Early this morning, down in the railroad room, around 3:30 A.M., I was just sitting there in a relaxed mood while a train was making its way around the rails, making all of the sounds that engines can do when I decided to take the sound engine off the tracks and replace it two older Stewart units in the Southern green and white scheme and placed them in front of the consist of stream lined passenger coaches, no sound unit.
I gave it some power and the train began to leave the station. With my cup of coffee in hand I leaned back in the chair and listened. All I could hear was the clickity clack of the wheels passing over the rail joints, no engine sound. I sipped my coffee and just listened. The Stewarts are so quiet, not even a hum. As the train made its way through the scenery I realized, "this is nice".
So, tomorrow morning I might just do the same thing, watch a beautiful train making its way from town to town in peace and serenity. I need that sometimes, with a good cup of coffee, just sitting back in peace and quiet. That's the beauty of this hobby, you can have noise or just quiet, it's a beautiful thing.
Thanks for letting share.
Robert Sylvester
Newberry-columbia Line
South Carolina.
I prefer quiet, the only sound being the sound of the wheels on the rails, no music or any other noise.
Mike
Ha, I like it both ways........... While the sounds of the BLIs are amazing to my ears, so is the quiet noises of the trains running across joints, etc.
The wonderful news is that the sound can be adjusted, from off to full spectrum.
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
I'll go with "both", also. F8 is a swell button.
Regarding sound, there are a few diesels that sound GREAT with the sound on (Atlas S-2, Rivarossi U25C.....) and some that get irritating REAL fast (UP turbines, Bowser Red Barns, and some other EMD turbos).
In steam, I find it very irritating when the chuffs sound like the valve timing is off. I prefer my steamers to sound like they've been properly maintained, not sounding "cute".
Ed
It's a mood thing for me. Generally prefer quiet or music of choice and only train sounds now and then.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
This has been discussed innumberable times since I joined the forums in early 2005. As with any part of the hobby, we must suspend disbelief, including the tinny sounds the HO-sized speakers are capable of producing inside small plastic containers.
Even so, I do prefer the sounds, if only rude approximations, of working steam locomotives. The silent clackety clack is like a knitting machine, which I do not use. Nothing like the sounds of the prototype at all.
What saves me, personally, is lowering the master volume to about the 40% level. From there I lower the really repetitive and irritating sounds like pop-off and blow down, or even the injector sound. My bell volume is low, just enough to hear it when its close.
Also, it is important to only have one or two locomotives making sounds at the same time. Otherwise, it's just a raucous cacophany of tinny noise.
Silence for me pls. It's sometimes nice for me to get about an hour at night in the cave to work on the train. By not having a sound decoder, I can hear the clank of cars along the rails.
Perhaps I'll venture out into a sound decoder when I have more money. Maybe I should start a gofundme site. Not that anyone would contribute...
Both.Some days I use one of my DCC/Sound engine and other days by the press of a button on my MRC T-6 I use a silent DC engine.
Either way I'm as happy as a two headed woodpecker in a bucket of worms.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
Both for me too. If I'm actively operating, then 99% of the time, I have the sounds on. If I'm just letting a train run while I work, then it sort of depends. I can listen to a steam engine chuff away for quite some time, but the drone of a diesel starts to get annoying after a short while.
My old Marklin 3-rail AC trains make such a terrific noise running on the infamous Marklin tinplate track, that sound is a waste of money.
Happy times!
Ulrich (aka The Tin Man)
"You´re never too old for a happy childhood!"
I like them both, as well, but I generally enjoy sound slightly less - i.e. maybe 30-40% of the time. F8 is indeed a wonderful option.
Yea, I totally get the clickity-clack comment, Robert. All my rolling stock is outfitted with Kadee couplers and metal wheels. So, the longer the train; the longer the clickity-clack. I find it a very enjoyable and soothing sound.
I think the early morning hours is very conducive to quiet. So have at it, Robert...and enjoy your coffee.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
I like both sound and non-sound. If I have some non-model railroaders over to see the trains, I try to have at least one sound engine running a train. During my operating sessions, with a small room (20'x20') and 6 or 7 guys in the room, you can barely hear the guys talk, so I prefer no sound engines running.
On a few occassions I have two of my model railroad friends over with their sound engines (both guys don't have layouts), and with just the three of us, the sounds on the trains they bring, as we like to say are 'very nice!'
Neal
I prefer a quiet room. I do run sound engines, but I have the volume set pretty low. I don't like TV, radio, cell phone conversations, lawnmower noise or other distraction's.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Sometimes the sound is fun. But mostly I run with the sound off. The sound of the wheels on the track and the clicking at the joints is usually as much as I want.
Paul
I prefer sound. The main reason I went with DCC was the sounds.
My layout had no continuous run capability so when working of something I just left one engine powered up and listened to the sounds of a steamer at rest. The airpumps, pop valves, injectors and fireman Fred were nice in the background to me.
oldline1
I like the trains quiet and the music of my choice.
.
Sometimes it is fun to make your own train noises... just don't let your wife catch you!
-Kevin
Living the dream.
The pollster has asked a leading question.
I prefer sound and therefore prefer my locos with sound to the ones that don't have it.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
All quiet here, no sound, no DCC.
Music is ok in the train room, but only if played thru good quality speakers.
Sheldon
As others have mentioned, sound is nice — in moderation.
I relate it to seasoning in a cooked dish. Too much of anything spoils the whole meal.
Often, it can depend on how I feel at the time and for what reason I'm "firing-up" the layout. If I simply want to do some diagnostic work or try out a recent decoder install I'll keep everything in silent-mode.
If, on the other hand, I plan to have a whole evening of running trains I like to be able to hear, in moderation, the varied and individual sounds of the locomotives (and cars, as I have a few "soundcar" equipped cars, too) going through their paces.
Listening to a few idling diesels with their occasional condensate air drain (I don't much care for the sound of the modern "spitter") or if it's steam, some random air-pump or blower sounds when sitting are sounds I like to hear while I'm putzing around the layout with other things.
Again, like the spices — delicately balanced with not too much of any one makes for a tasty operating session.
Regards, Ed
Quiet, please. No noise other than metal wheels rolling, with an overlay of big band music, playing at normal conversational level.
NHTX Quiet, please. No noise other than metal wheels rolling, with an overlay of big band music, playing at normal conversational level.
Some nights, with my challenging work, and declining parents' health (both in nursing homes, not doing so well), it can be hard to sleep soundly the whole night, so I'll go downstairs and run a train at 3 or 4 am to get sleepy again.
There's something beautiful about running a train in peace and quiet, when all the world outside is dark and sleepy, and the wife and kids are asleep in their beds.
For me it depends: Rapido's sound engines are fantastic. They nailed the sound particularly in the most recent releases, so I can actually enjoy running them despite my general preferences for silent.
Then there's the Atlas QSI dual-mode decoder engines, like the C420, which don't sound very good by comparison, to put it nicely, and the whole gamut of other more recent "with sound" offerings to boot. My C420 is nos, from more than 10 years ago, so perhaps is not the best comparison...but even the Walthers Mainline PA-1 is well, not so great in the sound department.
So for me it depends upon just what the engine(s) are that are being run.
John
Sound for me. I can understand the logic of not wanting enough sound to distract from the experience, but I do think its possible to strike a balance. I remember in one of David Popp's books how he discussed his railroad having a background track, with localized speakers playing different sounds in different areas of the layout (industrial in the city, birds chirping and distant vehicles in the country, the sound of a brook near a river etc.) With that said, such over abundance of sound really only makes sense during a large operations session, were the ruffling noise of operators is going to muffle a lot of it anyways; and really only be noticable when the operators pause briefly in the action. I am sure the sound of birds chirping while a layout owner is working alone in the room would get old fast. Of course I am the dork who hopes some company like Bath and Bodyworks makes a 'Sage Brush' smelling candle in the future so I could populate some hypothetical future layout room with the smell of the desert. I could also use some Cresote and Diesel exhaust candles please.
Diesel sound is good, steam sound gets annoying. Too much chuffing for me.
Layout size and ops type are a factor to consider, along with what I'll call "scale sound", for want of a better term.
Unless one's sound is turned down low and he's at the far end of a really large pike, the sound of any yard operation or engines merely parked there will be heard in the no longer pristine countryside where you're watching a long-haul freight.
And as for "scale sound", I'd bet there's a difference in our expectations and preferences simply because we're used to hearing railroad sounds from ground level, rather than the hundreds of scale feet above the ground that our ears actually are for most of our activities in the hobby. I'm presuming, though perhaps in error, that any railroad noise presents differently from above than beside, even at the same extended distance, because of differences in what is immediately behind the source. Perhaps there's a railfan or two that have done it from a balloon that can can offer their observations on the matter.
Turbocharger whine is always annoying.
- Douglas
I prefer sound as long as it is good sound. There is nothing worse than a tinny squealing high pitched scratchy whine.
I prefer the volume to be at the 30% - 40% level except for shows when I crank it up to the highest volume that still sounds decent. Otherwise the background noise at the shows cancels the sound almost completely.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
xboxtravis7992 Of course I am the dork who hopes some company like Bath and Bodyworks makes a 'Sage Brush' smelling candle in the future so I could populate some hypothetical future layout room with the smell of the desert. I could also use some Cresote and Diesel exhaust candles please.
Of course I am the dork who hopes some company like Bath and Bodyworks makes a 'Sage Brush' smelling candle in the future so I could populate some hypothetical future layout room with the smell of the desert. I could also use some Cresote and Diesel exhaust candles please.
Living in the high desert of central Oregon, where true silver sage brush abounds, I can tell ya, it smells like the spice that it's named after. Open a jar...
On topic, I'm happy with quiet. DC. If I do go DCC it won't be for sound. Dan
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."