Sound Effects Come to the S&C

Pushing the "Water" button will start the sound

of a tender being filled with water.

One of the things that I have been toying with over the years is adding sound to the railroad. I don't mean in the locomotives but in other areas. For example, if a rule is established that all locomotives take water at Peters, then how long does that take? How long does it take to load a stock car? Why doesn't the band ever play anything? Those problems have now been solved.
   Recently, a friend of mine, Keith Robinson, turned me on to some sound modules on ebay. They used mini SD memory cards to hold the sound files and could play back up to 500+ separate files. I purchased a couple and tried them out. They work great! The memory card makes it very easy to record the sound(s) you need but it does take some playing with the sound files. Although the modules are new, the technology appears to be a bit old. They will only work with memory cards with less than 1 gigabyte capacity. Try to find one of those at your local store. I did find some 128 megabyte cards on line which is more than enough capacity for any sound I will ever use.
   Also, the sound has to fit within some fairly old parameters. The free program, Audacity, allows these modifications to be made but not with the current version. I had to download an earlier version of Audacity (V. 1.2.6) that could save the files in the older format. In spite of this, the end result still sounds good.

The power supply (right) and sound module (left) are mounted on a wood block for ease in attaching to the layout. The SD mini memory card fits into the slot on the sound module. A Radio Shack amplifier stands beyond.

 To implement all this fun, I built some 9V power supplies. These take 12V DC power from an accessory bus I have running about the layout and drop it down to 9V DC to power the module and the Radio Shack amplifier I use to deliver the sound. A push button on the fascia completes the installation and now S&C engineers know how long it takes to fill the tender tank. A similar recording will eventually go by the stock pens to tell operators how long it takes to load a stock car. I even have a recording for the bandstand at Oakdale. The band has a 5 or 6 song repertoire and each push of the button will start a new Sousa march.
   The possibilities are high but I have to keep the volume low enough so that all the cows mooing, water running and band songs won't send my operators marching away.

Some Details on Sound

Following my last posting (Finally, Some Sound), I had a few questions on how I mounted the electronics in the slope-back tender of the 0-6-0. Unfortunately, I did not take any photos of the tender insides but here is a diagram of what is mounted and where.

   To begin with, the motor and drive was replaced with a Sagami 16x30 can motor and a NWSL 150-6 gearbox (36:1). All of the electronics mount in the back half of the tender shell. I had previously filled the coal bunker with coal and had weights in the water part adjacent to the coal. I used a Micro-Tsunami (C-Class Steam) with a Soundtraxx 810112 oval speaker. The wires for both were oriented toward the middle of the tender beneath the mounting strap. The capacitor was also mounted beneath the mounting strap. I used an incandescent 1.5V bulb for the backup light and the resistor for that was stuff in one of the legs adjacent to the coal bunker. None of these pieces was fastened to the tender body but just laid in. Three 1/8” holes were drilled in the tender floor beneath the speaker to let the sound out. An additional hole was drilled in the floor for the wires to pass through to connectors located beneath the front truck body bolster. I kept the wires as short as possible so they could all be stuffed beneath the mounting strap when assembled. It was programmed this morning and it sounds great. 

Finally, Some Sound

The Number 19 at Orford Junction.

Like everyone, I work on a project for a while, get tired of it, quit, and, hopefully, get back to it some time later. A couple of years ago, I refitted almost all of my locomotives with Tsunami sound decoders. By the time I had finished most of them, I got tired of the project and left two locos silent and running with only non-sound decoders. Over the last couple of days, I finally decided to remedy that situation and install the sound decoders.

The speaker can barely be seen at the left rear corner of the tender. A Sagami 16x30 motor  was used.

Some of the tender frame had to be removed to allow the decoder to fit.

   The two engines in need were No. 19, a Pacific Fast Mail import of the V&T Reno. This engine is a 4-4-0 with the motor, decoder and speaker in the tender. There is precious little room for all these things, so little in fact, that I had to skew the motor slightly to allow the Tsunami to fit. Many people think that a motor in the tender will result in "tender wobble" as the loco runs. This is not the case. If a rubber tube coupling is used between the engine and motor, you can expect the wobble but not if Northwest Short Line U-joints are used. The drive shaft between the engine and tender is not real noticeable and there is more room in the engine for weight which means long trains. My 4-4-0s pull 10-12 normal-sized cars without a problem.
   The speaker I used was a Soundtraxx 3/8" speaker. It's not real big but it does put out the necessary sound and it's the only one that I can get to fit. It's located at the extreme rear of the tender behind the flywheel.

The motor is attached to the tender shell. Screws are covered by the wood load.

The Number 16 at Stockton. It is still lettered for the MSN but the tender will be repainted and relettered for the Stockton & Copperopolis.

   The other engine was No. 16, the Stockton switcher. It had a small Lenz decoder in it which gave good results but no sound. Another Tsunami went in here. There was enough room to add a big larger rectangular speaker I had. Everything was a tight fit due to the slope of the tender deck but it now works well and will please the Stockton yardmaster who was complaining about having an engine without sound.