weak points re: that particular model. It is my understanding that the wheel flange issue, is not present on current production Lionel Odyssey ACe's.

You don't need to be defensive... my comments are my candid opinions of some of Lionel's products. The issues that I raised, are areas that could be improved upon...


Kane
FM Former Member
quote:
Originally posted by EIS:
I kind of miss the old garbled crew talk. The current crew talk just repeats the same message or series of messages. With the garbled crew talk, the message could be anything you wanted it to be. Here is a typical conversation.

Crew talk: Garbled.

Grandson: What did he say?

Grandpa: He says he is starting up his train.

Crew talk: Garbled.

Grandson: What did he say?

Grandpa: He is asking the tower for permission to move.

Crew talk: Garbled.

Grandson: What did he say?

Grandpa: He is telling the tower he is moving.

Crew talk: Garbled.

Grandson: What did he say?

Grandpa: He said is approaching the station.



Much more interaction than the canned sounds.

Earl


Oh so thats crew talk???

I thought that was wife talk . She says I don't pay much attention to what she says either Big Grin

David
FM Former Member
Thats my biggest complaint as well. Working for BNSF and talking on the radio everyday to "The Tower" and "The Dispatcher" and then listening to the Railsounds crew and tower talk is just not right. Don't get me wrong, I'm not one to nit pick, my trains have 3 rails, but something so simple can be easily changed with a little homework or advice from an outside source.

I just watched the new product video of the Lionel Legacy 3751 Northern. The crew talk is worse than ever. The things that are being said would never take place between the crew and dispatcher.

1. You don't tell the crew to start her up. The fire is started and boiler heated long before the crew ever gets on the train.

2. The dispatcher never tells the crew how fast to go. "Dispatcher here, please go to slow speed"
WTH is slow speed??? We run on signal indication and the dispatchers are not allowed to tell you what the signal indication is or how fast to go.

3. "Take the green!" ???? Does anyone tell you to take the green when you're setting at a traffic light? It's pretty much self explanatory, green means go, we all know that. If for someone reason the crew hadn't taken the signal yet, the dispacther might call and say...."3751 are you on the move yet?" which means wake up, you've had a lineup for 20 minutes. lol

It would go something like this.......

Santa Fe 3751 to Mission Tower, over.

Mission Tower, go ahead 3751 over.

3751 here, crew is on board and we're ready to go.

Stand by 3751, I'll get right back to you.

3751 Standing by, thank you. 3751 out


Mission Tower to the Santa Fe 3751, over.

Sante Fe 3751, go ahead, over.

3751, here comes your lineup, have a great trip. Mission Tower out.

3751 here we go, thank you, have a good one. 3751 out.



Something along those lines. Lionel continues to improve the detail and appearance on their scale equipment, but then turns around and adds the toy like dialog. Such a disappointment. I know, I know, just don't use it. It is a very nice feature, especially to show off to people, it just needs to be more realistic.
RT Rusty TraqueOGR Forum Member
quote:
Originally posted by Laidoffsick:
2. The dispatcher never tells the crew how fast to go. "Dispatcher here, please go to slow speed"


Mebbe the dispatcher should be beating on a drum and calling out "cruising speed," "battle speed" or "ramming speed" as the drum beats faster... Big Grin (Sorry, ya gotta have seen Ben Hur...)

My "favorite" from MTH is "those black diamonds are red hot." Really, now...

Seriously, crew talk is a waste of 1's and 0's in memory. It seldom reflects the real thing, is forced to be generic and is too loud anyways.

Rusty
cjackcjackOGR Forum Member DIGITAL SUBSCRIBER
quote:
Originally posted by Laidoffsick:
Something along those lines. Lionel continues to improve the detail and appearance on their scale equipment, but then turns around and adds the toy like dialog. Such a disappointment. I know, I know, just don't use it. It is a very nice feature, especially to show off to people, it just needs to be more realistic.


Maybe it's meant to be entertaining to the kiddies Smile
gunrunnerjohngunrunnerjohnOGR Forum Member SUPPORTING MEMBERDIGITAL SUBSCRIBER
quote:
Originally posted by cjack:
If you've ever listened to police comm, that's about the way it is. Garbled. But the officers know what was said, probably the same with the big trains. My wife is a PO (ret) and I heard some once, asked her "what the heck was that?" and she responded with a whole dialog...just have to know the accent/language I guess.
I had to laugh at the conversation, you're 100% correct. I've taken people flying a number of times, and to a person they all ask how I know what the tower is saying. Smile After some practice, you just know, and it helps to know what they'll probably say in response to your call. Big Grin
trnluvrtrnluvrOGR Forum Member
IMHO,I listen to CSX all the time seeing it's in my backyard and I never hear Dispatch calling a engine number,it's more like-dispatcher to Q371 over-Q371 answering over- and dispatch will tell them of speed restrications or have them stop at a mile post because a train ahead is in emergency.

I do understand what your looking for but every railroad has a different way of communicating with it's trains and so many divisions within that railroad which is different. So, in the mass market I don't see how it could be done different unless you could record your own.

Who knows that maybe one of the untapped feature of Legacy in the future.

Sorry for being long winded on this.


Doug
D DM&E_BobbyOGR Forum Member DIGITAL SUBSCRIBER
I agree, the crew announcements are pretty bland and need updating. Lionel's recent decision to get rid of unique railroad/#'s to each engine's announcements doesn't make sense to me. Not much of a deal breaker, though - I'd still buy an engine without it, but still. The crew sounds could be a lot more realistic and, like others have said, what we have now sounds NOTHING like what they're really saying in real life.

Where I watch trains on the BNSF in Ottumwa, IA, each train has to get a track warrant to proceed across the DM&E diamond. I think a track warrant recording would be very interesting on a model train. It'd go something like this:

"Track warrant number xxx-xx issued to the BNSF Burlington Northern Santa Fe 9380 nine-three-eight-zero, check box 2 t-w-o, proceed from the west w-e-s-t bound control signal IC&E railroad crossing I-C-&-E R-R-X, to CTC Lucas Street on main 2 t-w-o, track warrant has one box marked two, over", etc.

Station crew recordings on passenger engines would ne neat, too. The conductor could tell the engineer when to "whistle off" and when to depart, with the engineer responding. It really wouldn't take that much effort for Lionel to get things more realistic, just a little homework.
SH Southwest HiawathaOGR Forum Member
Just get rid of it, at least for steam. How many steam engines even had a radio back in the day? Let alone a quiet enough cab to actually hear the thing. That's what light signals and whistle code were for. The worst is when you have a TMCC loco and a StationSounds diner, and you run the auto sequence for the passenger train leaving the station. The engine and the diner talk on top of each other and there's nothing you can do about it. If you modern guys want cab chatter in your AC6000's, so be it - but let's let steam be steam.
M mlavender480OGR Forum Member
quote:
Originally posted by LORDtryzAlot:
What did they do for communication in the 20s,30, and so forth before the radio came into existance? as far as steam era is concerned and when did the radio come into play.


Hand/lantern signals were used during switching operations, with several crew members passing the signals along a curve or long cut of cars as necessary. In terms of dispatcher/operator communication with train crews, it was done mainly via written train orders. If the conductor needed to talk to the dispatcher, he used a phone box along the right-of-way. Orders were usually given to crews on-the-fly by handing/hooping them up at towers or stations.
K KaneOGR Forum Member
I've got a MTH diesel-electric unit, were the engineer, at one point, says... "welcome back, Rick". I'm assuming that Rick is the conductor, and he had to leave cab for a period of time.

"Welcome back" who would say that, to the guy they were working with? Gee, I really missed you.

I've got a couple of MTH diesel-electrics that, when the crash sequence is activated, one guy says he swallowed a piece of coal... I guess some coal, from one of the coal porters, somehow, made it's way, during a crash, into one of the engine crews mouth.

Kane
Big JimBig JimOGR Forum Member DIGITAL SUBSCRIBER
If you could all listen to radio transmissions over a RR scanner, you would wonder to yourself just who the idiots are that write the scripts for these "crewtalk" soundtracks!

quote:
3. "Take the green!" ???? Does anyone tell you to take the green when you're setting at a traffic light? It's pretty much self explanatory, green means go, we all know that. If for someone reason the crew hadn't taken the signal yet, the dispacther might call and say...."3751 are you on the move yet?" which means wake up, you've had a lineup for 20 minutes. lol


"Take the green" HA!!! What a laugh that is (along with the rest of this "crewtalk" mumbo-jumbo)!

Dispatchers absolutely DO NOT know what signal aspect is displayed to a train in the field. They can tell if your route is lined. That is all! They will line up the signals and either tell you "Sgnal Indication at..." or "That will be your signal at..." etc., etc..

Signal lights can be burnt out or blacked out due to loss of power. The Dispatcher has no way of knowing this unless a train crew or someone reports it to them.
Gandalf97Gandalf97OGR Forum Member
In my case, I tend to get bored with it because it is exactly the same every time. I think it would be more interesting if there were a variety of possibilities for each event/scenario and one was picked at random. It would also be nice if we could use our own custom sound files. I'm not sure how big the sound files are but memory is still pretty cheap so that shouldn't add too much to the cost. I understand this would significantly change RailSounds but it might be cool for the next version.

I am also wondering how many people that don't like the chatter because it either isn't realistic or it is boring would use it more if those things changed.
T TrevizeOGR Forum Member
quote:
Originally posted by Laidoffsick:
Thats my biggest complaint as well. Working for BNSF and talking on the radio everyday to "The Tower" and "The Dispatcher" and then listening to the Railsounds crew and tower talk is just not right. Don't get me wrong, I'm not one to nit pick, my trains have 3 rails, but something so simple can be easily changed with a little homework or advice from an outside source.

I just watched the new product video of the Lionel Legacy 3751 Northern. The crew talk is worse than ever. The things that are being said would never take place between the crew and dispatcher.

1. You don't tell the crew to start her up. The fire is started and boiler heated long before the crew ever gets on the train.

2. The dispatcher never tells the crew how fast to go. "Dispatcher here, please go to slow speed"
WTH is slow speed??? We run on signal indication and the dispatchers are not allowed to tell you what the signal indication is or how fast to go.

3. "Take the green!" ???? Does anyone tell you to take the green when you're setting at a traffic light? It's pretty much self explanatory, green means go, we all know that. If for someone reason the crew hadn't taken the signal yet, the dispacther might call and say...."3751 are you on the move yet?" which means wake up, you've had a lineup for 20 minutes. lol

It would go something like this.......

Santa Fe 3751 to Mission Tower, over.

Mission Tower, go ahead 3751 over.

3751 here, crew is on board and we're ready to go.

Stand by 3751, I'll get right back to you.

3751 Standing by, thank you. 3751 out


Mission Tower to the Santa Fe 3751, over.

Sante Fe 3751, go ahead, over.

3751, here comes your lineup, have a great trip. Mission Tower out.

3751 here we go, thank you, have a good one. 3751 out.



Something along those lines. Lionel continues to improve the detail and appearance on their scale equipment, but then turns around and adds the toy like dialog. Such a disappointment. I know, I know, just don't use it. It is a very nice feature, especially to show off to people, it just needs to be more realistic.




Ya I'm modeling ATSF Steam era and they didn't even have radios! So I turn all the crew talk off :-)
Patrick HPatrick HOGR Forum Member
Thats why i mentioned i liked the original direction.

The engine spoke first and then the caboose would say all clear back here. It had a timed response.A couple of steam excursions i was on they always had a conductor or engineer radio ing from different areas of the train especially on backing up and arrivals. Also actually the engineers voice should come out of the other radio(not cab) and vise versa but that might ruin the effect
When you assign your engine a ID you assigned the caboose or all others in the consist the same number.And they worked together.This would cut down the Ids used as well as the whole consist work together kinda like the train Link.
The trick now would be to get it to direct its talk towards an actual accessorie, tower or station on the layout. Both voices coming from the engine is kinda strange. If you put the engine in reverse the talk could coraspond to backing up etc..
Maybe crew talk could be eliminated for other special engine sounds ,features and just use the tower com for dispatch situations. Some have mentioned before sounds for Taking on water from a watertower or taking on coal etc..

Maybe in the future as some have mentioned we wil be able to record our own.
P phillmanOGR Forum Member
I think Lionel still struggles with whether they are making toy trains or scale models.

I agree with many posters comments here. I kind of like it, but if it is not realistic, then it detracts from what many of us are trying to create in a realistic depiction of actual railroading.

Again, I think Lionel struggles with who they are trying to please with thier trains.
Next
Views: 3,094
Post

OGR Publishing, Inc., 1310 Eastside Centre Ct, Ste 6, Mountain Home, AR 72653
800-980-OGRR (6477)
www.ogaugerr.com

Membership Required

We're sorry. You must be signed in to continue. Sign In or Register
×
Are you sure you want to remove from your Block List?
×
Loading...
×
When you block a person, they can no longer invite you to a private message or post to your profile wall. Replies and comments they make will be collapsed/hidden by default. Finally, you'll never receive email notifications about content they create or likes they designate for your content.
Note: if you proceed, you will no longer be following .
×
Link copied to your clipboard.
×

Access to this requires an OGR Forum Supporting Membership

OGR Forum Supporting Membership

Help support this forum with an OGR Forum Supporting Membership.
You will be able to watch the videos in the INSTRUCTIONAL VIDEO FORUM!
A one-year OGR Forum Supporting Membership is only $12 per year, so sign up now!


    OR     


Access the ALL the OGR VIDEO FORUMS AND  over 300 back issues of OGR
with a DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTION!



$12.00 per 12 Months (plus tax if applicable)
×