Chuffs per revolution

[Train Memories]

  In your opinion, you guys, do you think it sounds better with the latest (Lionel's) 4 chuffs per revolution or the the previous engines with 2 chuffs per wheel turn? I have both engines and some people tell me the four chuffs per rev. does not sound right.  

[laz 57]

Flip a coin.  When I have it all running I can't tell between two or four, everything sounds muffled.

laz57

[Roger Bielen]

Doesn't matter a hill of beans to me.  This question might raise some hackles over on the other forum but I think the majority over here enjoy trains for the sake of trains.

[chuck]

For most of the people reading/posting, the only experience with steam loco's has been what we've seen/heard on TV and Movies or experienced on excurison rides where the loco was running slow.   TV and Movie sound was tweaked to sound nice and often has nothing to do with what was going on.  A Stanley Kubrick film had an extended scene in Penn Station.  You can hear steam switch engines in the background chugging an tooting.  Never happened.  Kubrick or his sound designer though the quiet of the teminal was off so they added background sounds to indicate you were in a train station.   Railfan vidoes of mainline high speed steam loco's sound like a machine gun going off (a realy big machine gun).

The 4 chuffs per revolution is accurate but sounds "wrong" unless you run the trains at slower speeds.  I usually turn the engine sounds off after a few minutes unless a visitor wants to "hear" the train and just leave the horn/whistle/bell sounds active.

[johnandjulie13]

I like the four chuffs/revolution since I usually run my trains really slow (< 20 smph).  This is one of the nice features of DCS, since you can pick the number of chuffs that suits your preference.

Regards,

John O

[lionelsoni]

A while back at a train show I saw a three-cylinder shay on an HOn3 layout, chugging around to a recording of CHUFF-chuff-chuff-chuff-CHUFF-chuff-chuff-chuff....

[mickey4479]

Other than shays and the like, its supposed to go like this.

" i THINK i can; i THINK i can; i THINK i can; . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

[Joe Hohmann]

I agree that a slow-running train is pretty neat with 4 chuffs. I've seen others complain that it sounds like a "blur" at fast speeds. I cracked-up when I realised that my newly converted (TMCC) engine seems to be doing 3 chuffs! Sounds fine to me. Joe

[3railguy]

If I were a two rail O scaler I might care. Even then I would only know the difference if I were to shine a strobe timing light on the spinning drivers and could count fast enough on four fingers.

I didn't realize my Lionel 2-8-0 chuffs once per rev until someone ranted about it on that other forum.

[tomikawaTT]

I agree that a slow-running train is pretty neat with 4 chuffs. I've seen others complain that it sounds like a "blur" at fast speeds. I cracked-up when I realised that my newly converted (TMCC) engine seems to be doing 3 chuffs! Sounds fine to me. Joe

Can you say, "Illegitimate complaint?"

At speed, the exhaust of a prototype loco blurs out, especially at low cutoff (with corresponding low exhaust pressure.)

OTOH, a prototype Shay may be moving at a fast jog, but it sounds like a Hudson coming up on track speed...

Then, of course, there's the legitimate need to go from eight semi-synchronized puffs to four fully synchronized puffs when your N&W Y transitions from simple to compound running...

Trying to get the exhaust properly synchronized with what the loco is actually doing could get to be an engineering PHD problem without really trying.

Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with silent models of noisy locos)

[NYC Fan]

When MTH PS-2 came out with 4 chuffs I stopped buying Lionel.  The first Lionel Locomotive I've bought since PS-2 is the latest L-2 Mohawk with 4 chuffs.  I guess I let my money express my preference. 

[Train Memories]

NYC fan,   How do you like the Lionel  L-2 Mohawk? I have been looking at that engine. How is the whistle, is it load, realistic? Do you really like it? Did you get a good deal on it? and last who sells it?         Thanks

[NYC Fan]

When I heard it at York with 4 chuffs, I preordered it.  I liked the detail on the first L-2, but like I said I didnt want 2 chuffs. The sounds and whistle are superb, very realistic. I couldn't be happier with this one.