Station Announcements

[sprulz]

Good Day,

I am looking for a site to download or buy (if need be) recordings of American station announcments of departures and arrivals. I  want to play these via computer to speakers located under the layout. A search of the web generates long lists, but the only ones are European or British. I need the 50's and 60's type annoncement, of the deep male voice, that didn't stop to take breath.

Also, where would I be able to get a refereence to an old 78 record from about 1960, that I recall at age 5, of a train departuer of steam and diesel. All I recall the diesel was yellow, (UP, CNW?) and that my parants could not understand why I could listen to it for hours on end.

Regards.

SPRULZ

South Africa 

 

[Magnum019]

 Ever Try "YouTube"......I'll be watching also as I like the idea you have.......

 

C

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[sprulz]

Hi,

Did get a few, but they were moders Caltrain and Metro type with videos. Were good to watch.

[BigRusty]

I spent a lot of time waiting for departing trains in both the GCT and New Haven Union Stations.

The announcements were all the same. For departing trains:

GCT - Now leaving from Gate 22, the Merchants Limited express to Boston stopping at New Haven. All Aboard!

GCT - Now leaving from Gate 24 The Narraganset to Boston stopping at Bridgeport, New Haven, New London and Providence. All Aboard!

For arriving trains:

GTC - Now arriving at Gate 16, Train 24 from Boston.

NH - Now arriving on track 4 from New York the Puritan for Boston stopping at New London and Providence. All Aboard! 

Substitute train names, destinations, etc. and you can make your own recordings.

I plan to produce an announcement recording for my Model of the New Haven Union Station. I can't figure out to synchonise the announcement with the train and its arrival and/or departure time

[Paul3]

A former club member (and friend of mine) works for Amtrak at South Station, and he has done station announcements for at least 15 years or so.  He was featured in a story at this website:

http://www.nationalcorridors.org/df/df04282003.shtml#May

The following is the .wav file of his rather unique delivery:

http://www.nationalcorridors.org/df/df04282003.wav

Paul A. Cutler III
*******************
Weather Or No Go New Haven
*******************

[wjstix]

Only one I can think of offhand is Carstens / Railfan and Railroad produced an LP of train songs done by a Bluegrass band in the 1970's where the songs were intercut with train sounds. In one section it has a couple of minutes of a train announcer from Grand Central in New York given announcements. Railfan sold the LP into the nineties I think so you might find one around.

Otherwise I was able to find these, not sure if any/all will help or not....

http://www.freesfx.co.uk/sfx/central%20station

http://www.haddongivenskime.com/store/sfx/index.html

 

 

[rclanger]

If you are going to use a computer you would need a scheduled timer to automatically start the recording.  You would then have to have the train depart.

There are scheduling programs available that may be used to trigger the announcement at the correct time.

[sprulz]

Morning,

Thanks for the positive responses. I will keep the forum updated on progress and status.

On the question of timing, on my layout, the SP South, the operators are located at sitting positions, and despatchers do the switch operations, confirm train movements etc. So a despatcher would be responsible for the start of the announcement at approporiate times. (Thats the vision at this stage.)

Regards.

Ralph

[Seamonster]

sprulz

Morning,

Thanks for the positive responses. I will keep the forum updated on progress and status.

On the question of timing, on my layout, the SP South, the operators are located at sitting positions, and despatchers do the switch operations, confirm train movements etc. So a despatcher would be responsible for the start of the announcement at approporiate times. (Thats the vision at this stage.)

Regards.

Ralph

If you plan to have the announcements in a computer in wav or mp3 format I assume that the dispatcher will pick the appropriate announcemnt from a playlist and play it at the desired time.  IMHO that seems like a lot of overkill to use a computer just for announcements.  If you're using the computer for other layout functions I assume the programs won't interfer with each other.  If the layout is large you might want to consider multiple speakers in different locations with a selector switch for the dispatcher so that the sound comes from the right location.

Another method you might want to consider is a cassette tape machine with the announcements on tape and a switch at the dispatcher's position connected to the "remote" jack of the tape machine.  The announcements would have to be recorded in the order in which they would be played.  If this isn't possible you could use multiple tape machines or multiple tapes.  You could have a detector which would catch a train coming into the station and activate the tape machine for an announcement.  It would have to have a time delay to shut off the tape machine after the announcement.  If you had multiple announcements on one tape they would have to all be the same length (unrecorded tape to bring the shorter ones to the same length as the longest one) for the timer to work properly.  I'm not sure how to trigger the tape automatically just before the train leaves the station.  That would probably have to be done manually.

Back in the 1970s I worked with a very small community radio station in a remote Northern community and we used cassette tapes for our spots, announcements and program intros.  Our equipment was very minimal and simple and we had only one cassette machine.  We recorded our spots etc. on very short leaderless tapes of 30 seconds to two minutes in length.  I doubt that these tapes are available any more.  At that time commercial radio stations recorded their spots on cartridges that resembled 8-track cartridges (how many remember those?) but we couldn't afford that equipment.  Maybe you can find a small radio station which has gone to computer operation now and hasn't thrown out the old cart equipment yet.

Hopefully some of this might spark some ideas for you to use.

 

[jffpcf]

Hi Big Rusty,

 

Did you ever make a New Haven announcement ?

"I plan to produce an announcement recording for my Model of the New Haven Union Station. I can't figure out to synchonise the announcement with the train and its arrival and/or departure time "

I got a request from someone who wants such an announcement for his train layout.

 

Thanks,

 

John Festa TCA 77-11520

 

[e-mail]

 

 

 

 

[steamage]

I did this years ago, made my own station announcements by using a small cassette tape recorder.  Ran a wire form the ear piece plug-in ran to a small speaker inside the station.  A small speaker will sound a bit on the tinny side and that is good.  Check the timetable of the railroad you model and write out a script with a short pause between each announcement.  If you don't have a "station voice sound", ask a friend to record it.   I don't know how to record via computer, seems much more involved than a cheep little cassette tape machine.

[ds137]

I have been toying with the idea of using digital voice recorders, like the ones found in greeting card that you can record your own greeting.. not only for station announcements, but various sounds all over the layout.  I saw a discussion about, but have not followed up on, "hacking" greeting cards to re- record the sound device.  I think an IRDOT would work well for the on switch..  Just spewing out Ideas here....

Earl 

[dknelson]

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlL3o-1t3dQ&feature=related

There are several youtubes with the title Station Announcement but some are from ON the train not in the depot concourse.

I looked everywhere for the classic Mel Blanc station announcement from the Jack Benny radio show - I am sure it is there somewhere.  But here it is in Daffy Duck's voice...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygVFbz6AsnE

Dave Nelson

[wjstix]

Keep in mind station announcements were generally inside the station, not outside, so normally you wouldn't hear them from outside of the building. St.Paul Union Depot used a loudspeaker system (before radio) to tell yard switchmen which tracks to align for which train.

[Flashwave]

wjstix

Keep in mind station announcements were generally inside the station, not outside, so normally you wouldn't hear them from outside of the building. St.Paul Union Depot used a loudspeaker system (before radio) to tell yard switchmen which tracks to align for which train.

There should normally be a loudspeaker on the platofrm though for passengers milling about in the fresh air.

Random thought. If you are doing this with a computer anyway, why not record YOU doing them. Type up a nice script, most comps have a mic jack, and I'm sure there's free (legal) recording stuff online, if Microsoft doesn't have it stock. And if you are on an Apple, then you will have a recording program onboard.

[hobo9941]

I plan to do the same thing. I plan to make my own CD recordings. I have a CD recorder and microphone. Then put a small speaker, one or two inch in the station. I will havethe CD player under the layout next to the DCC controller. I can select whatever track I want, and press PLAY, as the train is arriving or departing. I think I can get enough volume for a small speaker from the earphone jack on the CD player.

[jffpcf]

To see what I have done, just do Youtube search on NOMA Talking Station.  There are two videos to look at and if you want more information just contact me (info is available on the Youtube links).