Resurrecting the train of my youth

[Anonymous]

Well, as I have posted before, this past Christmas we gave my son a nice start on a train layout. Alaska starter set, an extra 40 pieces of track, 8 switches, etc.

And then we took my old Lionel set to the shop to get cleaned up and repaired. The star of my set when I was eight was a PRR 8203 with sound in the tender. We brought the unit home from the shop a few days ago, put it on the track, and...

It does not sound like I remembered. The chug sounds more like a electronic beep. Now am I just remembering it better than it was, or is there something wrong? How can this be fixed? Recommendations, or do I forget sound with the old loco and get a new one...

Thanks for your help.

-- Jim

[dwiemer]

Jim,
Glad you are getting the old trains going again. I am not sure to the sound of your old set, but I do know that alot of what has been put out by the manufacturers was not very realistic in the sound department, not that your sound was bad, I just don't know. I would see what you personally could do for your sound, but would not invest money in fixing the sound that would be poor quality at best. Instead, I would look at some of the offerings that Lionel has had the last few years in the way of steam and diesle boxcars and now a caboose. You could get one car and put it on the tracks with any steam and you now have sound.
Dennis

[prewardude]

Lionel's old "Sound of Steam" systems were nothing more than white noise timed to the revolution of the drivers. The system was primitive, but it did mimick the sound of a steam locomotive to a certain extent. It should definitely NOT sound like a beep, though. From your description, there is definitely something wrong. Whether you want to invest in getting it repaired or not is up to you. As Dennis said, these old sound systems weren't very realistic to begin with.

Regards,
Clint

[Dave Farquhar]

They aren't entirely realistic but that doesn't mean they're without charm, necessarily. The sounds and graphics that the Commodore 64 of my childhood emitted weren't all that realistic either--just more realistic than some of the computers on the market at the time--but in 1985, it sure seemed great.

[Anonymous]

You have confirmed what I thought. Is there a trainsounds car that you would recommend to get the steam sound to match the quality of my new Lionel DIesels?

And as the proud owner of a Cosmac ELF, TRS-80 Model 1, Apple II, original MAC 128, IBM PC XT and IBM PC AT, I appreciate the Commodore analogy, but I never enjoyed storing my programs on a cassette tape :)

-- JimV