Anyone know the difference between Lionel's Railsounds and Trainsounds?

[Jumijo]

I was told the same thing. The new version of Railsounds is more robust than the old one. The old version, now renamed Trainsounds, is used on the conventional trains. My old (2004) Railsounds NYC Flyer set does have a battery. You don't need to use one unless you want the Railsounds to stay on with power to the tracks off. My SF El Capitan deisel set does not have a battery. The SF's deisel horn and bell are awesome. The engine revving is ok, but to be honest, I prefer it shut off.

Jim

[Anonymous]

I asked the same question to Lionel, this was there answer, it sounds like they are the same, except one is for TMCC and one for conventional....Maybe they changed their marketing, removing Railsounds from non-TMCC locomotives and going with Trainsounds and that is why this locomotives are similarly price with those of a year ago that had Railsounds with out TMCC......

TALK TOUS
<[e-mail]> to me
More options 1:34 pm (7 hours ago)
Trainsounds and Ralilsounds are the same sound system except the trainsounds is used for conventional only, does not have a battery and does not shut down like the railsounds.

Product Number: N/A

Question:
How are TrainSounds and Railsounds different?

I resently purchased a steam engine set with TrainSounds (6-31985) and wanted to know what I might be missing out on.....

Thanks,
Ken

[Anonymous]

Trainsosunds are digitally recorded and stored sounds but only one sound can play at a time. Railsounds allows for multiple sounds simultaneously like engine sounds and bell and whistle/horn all simultaneously .

[Anonymous]

I have the trainsounds tender. I like the sound that it puts out. The horn and bell are great. There is a switch that lets you turn off the chuffing sounds and the crew talk feature. You can still use the bell and horn. I like this thing, and I am going to try to get it re-lettered by Jeff Sohn to say READING instead of Lionel Lines. I do have a few complaints. The chuffing stops if you press the whistle button. That winds up sounding awkward. Also, there are some electrical issues with this thing and if the current drops out a tiny little bit, like if the tender is a few too many track sections from a lock on, the horn and bell start going on their own and will not stop. They tell you that you should just use a lighted caboose or a lighted passenger car on the same train and the problem will stop, but that did not work for me. I am hoping that when I got the whole layout done, and the track sections are wired nicely and evenly, that the problem will go away. If not, the tender will go away!

Another issue is that you can not use the chuffing but select to not use the crew talk. I know lots of people like crew talk, but I'm not one of them.

[Jumijo]

I like the Railsounds that came in my kid's NYC Flyer set. The whistle sound is great. I'm giving serious thought to buying the SF El Capitan starter set because it has a deisel version of Railsounds.

I think Lionel made a smart move making RS box cars as well as tenders. Now all those no-sound loco consists can sound more authentic, but here's a question - if you're running a steamer with a whistle tender and a Railsounds box car, and you press the whistle button, do you hear two different whistles?

Jim

[cnw1995]

I have a Railsounds tender from a K-Line set - a 'sounds' button on a conventional Lionel train set transformer activates the bell, I imagine the whistle would activate with another button - the chuff is timed to the engine speed, there is some nice rail squeal, when the tender is neutral - a 'TowerCom' series of radio exchanges (incongrouous for the steam engine but welcome anyway) comes on.

[Roger Bielen]

With a TMCC engine in the Trainsounds position you only get those sounds normal to the engine, i.e. motor/chug, this is usually for when running conventional. The Railsounds are the whole package, i.e. station announcements, etc. that are activated with the CAB-1.

[Anonymous]

Yes, Trainsounds are a much cheapened version of Railsounds. If you are familiar with Railsounds you will think that Trainsounds is the "Mighty Sound of Steam" from 1975. The worst of it is that the Trainsound equipped locomotives /sets in the new catalog cost as much as when the same sets were equipped with Railsounds two catalogs ago. I love Lionel but Trainsounds was a big mistake.

[Anonymous]

I guess that's my only question -- what's the difference between Lionel's Trainsounds and Railsounds and is one preferable? Thank you...kristin