Hi everyone! This may not be the right section to ask this, but it is DCC related because it involves setting CV48.
I am installing a Loksound Select sound decoder in a Canadian Pacific SW9 which has a single so called "blat" horn. Can anyone tell me what the closest horn available on the Loksound Select would be. Here are the available choices:
Nathan K5LA; K3; M5; P3; P5A
Leslie S-2B; A200; S3; S5; M3
Wabco A2; E2
Holden K5H
The decoder came with a melodious multi chime horn as the default. I think the engine nearly jumped off the tracks with the sound it made!
I was able to find a reference to Holden air horns being used by CP on the Tsunami web site but there were no specific details.
Thanks
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
The only single chime horns are the two Wabco models and the Leslie A200. Based on common useages for those three horns, the Leslie A200 is probably your best bet.
Being that you have three single chime horns to choose from, if I really didn't like that one, one of the others might be more pleasing to your ear. There were different length bells for those horns which changes the sound, not to mention age and condition of the horn. The same horn on two different engines can sound quite different sometimes.
Here's a great site if you like to listen to horns ....
http://www.bnsf-modellbahn.ch/if-div.horn.html
Mark.
¡ uʍop ǝpısdn sı ǝɹnʇɐuƃıs ʎɯ 'dlǝɥ
Mark!
Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge! I was about to sit down at the programming track and try all 13 varieties but you have narrowed it down to three.
Thanks again!
Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Best place to find out for sure is a railroad-specific interest group or society, likely they will have information of various classes of locos and what sort of equipment they had as built. ANd depending on the era you model - they may have been built with a Wabco but later in life were outfitted with a different type of horn. Stuff like that happened all the time. Horns are expensive - on the road I model they were recycled when early units were traded in for more modern ones. Such as Alco Century locos outfitted with the M3RT1 horns from RS-3's. The tilted center bell was needed to clear the cab roof on the RS3's, but the Centuries needed no such accommodation, but since they already had the horns, instead of buying new ones, they were reused.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Thanks Randy - that is very interesting.
Basically for now I simply wanted to switch the sound to a single horn. I have to admit that I don't know the sound of one single horn from the next so getting the specific model wasn't too important to me. I Know that offends the purists but at this point in time I don't feel that I want to get into the details of adding new sounds to decoders. I am having enough 'fun' just fitting the decoder and speaker into the P2K SW9. Actually the decoder was easy - I just had to remove most of the front weight, but I don't see a way around have the speaker partly visible in the ceiling of the cab.
They do give you most of the common options already in there, changeable with a CV, so that's nice, no need to load new sounds. They also are nice enough to document which particular horn you get for each CV setting, unlinke that other brand that has 3 letters - who offer 16 or 32 different horn sounds in each decoder but can;t tell you which kind of horn each one is.
I guess if you want to really be purist - not only the correct sound, but the actual correct horn casting on the loco. I haven't bothered changing my Proto 2000 Geeps yet, they do have an incorrect horn AND it's in the wrong place - someday I might get the right ones. Maybe when I add sound to them. My RS3's, I am adding the correct horn, since most RS3 models have a single chime honker on each hood, and Reading had M3RT1's on a bracked on the front of the cab - and Cal Scale has the proper casting, complete with bracket - they call it a D&H horn. I have a Loksounc V4 for one of those, instead of a Select - and the default sound set for the RS3 does not have an M3RT1 in it, but Loksound's sound library DOES - so on that one I did swap out the horn sound to get the correct one. You need the Loksound Programmer to do that, but it was actually quite easy, just a few clicks, I didn;t have to do any 'programming'. I don;t have the equipment or the connections to go out and record actual locos anyway, so I'm happy they have pretty much any sound I'd need already in their library.
Randy
I just priced the Loksound Programmer at Tony's and they are asking $163.99. I have a reasonable modeling budget but I'm afraid my priorities put that investment way, way down the list. Like I said, I can't be accused of being a purist - the word 'pure' doesn't belong in my resume!
Anyhow, thanks again for taking the time to share your wealth of information as you often do. When I read the Electronics and DCC section I always say to myself "Randy can answer that!" and usually you do!
Happy Holidays!
I'll have to check, but I think I got mine for under $100 on eBay. The only reason I spent the money is because every sound decoder I install from now on will be a Loksound of some form. I already had 2 in the form of Precision Craft steam locos, for which more accurate sounds were made available, and since gettign the programmer I have a decoder for one of my RS3's, and I picked up a Bowser sound chassis for one of my Baldwin switchers which also has a Loksound. A bunch of other club memebers have the same steam loco I do, so at the last show I swapped the sounds with the ones from the real loco for them as well. I'm not a purist myself, but it needs to be somewhat plausible for me - so a 5 chime horn sound on a loco with a single note honker won't cut it. If I had a decent digital recorder I could probably get horns - there's a local guy with a large collection (and a whole rig mounted to his pickup) who often shows up at local outdoor events and demonstrates them. However, comparing recordings on his site with the ones in the ESU sound library, I doubt I could do any better.
Randy - This site has tons of horn recordings, most of them pretty clean. Use Audacity or Goldwave sound editing program to create your own intro / loop / exit files ....
I'll keep that marked in case I end up needing one not already in the ESU library.
davidmbedardK3
The original poster was wanting to match the single bell horn that is on his model - the K3 is a three chime horn.