Hi All
I got a smart phone for my 70th birthday [from my kid who thought I should have one] and would like to get railroad ring tones for it. I found some on the Sprint site, but they are pretty poor. Does anyone know where I can find some “good” ones, perhaps recorded by real rail fans.
PS the Newswire looks great on the small screen, they did a good job on the Mobile version
R Brewer
Seattle
I found a program that would convert “.WAV” type files to what the phone uses; which on my Android phone is “.MP3”.
I found just one “free” program that would do this, but the free version limited the sound files to just 10 seconds, so it cut short a few that I’d like to have been a bit longer. I just was not going to pay their price for the full version of the program just to convert a half dozen files and then never run it again.
There are some web sites that have whistle and horn sounds that you can download as “.MP3” files that might work for you. Do a Google Search for “whistle sounds free download”. But check to see what format the files must be for your phone model.
There are lots of Youtube to mp3 converters for free. There are lots of great train sounds on youtube.
There’s a free app for Droids called “Ringdroid” that may prove useful, especially for editting longer cuts into something suitable for ringtones.
I modified “Puffing Billy” (AKA Captain Kangaroo’s theme song) so I could use it for one of our railraod volunteers…
I don’t think I’d mind having a K5LA horn or the start up sound of an EMD 645-E3 as ring tones. Guaranteed attention getters!
Just remember, when that thing starts going off out in public no one, and I mean NO ONE around you will think that your ring tones are as catchy and clever as you do.
That goes for ALL ring tones, not just train related ones.
That is why I stopped using my “KLAXON” sound for a ring tone! [:$] (It is bad enough when I use it for the Wake-up alarm when I am alone!)
Like the fellow whose phone started playing “Sweet Child of Mine” during a meeting tonight?
I have the Station 51 tones and buzzer set for fire and EMS pages (I have a special app on my smartphone that captures them when the texts hit my phone). Anyone who remembers the show “Emergency” knows exactly what it is. I refer to it as the ultimate wacker ringtone. A wacker is to the fire service community what a foamer is to the railfan community…
Since many of the folks I hang out with have roots in the emergency services, they get it.
Do you always turn left when you leave the firehouse?
Not always, but that is the way to the state highway…
And why did they always back into the station? It had bay doors on the back as well.
Can’t help you there - but I will answer the question with another question, the answer of which may help.
Why did Roy Desoto always drive?
It had nothing to do with seniority or any unmentioned qualification.
It was solely because on the day(s) they were shooting the “stock shots,” he drove. Thus, for most of the rest of the series, Johnny Gage (named after series advisor Jim Page, a legend in EMS) always rode shotgun.
It could be because while there was access at the rear of the station, there really wasn’t room to turn an engine around. Now there’s an aerial there, and that definitely wouldn’t make the turn. Odds are that backing into the station, even for just the squad, was the stock shot of “returning to the station.”
The station (LACoFD Station 127, re-lettered for the show - look carefully at the front of the station on the show - you can see that the lettering has been altered) is at N 33.82434 W 118.23838 on your favorite map program.
[img]http://fire.laco
“Emergency” is currently being run on the ME-TV network, weekday afternoons at 4pm Central. At least on the Des Moines, IA affiliate.
I also like the fire station alerting system. It reminds me of the operator’s station call system used by the RI on it’s dispatcher’s telephone. Except on the depot call-box it made a quieter long “beep” sound instead of a loud horn. That was the modern system, the older system rang a bell when the dispatcher wanted the operator. Only heard the bell used once.
Jeff
At the risk of wandering even further afield…
The station alerting system was Motorola’s “Quik-Call”. It used two pairs of tones (“chord tones”) to trip whatever had to be tripped. When I was first involved in the fire service in my current department these tones were used to set off the fire station sirens.
There were actually two sets of tones used to alert each station. The first “opened” the speaker at the station. The second set off the buzzer/klaxon. That’s why you only heard one tone when the crew was in station, but two if they got toned out whilst on the road.
While the tones were no doubt “voiceover” on the audio track, they may well have been the actual tones for that station. The dispatcher was an actual LACoFD dispatcher. Nothing like using the real deal!
This post is too funny. I was just watching Emergency re-runs this afternoon. I DVR’ed them off METV in Chicago as well. This was a not miss show when we were kids. Although watching it now their equipment looks and I guess is antiquated. Also I noticed today while watching it they turned right out of the station not left.
Well, from my viewpoint it was left!
But seriously, I think the opening scene from the pilot episode was one of the best opening scenes ever made (viewable on youtube if anyone is curious) I don’t think it was the same one used for the series - that was a little before my time.
Also Bobby Troup was born in my area, and his family had a music store here. Pretty cool.
I also watch the reruns on METV and I see stock footage of the Squad and Engine turning both directions at times, either when leaving together or just one. I notice that when they leave together the Squad always leads.
But, of course when both leave, they never turn opposite directions. [:o)]
I too DVR every episode on METV. It occurred to me today that the captain’s name is Henry (Battalion Chief always calls him “Hank”) and the station basset hound is Henry. It seems odd they would name the dog the same name as the captain. [:)]
The mods might kill me before I even start on here but this page has a nice little history about the LA County Fire Department dispatching system during the Emergency days along with the tones for every unit. Wait! I have a way to bring this back to trains. There was an episode that took place in a train yard. Does anyone remember what the switcher in the background was?