How realistic or unrealistic is the sound on Intermountain locomotives.
To my untrained ear, it sounds pretty simple and somewhat unrealistic.
Rich
Alton Junction
That probably depends which model(s) you are asking about.
I have an ABBA set of F units, I'm quite satisfied with the sounds.
Brad
EMD - Every Model Different
ALCO - Always Leaking Coolant and Oil
CSX - Coal Spilling eXperts
They are Tsunami decoders in any of the recent ones. Some say these are the best, personally I don;t agree based on the Tsunami locos I have run. The sounds are good quality, but the horns are genrally weak. Plus they do not load up realistically unless you use manual notching and controlt he prime mover yourself. I've never heard a real train just walk away with a heavy train and not have the prime mover rev up before moving, and having ridden in the cab just reinforces my opinion that the others handle this better. The loco I was riding in had to do some switching at the end of our run and even moving light, or just one car, there was even some revving as we started to move, just far less than when we had the whole train in tow. QSI decoders like the one in my Atlas Trainmaster make this real simple, just add some momentum. Crank open the throttle, and it revs a lot as it starts moving, turn the throttle up slower and it just barely chugs as it picks up speed.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Ah. yes, I should have mentioned, my F units have QSI decoders.
twcenterprises That probably depends which model(s) you are asking about. I have an ABBA set of F units, I'm quite satisfied with the sounds. Brad
The one in question is an Intermountain GTW F3A (#49125S).
Intermountain product page lists that as having QSI sound
You need to adjust the decoder's CV settings and momentum to get better sound performance if you haven't performed any tweaking of the decoder's factory default settings,
Go to the QSI or Intermountain web site and download the QSI Technical Reference Manual which lists all of the CV settings.
It's also possible that Intermountain did not use a good quality speaker in the model.
I have a number of Intermountain locomotives with sound, all are EMD F units and I am very satisfied with all of them. I certainly would rate them better than the Athearn Genesis and Walthers sound locomotives that I have.
If you contact Intermountain by e-mail and describe your problems you will receive a reply in a few days, if you call them direct you may or may not get their answering machine. However, they are good at returning phone calls.
They will try to help you with your problem, my experiences with their service department were excellent, problems were solved every time.
don7 I have a number of Intermountain locomotives with sound, all are EMD F units and I am very satisfied with all of them. I certainly would rate them better than the Athearn Genesis and Walthers sound locomotives that I have. If you contact Intermountain by e-mail and describe your problems you will receive a reply in a few days, if you call them direct you may or may not get their answering machine. However, they are good at returning phone calls. They will try to help you with your problem, my experiences with their service department were excellent, problems were solved every time.
Don, just to clarify, I don't have a "problem" with the Intermountain sound. It is just that it emits a rather dull sound rather than a rich horn sound. So, my question is whether it is realistic. I will try to capture the sound of the horn on video and post it on YouTube.
The ones I've heard on Youtube sound quite good, much better than the newer AC44's with Tsunami. Make sure the speaker is not damage and you haven't picked up stray metal with the magnet. This cna really dull the sound.
I put up a video on YouTube that captures the sound pretty well.
Tell me what you think.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZCLx1E9egA&feature=em-share_video_user
You need to adjust the sound levels some, raise the prime mover and reduce the horn a bit. It's the right kind of horn, single chime "blaaat" horn.
Default they usually come with the horn and bell cranked, so the bell probably has to be turned down too. You didn;t change speeds but others I've seen on Youtube do transistion, as you start out the motor revs then it reduces and starts again, like shifting gears. It should do this twice, there are 3 states for the traction motor control - parallel, series/parallel, and series. It's the electrical equivalent of low, second, and high gear.
Here's a different set, though these have a different horn - reflected both in the horn applied tot he model and the horn sound in the decoder. The norn is turned down some in this one, and you cna clearly hear the transistion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-ikklggwRY
Here's the real thing, restored F3's:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DM53Ya_yF6Y
The horn IS super loud compared to any other sound - on the one station approach they turn on the bell and you can barely hear it. But I like to hear the diesel so I turn the horns down. Close up, thge bell IS pretty loud - when you're standing near where it actually is. Notice how when they start moving the diesel revs before it moves - this is what Tsunamis get wrong.
ANd this, inside one of those same units:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lt4J9SZBRvU&feature=related
Randy, thanks so much for those replies and for those videos.
That video of the real thing, the restored F3, convinced me that the Intermountain sound is highly realistic.
I will make those adjustments that you recommended to the prime mover, horn and bell.
That video inside the F3 was extremely informative. Thanks again.
Ya I agree, the horns are spot on compared to the prototype.
I have at least 8 Intermountain locos with Tsunami sound, and they all sound and perform fantastic.
Michael
CEO- Mile-HI-RailroadPrototype: D&RGW Moffat Line 1989
Randy - I would like to thank you for that video of the F3. I have always thought the horns on some of the sound locomotives I have were toy like. Guess what, turns out they are pretty close to the real thing. Tom
Tom
Pittsburgh, PA