Got a kick out of the Dec CTT feature article on PW Lionel F-3 noises.
My RK MTH F-3 doesn’t make any of those sounds. Just the crew chattering away, engine noises, and a very tinee horn sound that I could probably do without.
My postwar 2353 F3 grouwls[:D][:D]. It makes the noise of a powerfull engine. I love that sound!
modern 4-4-2…clinks and clanks(driving rods), thats all
scout loco… growls and gear grinding in AC, clinks in DC
My postwar 2343 growls, but my 259E and 2037LTS purr.
Both my Berkshires bark (Mighty Sound of Steam). 
You gotta just love that early postwar F3 growl. It went away when they switched to vertical motors on later models.
My brand new NYC Flyer 4-4-2 hums loud enough to hear it over the Railsounds, and the driving rods clink and clank.
Jim
/
/____My First Star after
____all these years
\
I have a Lionel GP7 made in 1957, that growls / buzzes pretty loud when sitting still.
Besides the regular cleaning, greasing & oiling, no maint. has ever been necessary, other than sanding off a tad of corrosion on the horn’s activation contact, which prevented the horn from sounding at one time.
Not too bad of a record for an engine that’s almost 60 years old…
Just got an American Flyer prewar 1218 electric engine, got it on the 'bay. I was’nt expecting to much as alot of the prewars run, but not so well. This engine is one of the quietest smoothest running engines I own. Even my wife commented that it was quiet, as she has come accustom to my noisey, spark emiting, wobbly engines.
I guess one reason for it being quiet is it doesnt have a reverse unit. But still for a 70+ year old engine it’s quite (and quiet) a runner.