Your Thoughts on PS2/3 Crew Talk and Dialogue

I NEVER use it!

For me, it depends on the engine and the sounds it has.

I had 2 Imperial Big Boys with different sound sets.

One I really Like, the other not so much.

BUT, both are valid sound sets for the era of the engine and do not break the feel of Steam railroading.

Also, "Outlaws" could refer to cars from another railroad added to the consist for movement to meet up with another train.

When I had my big layout with DCS and 8 MTH Locos, I never used it. I think a waste of time.

Not a big fan myself, especially on steam locomotives, but even to some extent on diesels.  Much of the dialog simply sounds too "scripted," which it likely was.

The lack of cussing also detracts from the believability of any non-radio-traffic talk. 

I don't use it on any brand locomotive I have.  It distracts from the atmosphere of playing with the trains.  As real ones go by, there is no way I'd ever hear the crew, so why should I on my models.

My grandson loves it, as do people that come to our shows.  For me, that's a primary reason to keep it. 

I like the passenger station callouts

Overall I like it. Sometimes I like to have it on and when I don't I just turn it off. My grandson likes it, as I think most kids do. I think it's good for kids to have available to them (and adults too). I think it should be left as it is or improved, not removed. Those that don't like it can turn it off, but for others that do like it, I would hate for it to not be available. The more features trains have the more likely they are to draw the attention of more people and possibly get them to make a purchase.

I think it's silly in a steam engine and not that great in a diesel for that matter. No one standing outside a engine would hear it in real life so why do we have it in our engines. I think stations sounds built into a station would be a good idea. Don

I can do without the crew talk. I do not think that any of the crew talk is of real train talk! Just some of Mikes employees and a tape recorder.

THe visitors think its neat but as a practice when im running trains I dont use the MTH PFA sounds. I do use the Lionel crew and tower talk all the time as its much more practical

Hate it.  Wish that I could turn it off on the one PS-2 engine that I have.  It's only operated in conventional.  I don't have any DCS control stuff, nor do I want any.

If ERR had Baldwin sounds I would convert it to TMCC/Railsounds in a heartbeat.

BTW, I don't like crewtalk on Lionel engines either.

Wow, I expected about a 50/50 split but this is an overwhelming thumbs down so far. I imagine full DCS gives you the ability to shut em up without losing engine sounds.

I'm not big on the crew talk. Of course, there was the incident where I pranked the wife by charging several locomotives in the other room. I kept denying I heard anything when they started squawking. Great fun. 

Don't care for it, and don't use it; only exception when it's used is when entertaining guests or visitors.

I have DCS, Legacy, AND TMCC available on my layout, and NOBODY, but NOBODY ever activates that stupid "crew talk". If they do, they don't get another beer!

I dislike it, but at least with MTH you can turn it off. On some TMCC locomotives it talks over the top of the Station Sounds diner because they use the same command. 

The only time I ever use the crew talk is on the European locomotives. It's kind of fun to listen to the cab chatter in Schwyzerdeutsch, the utterly incomprehensible Swiss/German dialect. I speak German and I can't understand it, and I played it for a native speaker of German and he couldn't make head or tail of it either. 

I'm mainly a steam guy, and the whole notion of radio chatter on a steam engine is silly. 

very hokey..no one talks like that at the real deal....its just entertainment i suppose..i do like the new england accent on my ep-5....im guilty of playing that one !  conrail john

Once when sitting in on a recording session at MTH's sound engineer's office, my friend, a veteran of many most of the subway sets, was rehearsing some in-cab conversation regarding an emergency stop regarding a fallen tree that suddenly appeared on the tracks, when he started to read out the script he'd written, it had him addressing me (playing brakeman) by title, as if calling me on the radio, but in the cab...sitting right across from him.

I (insert emergency brake euphemism here) the session right there, reminding all in the room that not only are the two crew members in the recording literally sitting a few feet apart from one another in the cab, but they'd likely know each other pretty well (like better than first-name basis), and likely have worked with another extensively, and There is No Possible Way a train crew would ever be that formal addressing one another in the cab. The session was completed, but not used on any locomotives (that I know of)

Most recording sessions likely do not have anyone present to deliver reality checks on the scripts. Personally, I don't use crew-talk/chatter functions (not even on subways), except as a demonstration to folks who had no idea model trains could "do that".

Now, as for horn/whistle spamming, that's a whole 'nother pet peeve of mine.

---PCJ

Use a different ID for the Station Sounds Diner.

I guess I'm in the minority...I like the crewtalk.  I live pretty close to a Norfolk Southern line here in NC.  I have a scanner in my trainroom that I have programmed for the NS frequencies.  So, even when I'm not running trains I'm listening to crewtalk.  

And, if I do any train watching, I bring a scanner to listen to any radio communications.

Good evening

Don't really care for it myself, the only one I like is the defect detecter. sounds like the real one. Its on MTH diesel probably a UP SD40-2

Clem

I like PSA OK especially with the Aerotrain..... I find it entertaining as do quests who come to visit my layout.  The shoveling of coal sounds for my Y6 mallet is pretty annoying  ,,, seeing that mallets had a stoker fed fire.   As for my PS2/3 diesels switchers, I find crew talk to be somewhat remotely authentic ... although I agree with Allan Miller there is an absence of cussing 

I find the crew talk in my Lionel N&W J very annoying .... the engineer is way over the top polite " thank you sir"? to the dispatcher  ... give me a break.  And yes what steamer had a two way radio anyway.  I think Lionel could have done better on this in regard to the crew talk stuff.

I think the model train manufactures should install an option for purchasers to record their own crew talk directly into our locos in the privacy of our own homes.  This way we could come up with some really colorful crew talk   and perhaps much more authentic too.  Recording our own crew talk has the potential for big fun  especially when doing a custom recording session just before friends come over to view the layout.  You could use their name in the recording.  " Hey Mac don't just stand there, get your tired lazy

a-- up on this engine and start shoveling"  I mean the possibilities are endless. 

Just my 2 cents.

I myself think the MTH PFA are somewhat unique.

On my MTH Imperial PRR M1A the PFA announcement talks about "SO" which is South Fork Pa, Gallitzin PA and Altoona PA, all areas when I have visitors over know where these areas are located so that always gets a wow, or what did he say comment which adds a bit of a twist to just watching the engines run.

I also have older people come over that had trains years ago and their comment will be    " boy my trains would not do that, thats neat" 

I also have a MTH Premier Pennsy L1 that when the crew is talking they are waiting for a train sitting in a siding and in the 3rd or 4th sequence you can here the whistle and sound of the opposing train and then the train coming on past their train. After the train passes you can hear the fireman coming back down over the coal pile in the tender and reporting to the engineer that "he did not see anything out of the ordinary on the passing train".

I seen a video of a Lionel Pennsy K4s with their version of PFA or Crew Talk and just my opinion I thought it was really bad.

I never realized that in the years when the PRR built the K4's and other earlier steam engines they were equipped with to way communication, I must have missed that part in my reading.

Roger this and Roger that.

By the way who is Roger???????

With my MTH engines at least the crew is talking among themselves and waiting on an approach signal instead of the tower or dispatch to call them on the radio.

Just my thoughts, Roger!!!! 

Mark Strittmatter

TCA # 14-69917

I Have all MTH and I think the crew talk stuff is great,

I think the PS3 is a step back from PS2

PS1 to PS2 was a great improvement

But PS2 to 3,I'm not impressed, The engines are more detailed, The idle is nicer and louder, but the frequency of the crewtalk  is not as often.

I like sitting upstairs on a Friday or Saturday night, drinking some beer, or rocket fuel,

and dreaming of my next project,listening to the engines idle and talk.