What you think about sound equipped locomotives

[Anonymous]

The Railroads have sound and so should we.

[ckape]

I think one problem is that companies tend to set the default sound level on their decoders near or at the maximum level. When the volume is lowered sound can be a nice effect.

Then there was the sound equipped steam locomotive at my old club. Whenever the track power would cut out because of a short, it would start making coming-to-a-stop chuffs, which got really annoying.

[selector]

What if you played a CD and no sound came out???

I did the silent Marklin thing when I was 10, about 43 years ago. Marklins engines are top drawer, make no mistake, but my BLI Hudson is every bit as responsive, AND has many different sound effects.

Volume is driving you crazy? Well, it can be turned down and customized to the client. I have done that. And, I can tell you that after running trains with sound, running them with only drive-train noise, let us say, leaves something to be desired.

Ken, if you have 'em, install 'em, and then run them for a while. Like all things DCC, try out different configurations. If you find that they are a pain, uninstall works, too.

Rdw, I agree that the factory settings are ridiculous. I very quickly realized that my Hudson was too darned loud right out of the box, but the nice folks at QSI took pains to mention in their manual that volume was a personal thing to be modified. If you are interested, my volume setting for all effects is at about 40%. I have tried less and more, and 40% is where I am happiest , particularly since my little Heritage 0-6-0, the only other loco, is so much quieter.

[trainfan1221]

I think its kinda neat, at least the few I saw, but I think sound equipped locos are just a gimmick, and I would own one as a novelty maybe, but I don't take it seriously.

[espeefoamer]

I have seen sound equipped locomotives demonstrated at my LHS.Sound on diesels is really cool.I wouldn't pay an extra $100. for it though.I have seen sound equipped steam engines run,and I find it rather disturbing to hear the tender sounding like a locomotive.I think I'll pass on sound equipped steam!

[Fergmiester]

I didn't vote as Sound is a personal thing and some love it, while others are distracted by it. I personally enjoy it but would not tell everyone one it's a "Must Have" for the simple reason "each on to his or her own. My recommendation is for those who are interested to find someone with it, listen to it and decide whether or not it's for you.

The other thing is we have only so much money to go around so one has to prioritise to determine what is important.

This is where the hobby fails. Those who set their expectations too high or have them set by others and can't reach them become disillusioned and walk away?

I don't mean to grand stand but everyone has theiir pace and we must respect it.

Sound isn't for everyone

Sorry if I'm ranting

Fergie

[ARTHILL]

I'm modeling my childhood memories and fanticies and the steam engine at night is a big one. Sometimes I run it for the memories. Sometimes its too noisy and I run a different engine.

[Anonymous]

I survived without it for 20+ years before it became widely available, I'm content to continue without it for awhile longer.

I'm still in a "wait-and-see" mode regarding sound. I've bought a few Soundtraxx 1st-generation EMD decoder/speaker sets (haven't installed them yet though), also bought a "gold" series Atlas CW40-8 with decoder and QSI. I'm not about to go running out and putting sound into all of my 30+ locos![:O]

If this sound technology really takes off in the marketplace, prices will [hopefully] come down a bit and I can afford more later.

[Anonymous]

I screwed up on this, sorry.

here is the completed story.

The past few years, sound has gotten really popular. I for one thought it was the coolest thing until I got a few locos with sound, now they kind of drive me nuts when everyone is running theirs. My biggest complaint is the noise level. It seems everyone has their sound equipped loco turned up as loud as they can, almost like there is a sound competition of “how loud can you go” and it is very distracting to me and a few others. I have even seen people blowing the horn and stuff so much that they have caused accidents because of not paying attention to their driving.

I was just wondering what your thoughts are on this, I picked (ok, take it of leave it). It doesn’t make me as mad as I’ve seen others get about this subject on sound.

Just how big is sound?

[Anonymous]

Thanks to everyone that has something to say and input on this topic.