daft question re wagons......

[BlackRat]

I am looking to create a small Welsh valley coal mine type layout, and will be using DCC Sound for the 1st time.

 

Does anyone produce a 'wagon' chip?

 

It would be superb to have brake and wheel squeal, buffers clashing and couples banging away.

 

Is there such a thing?

 

Or anything in the peipeline?

[Oldddudders]

It would be superb to have brake and wheel squeal, buffers clashing and couples banging away.

Try Ann Summers for the last one, perhaps?

[Colin parks]

Well Black Rat,

 

It sounds (no pun intended) like a very good idea and why not have fitted and unfitted wagon sound. The fitted trains would have made quite a noise when the brakes were applied. Perhaps the sampled sound could be added to loco chips?

 

A business oportunity for someone out there surely?

 

Colin

['CHARD]

Try Ann Summers for the last one, perhaps?

 

Brother, that was the stuff of legend

[Allegheny1600]

Try Ann Summers for the last one, perhaps?

 

 

Good one, Ian!

 

In answer to the OP, the nearest i have seen is the Roco steel hood wagons, where the hoods can open & close digitally - wrong prototype, era, country & scale!!! Oh, and very expensive!!

What about doing something like a cassette tape recording with a speaker under the sidings where the shunting will take place? Could be an awful lot cheaper than the option of fitting speakers to each individual wagon. With relays & sensors, you could probably get the sounds to come on when there are wagons actually being shunted!

No idea where to obtain the original sounds from nowadays though!

Cheers,

John E.

[brian daniels]

Howes have old style wagon buffers clanging away on a function on a steam chip I think. Drop them an email and ask if they could put the sound on a 37 chip for you.

[The Stationmaster]

And depending on the period you're modelling you might have no need for anyuthing to do with those useless continuous brake fitted wagons except the sound of a train running away unable to stop.

 

In 1973 the only coal trains on the Cardiff Valleys whic ran fully fitted were the mgrs loaded with small coal off old tips (for Aberthaw power station) ay Eirw Branch Jcn and occasional mgrs out of the Ocean complex also for Aberthaw (they were the ones that had a tendency to run away).

 

But what you would need is the screech and squeal of a full load coming down a valley with all the brakes pinned down hard - mind you smoke generators to reproduce the burning brakeblocks would also add a further touch of authenticity. The 'incline instructions' required that coming down hill the loco should be pulling against the brakes of the train as it goes onto the incline - thus applying the loco brake would stop the train 'at any point on the incline'. That's what the book said - in reality it could be a bit different and as one of my Drivers said to me coming down from Cwmbargoed one day 'as long as we're not doing more than 40(mph) through Bedlinog we'll stop at the bottom'. We went through Bedlinog (site of) with the speedo needle just under the 40 mph mark and we did indeed stop at the bottom - and on looking back I couldn't see past the leading wagon for clouds of smoke from the brakelblocks. Real railway work down there it was.

[Lady_Ava_Hay]

Quite a few RTR chips have these sorts of sounds. I usually concoct a file for my shunters. The latest brake squeal for my class 04 is an ear bender and I concocted it in Audacity from various squeals from a trainsim site.

 

Coupler crash is still available (on demand) at preserved railways.

[AMJ]

A cheap way might be to dismantle one of the noisy greetings cards and take the speaker and chip and reprogramme the sounds on it. In the Stan Ames DCC book he makes a few comments about using this as a source for sounds. Might be able to trigger it with an old decoder.

 

I'm sure that there are folks out there that have done birdsong and other background sounds onto one of these card sound chips.

 

Based on the thickness of the cards fitting under even a 5 plank wagon in the frames would not be a problem.

[newbryford]

Buffer clash, couplings and wheel squeal are regular features on loco decoders. One of the 66's on Holland Park had a random seagull in the background! US locos have stuff like despatcher radio calls.

 

ISTR that a European manufacturer was considering putting sound into coaches - Roco?

 

Anything is possible, it becomes a matter of cost and complexity.

 

One of the regulars on here, customises the sound at each end of a train, so that the guard's whistle goes at the end with a TGS on a HST for example, and that the horns only work from the leading vehicle - I've done the "directional" horns on a top 'n' tail 37's on my RHTT and 31's on the SGT. Fairly easy to do with a ESU Loksound.

 

Cheers,

Mick

[Etched Pixels]

For a small layout I wouldn't bother with fitted DCC sound for that kind of 'general' background noise. Easier to put a sound system (even a cheap DCC one) under the trackbed wired to IR detectors - ditto with flange squeal.

 

The other answer is to do it in O Gauge or Gauge 1. At that point physics starts to behave the way you want for the buffer clang at least.

[Etched Pixels]

Buffer clash, couplings and wheel squeal are regular features on loco decoders. One of the 66's on Holland Park had a random seagull in the background! US locos have stuff like despatcher radio calls.

 

ISTR that a European manufacturer was considering putting sound into coaches - Roco?

 

Anything is possible, it becomes a matter of cost and complexity.

 

One of the third party projects for the Digitrax is basically a music box - originally used for a singing boxcar 8)

[marc smith]

Hi,

 

There are some interesting ideas and thoughts here.

As others have said though, it depends on whether you want to DCC sound-fit individual wagons.

 

I use a variety of background sounds, played on a cd.

Sounds such as Birdsong, cows, sheep, cars, city noise.

Also, sounds of flanges squealing, buffer clanking....

 

All these sounds are available in mp3 format, on the web.

Sites like "Sounddogs", are quite good -

generally the sound effects are free to download, in a low-quality version,

then you pay for the high quality version -

BUT, I've found the low-quality version is perfectly adequate for background sounds.

 

You can edit the sounds on Windows Movie Maker (usually pre-loaded onto your PC) or similar.

The nice thing about trying this is that it is free!!!!

 

I've found the wagon noises very useful - if you could tie them in to activate at certain points during operation,

that would be great - let us know how you get on.

 

Marc

[br2975]

Then, once you've installed the sound chip in the "16 tonner" put a pin on the back of the brake lever and another on the back of the wheel so it strikes the brake lever cam, causing the brake lever to bounce up and down as the wagon moves - you only need one in a train.

.

Well, you started it Neil !

.

Brian R

[marc smith]

Then, once you've installed the sound chip in the "16 tonner" put a pin on the back of the brake lever and another on the back of the wheel so it strikes the brake lever cam, causing the brake lever to bounce up and down as the wagon moves - you only need one in a train.

.

Well, you started it Neil !

.

Brian R

 

Brian,

I fully expect to see molten metal on your steelworks layout!

 

Marc

[beast66606]

I've found the wagon noises very useful - if you could tie them in to activate at certain points during operation,

that would be great

 

My grand plan is to extract sounds from my own recordings, for example HTAs (EWS coal hoppers) crossing points, 158s rushing past etc, set them up on a dedicated PC. Then, using Rail Road and Co (along with the MILF to establish the train description and therefore the right sounds) trigger them as the train passes various points (well signals actually ) which are detected by the track circuits.

 

All I need to do is finish the new MILF, write software to play the sounds and then write something to link them all together, so almost there (and extract the sounds from the movies).

 

When I devised the sound system used on Mostyn (yes it was my fault) - I sourced the clips and documented them, so for example we had a clip which was a 47 coasting and then accelerating hard after 28 seconds, we would run a 47 slowly onto the up, pull off the outer home and allow it to coast to the inner home, then at 27 seconds into the clip the signals would all be cleared, the sounds then matched what the loco was doing, we also had simpler ones such as a 40 passing, total time 30 seconds, so we knew what speed to run it at.

Although Mostyn was DCC there was no automatic connection, we simply clicked the "play" for the relevant clip and then ran the trains to match - simples. The sound system was Phil Suttons Mac but any computer which can play sounds will do it, it would make sense to get some good bass speakers too, this gives the sound some power (Phil's Mac had these which is why we used it)

 

I would suggest a similar arrangement, a list of suitable clips on a PC, know what each clip does and then simply play the relevant one at the relevant time to match the shunting / train running - its certainly cheap (if you have access to a portable PC) and easy to try, if you don't like it then nothing wasted except for some time, ambient sounds I would simply play from a portable stereo type device.

 

Just a thought.

[br2975]

I fully expect to see molten metal on your steelworks layout!

I walked into that one...............

.

Well, I try telling myself I'm "hot stuff".

[Stubby47]

For molten metal, you could use a a thick jelly (Golden Shredless ??) with an orange LED at the bottom of the wagon...

[AMJ]

For molten metal, you could use a a thick jelly (Golden Shredless ??) with an orange LED at the bottom of the wagon...

 

Golden Syrup?

[marc smith]

Just an added thought....

 

Some years ago at a show, I saw a layout of a colliery.

It included a fairly steep track, into a yard.

Underneath the baseboard where this track was, there was a piece of wire,

protruding through the baseboard.

This was unseen, when in "normal" position (i.e. top level with top of sleepers)

 

When a train was stopped over it, the operator simply pushed the wire upwards,

so that it rested against one of the axles of the leading wagon...

 

The loco uncoupled (either sprat + Winkle or Jacksons, can't remember which)

and left the wagons "suspended" on the slope, as if the brakes had been applied!

 

A simple arrangement, granted - but it was quite a nice and unusual operation to see.

Don't think I've seen it modelled since.

You could always motorise the wire, and maybe even synchronise it with buffer clanking sounds?

 

Just a thought - there's plenty of steep gradients in the South Wales coal fields!

 

Marc

(BTW - think I'd end up eating the contents of my wagons, if I used marmalade!)

[AMJ]

The thought about vehicle brakes is mentioned in the Stan Ames DCC book. What you have is a static decoder that controlls a lever that pushes a block onto the rear of the flange stopping a wheelset from rotating.

 

With DCC can put the brake on anywhere!

[BlackRat]

Thanks all, Bri, dont start me off on gadgets!!!!!

 

I might go for a generic 'chip' under the boards.

 

I cant see you would need a chip in every wagon, more a chip with say several wagons recorded on it.

 

Shouldnt be to difficult.

 

Seems everyone gets bent out of shape about loco sound etc but no thought given to wagon sounds, coaches etc.

 

To me if you have sound, its all part of it.