Your Favorite Diesel Engine Sound?

Older EMD and Older GE! Williams GP30, MTH GP35, Lionel GP35, Weaver U25B, MTH SD50, Lionel S4, Atlas SD35, MTH F3A, Lionel GP38 and Lionel SD9.

Alco 539 and 244 sounds are the best

Jeff C

My favorite loco sounds are EMD SD45's and T2 tunnel motors and the big GE Uboats of the same era.  Later locos were built quieter so don't have that same raw sound.  Models don't capture the real sound very well no matter what the loco but the prime movers are better than the horns which for some reason always sound like a toy ......DaveB

Like them all, even more on cold start up

yes

@SIRT  Nice video. Thanks for sharing. Is that SD35 MTH or Atlas? If I remember right Atlas had a generic non-turbo sound when using Lionel 4.0 in their diesels. I changed the sound chips in my engines with Digital Dynamics turbo chips.  

One of the great startup sounds is the MTH VO1000, I love the sputtering to life.

You're right John. MTH nailed that sound!

It is a great sound, even though it's a low-end engine.  I wish that Lionel was still selling the RS5 boards, it would be nice to have more variety in sound upgrades.

The story I heard was that DD was one of the reasons they stopped, he was buying a bunch of them and reselling them.  Apparently, Lionel didn't want the then new technology flooding the market.  I don't know how true that is, but it's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

The Lionel Legacy U30C is the best toy-train diesel sound I have heard.  I love the sound.  Not sure if it is authentic prototypical or not, but I like the sound, particularly the ticking of valves or whatever at idle, and the way it picks up very dynamically as it takes off.  

That's another excellent one Lee, I have a pair of those.  They sound great in an MU with both sets of sounds, very real.

I like sound a lot. I hope they improve and evolve.

All the railroading in my toy train world involves some kind of yard ..... so I do a lot of close up railroading .... really love the prime mover sounds and smoke.

I saw a generic user guide at Atlas O ... it was about the ESU Loksound decoder. Maybe that's what they're going to? They sound so good in the HO engines.

As far as particular prime mover ...... I like the sound of the ALCO turbocharged 539

Paul,

    Lionel Legacy PRR RS11 I have been running #8622 with a non-powered #8621, now I just got a powered # 8631. Great Alco sounds, the break sounds in high mo are incredible.

JohnB

Middle of this video 5 engine MU. 4th engine(MTH EMD gp35) hosts a FM wireless that plays through a subwoofer. Sound file is a prime mover 567D3 16 cylinder.sounds like the real deal.

@ willygee Sounds like turbo heaven!

I know it's older technology (RS 2.5, I believe), but I still believe the Lionel GE Dash-9 demo unit from 1996 has one of the best horns I've ever heard.

Sorry if that's a little too specific vs. the question.  In general terms I don't have a preference amongst the various real train manufacturers.

-Dave

My favorite diesel sounds on an engine I own is the Lionel Legacy RS-11.  A very close second would be my MTH PS3 GP35.

the lionel up 8006 sd90 with tmcc is my favorite horn and idle too.

My vote's would be:

MTH  VO1000 start up sounds. 

MTH  SW-1 switcher rev up. 

Lionel  Legacy Genset switcher. Love how the other two engines start up when you give it more throttle! 

I really like the start up sounds of MTH's Alco S-2

That's another favorite of mine Chris, the genset is pretty cool all around, and the sounds are first rate.

Clatter of Lionel legacy PAs.

My favorite diesel sound is that squeaky crunchy sound they make when getting crushed by a Steam Engine 

I love my U30c legacy, great diesel sounds...

Original ps-1 GE - 7 diesel.  The horn is fantastic!!

I love all diesel engine sounds.

Art

ALCo! NOw if the mfg's got the sound to coinside with a realistic Turbo LAg smoke....

None of the above! Or not exactly; instead:

1.Winton diesel of Lionel TMCC Burlington Zephyr at any speed

2.Start-up of MTH PS2 DDA40X

3.Lionel Legacy Texas Special E7 at full speed

4.Lionel VL GE Evo revving up from idle

Be nice Bill, or I'll put 1.0 on your Legacy remote.

I still have 1.0 programming chips!

I like Alcos best I think and then first generation EMDs.   I have not heard many baldwins and FMs to have an opinion.

Great, you can shoot yourself in the foot and I won't have to do it for you!

leikec - yes, the ALCo 244 (and 251) and 539 sounds are just the best.

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Baldwin sounds - judging by my Lionel C'pede, recorded from an actual Baldwin with the same prime mover - are prett sweet, too.

FM sounds I really don't know.

GE's are pretty Alco-ish (of course, especially the last generation or two, so they, too, have that great "chug".

There was a comment made years ago in some magazine (I guess) that "inside every GE

there is an ALCo trying to get out", which makes sense, considering that GE and ALCo kind of "learned" the diesel locomotive business from each other, when they were dating.

(ALCo already knew the locomotive business, just not the internal-combustion kind.)

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ALCo's prime movers just always make it sound like they are not even trying; the original

"I got this" locomotive.

MTH's RS-1 has my favorite diesel ALCo model sound, among those I have heard. 

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'Course, an ALCo J3a Hudson is my favorite ALCo noise,

Of my model diesel engines, the Lionel Baldwin DR-12-8-1500(2)/PRR BP60 (Centipede) has the best prime mover sound.

My all-time favorite is a set of four normally aspirated (non turbocharged) EMD 567's in Run 8 at about 12 mph pulling 900+ amps per unit. The 567 prime movers were used in E and F units and early GP and SD diesels.

They called it "The 567 Chant." What a glorious sound of power!

Overall, EMD has the sound advantage, turbo or no.  I like the sound thrown off by the big Alco V16 244H engine in P. Co.'s RSD7 / APS24ms units. You can still get a touch of that sound today when the Amtrak P42s park right next to the wall in Chicago Union...where you can walk in between.   Everyone's heard the old Semaphore recording of the PRR T1 climbing HSC back in'49.  Stop and consider that the sound is almost exactly that of a U25B under the same conditions !

I really like the sound of my legacy sharks, and the c-420

You guys want to talk about diesel unit sounds? Well my favorite is the UP DDA40X, which was the highest HP EMD prime mover ever produced WITHOUT any exhaust silencer (muffler to you guys). There is no other diesel locomotive ever produced in the U.S. that equal the total sound volume and "sound note" of those twin 645E3A turbocharged engines at 900+ RPM.

Naturally, MTH has yet to effectively reproduce THAT sound on their DDA40X models.