I watched the MR video demonstrating SoundTraxx Sound Car, and one thing I noticed was that it seemed to stress sounds of an earlier period, especially clickety-clack of jointed rail. However, one thing I've noticed in the past year or two of train watching is that trains on welded rail with roller bearing trucks have a very different sound -- it's a pretty loud hum, almost as if electric motors were involved, and the hum rises and falls with train speed. So if you're out at trackside on a main line now, you first hear the locos and maybe horns, but after that sound passes and dies away, you then hear the definite hum of the train. I don't know if SoundCar covers this, as it wasn't mentioned in the video. But when I see a model train video with a unit train, even when the locos have sound, the hum of the train is missing.
Another issue is radio detector messages. You can find some of these on line in wav files, but the selction is limited, and there's no single, easy way of transferring them to a layout. An easier solution with a wide variety of actual messages would be a good feature. I got a wav file off the web and got ITTC to put it on a sound module that's activated by a Dallee Electronics detector, but this involves several vendors (one of whom is nice enough to do something unique), a lot of wiring, and a web search of a limited variety of messages.
Seems like there are some opportunities here.
John,
I've looked over the documentation on the SoundCar. The rail click is user adjustable and can be set anywhere from zero rail joints to a whole lotta rail joints.
Your second question about radio detectors depends on the way the Soundtraxx sets up future versions of their sound decoder. Unlike some others, Soundtraxx decoders have the sounds burned in and they are not user-loadable. It is what it is from the factory. It wouldn't surprise me if they ended up offering SoundCar decoders tweaked for different eras and possibily given industry trends, that future Soundtraxx decoders may have the capalibility to use user uploaded files.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
The queation isn't so much the clicks, but the hum. If you take away the clicks, you still don't have the hum.
And neither the hum nor the detector message needs to be in a car itself. SoundTraxx also has SurroundTraxx which uses external speakers and may in fact be better suited to both possibilities. Certainly I like the ITTC approach to flange squeal, since that happens at a particular point on the line.
So what you do is make your own SoundCar, using a Loksound decoder, in which you cna load your own sounds to make it sound however you like. Loksound V4 in this case, so you can set up under what conditions various sounds are triggered and so forth.
Talking fault detectors though, are generally 'point' devices. You don't want that sound coming randomly across the layout - you want this to be trackside, along witht he relay case to hold the equipment, and an antenna, and, depending on you deisred level of detail, the bits between and alongside the rails that do the actual defect detections. This is an ideal situation for the components listed (though there are FAR less expensive detectors than Dallee - they make a quality product but their prices seem high compared to others). Multiple vendors - I don;t see the issue? The whole point of DCC being a standard is that you cna mix and match, at least at the track level. I don't have a single Digitrax decoder running on my Digitrax DCC system. I've used stationary decoders from NCE and Tam Valley to operate my turnouts.
There was a defect detector available from one supplier, that would randomly throw in an actual defect, telling you which axle, so the crew would have to stop and set out the defective car. Think it had everything you need - IR detectors and the electronics to simulate the defect detector. Never paid much attention to it because this kind of thing is all way too new for my era.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
I don't know how many other detectors will issue a single momentary pulse when the train hits the detection circuit. This is necessary for the ITTC to do just one iteration of the sound (UP detector. . . no defects) so it doesn't repeat. I agree this is a point issue, but I'm not so much insisting that everything be on one decoder, just that the opportunity is there for a manufacturer to do something that isn't being done.
Certainly I can go out, record my own train hum, and load it onto one or another decoder. By the same token, I can scratchbuild my own loco if that's what floats my boat. On the other hand, many suppliers have seen opportunities in serving the market segment that doesn't want to scratchbuild everything.
Just about any 'point' detector should work for this - you just have to have the IR sensor diagonally across the track so the gaps between cars don't trigger multiple detections. Or there is the Azatrax MRD1-T, which is the same sort of thing at an MSRP of $18.50 accoording to their site. The output will trigger when a train is detected, and remain active for the set time delay. It will not activate the output again until the train has cleared the detector for at least 2 seconds. So, if it takes say 10 seconds to play the defect detector message, you set this for 10 seconds. A train comes along, it turns on the ITTC sound unit for 10 seconds, and even if the train hasn;t fully passed the sensor, the sound unit is turned off and stays off. The options are 1 and 7 seconds - one second should be enough to simulatre pressing the button on the ITTC unit. or for a few dolalrs more they will custome make it with the time delay you specify. If the delay is long enough to play the entire sound, you insert this detector in the power line for the ITTC and configure the ITTC for loop mode.
Lots of ways to skin this cat.
Oh, here's the one I was thinking of. Boulder Creek Engineering. It's significantly more expensive, but it works more like the real thing and actually counts axles. And then has a speaking voice to report the results.
http://www.bouldercreekengineering.com/trainboss.php
They have other neat stuff like working scales and station announcement generators.
JOHN BRUCE IIIThe queation isn't so much the clicks, but the hum. If you take away the clicks, you still don't have the hum.
OK, yeah, the closest thing to rail hum -- I call it "singing" -- would be flange squeal, and that's really something else. Unless the hum is integral to the rail joint sound file, you out of luck I think. If it was there like that, then turning the clickety-clack to it's lowest setting (there are still infrequent joints even in welded rail) might give you the results you need..
I get the hum just by using Proto 2000 metal wheelsets in my cars. With no special consideration for sound deadening, just cork roadbed on extruded foam, the predominant sound between flex track joints is the 'singing' of the metal wheels.
IM metal wheels are quieter.
JOHN BRUCE IIISo if you're out at trackside on a main line now, you first hear the locos and maybe horns, but after that sound passes and dies away, you then hear the definite hum of the train.
I think the sounds you hear eminating from passing trains depends largely on the territory and train handling conditions.
The hum may be related to rail defects that develop after time. Or if you happen to be in an area where train braking is going on the new composition brake shoes will make a chatter that, taken collectively, will sound like a hum.
Many places I have watched and listened to trains pass, on level, tangent rail, are nearly silent with just a few squeaks from the draft gear and bolster guides with a little flange squeal thrown in for good measure.
Like everything we encounter in model railroading, lots of compromise has to be sprinkled in with "as close" to real as possible.
Ed