I am getting ready to add sound to my DCC fleet. Since all locos already have a non-sound decoder, I would like to keep cost down by adding sound via a sound car at the end of my loco consist. In some cases, the consist has 4 loco's. How would this impact how someone would hear the sound relative to the loco placement? Can you tell that the sound is coming from the nearby sound car vs the loco's in the consist? As an example, a passenger train with an F7 ABBA consit followed by a baggage car as the sund car.
Paul D
N scale Washita and Santa Fe RailroadSouthern Oklahoma circa late 70's
Six feet away, it probably wouldn't be noticeable. Up close and personal, it will be quite apparent .... even odd.
I hate getting my eyeball down at track level to watch a sound equipped steam engine roll by, the engine glides quietly by followed by a tender eminating all the sound. Really ruins the illusion for me.
If cost is the major concern, put a sound decoder in your lead engine - at least the effect will be more realistic.
Mark.
¡ uʍop ǝpısdn sı ǝɹnʇɐuƃıs ʎɯ 'dlǝɥ
All of my engines(diesel) are sound. On some of them it is really noticable the horn sound is coming from the end of the long hood, eventhough the horn placement is on the cab. I would think a sound car would really be obvious.
OK....a different angle. If I have a sound car (boxcar or dummy loco) that I can run behind a single loco (non sound), how is that different from a steam loco with the speaker in the tender?
PED OK....a different angle. If I have a sound car (boxcar or dummy loco) that I can run behind a single loco (non sound), how is that different from a steam loco with the speaker in the tender?
In my opinion, it would have the same effect. Especially odd with the horn and bell not coming from the lead unit. It's much more obvious where those sounds are coming from. As was mentioned previously, even an engine with the speaker in the rear sounds odd when the horn is on the front of the engine.
I use sugar cube speakers in all my engines - one in the front and one in the rear so the sounds are coming from the entire engine.
I agree with what Mark is saying but I work with N scale and everything is a compromise.
I sometimes run an A-B-A set of F-units, with the only sound decoder being in the B unit. I think that works best if you're only adding sound to one. Eventually I'd like to have sound decoders in all of them, but some sound is better than none.