Hey guys
whats your definition of a loud diesel???
Jeremy
Well, it’s not really a diesel, but the UP Gas Turbines sounded like jet planes.
A SD50f and GP 40-2w pulling a freight were pretty loud when i was standing no more than 4 feet away.
One painted bright colors
[:D]
I’M SORRY, WHAT DID YOU SAY? THE ATHEARN IS COMING AROUND THE BEND.
Real or models?
In the Prototype category: General Electric U-Boats at full throttle. For those old enough to remember; Awesome and deafening chugging! The new GE’s are much more subdued…
Loudest Model - H.O scale: Brass locomotives from the late 70s-early 80s! The model of the General Electric U50 (don’t remember who made it) ran and sounded like a “Rock Crusher!”
2nd loudest H.O Model: My 20 year old, high amp drawing," gorilla growling" Athearn Milwaukee Road SD-9. You can hear her 30ft. away! If DCC decoders were alive, they’d jump and run when put anywhere near this “guaranteed to fry decoders” engine![:0][:-,]
Amazingly, she runs well though!
I don’t know about you but, We just bought a nice 2 acre ranch in the country & my best neighbor is the WSOR railroad in my back yard about 250’ from the house , Which is a good distance away . Well anyway I was used to a fairly quiet neighborhood , But Oh… at aprox. 4:30 am on our first night here I thought all “HELL” was breaking loose, I was asleep but almost went through the vaulted ceiling when I woke up to 5 SD-40 & GP38 units screaming by they must have been close to “notch 8”, You talk about a wakeup call. I thought I was awake then, But noooo not quite , Then as they went by that ol horn went off for the crossing down the road . Don’t need any coffee today I said to my wife. & If that isn’t a good definition for a loud diesel, I don’t know what is. I gave it a 7 on the rictor scale…meaning my heart…I gave them a 10. "WHEW " PS. “I still love my neighbor”
A loud diesel is one with the engine running [:D]
A METRA express commuter train @ 5PM, horn blasting waaaaaaaaaaay in advance, as though telling driver’s attempting to beat the gates going down, “Don’t even think about it.” It’s annoying only when a news story of interest is on and I really want to hear the anchorperson (I’m a block away from the mainline).
Got a chance to stand inside an old Southern Pacific E-unit, right next to the engines, at the CSRM shops, while the engines were being fired up. While not quite as loud as some rock concerts I have attended, it would make one heck of a bass instrument!!
I don’t mind loud models if they’re diesels–the prototypes are loud! I do object to loud electrics, since the prototypes were practically whisper-silent except for a soft hum. Which brings me to my Ken Kidder Birney trolley cars…I really need to repower those things–they have those awful old Japanese open-frame motors that sound like a blender and have the slow-speed characteristics of a Testors model rocket engine.
Re: Loud Electrics. While the GG1 was quiet (sounded like a refrigerator) There is at least one exception. The prototype New Haven EP5 “Jets”! Those babies were loud, but sounded neat! Literally like jet aircraft approaching. Once the locomotive passed you, the passenger cars “thumped” quietly behind them on the tracks since the tracks on the NEC, even during the PC era, were heavy rails that were in decent shape.[;)]
110 DB guys …( that is decibels for you non-engineering types). Reading taken by the tracks. Is that a train coming she said, as she walked along the tracks.
In the model world my two Model Power E8/9, even the real one’a runing full out aren’t as noisey.
LOL! Those Athearns are whisper quiet compare to the real howlers of the 50/60 brass diesels.[:0][:D]
Tell ya what…Ya want to LOUD?? Then run some Trains Inc,Alco Models,Hallmark and yes Tenshodo diesils of the 50/60s.[:D]
YEP! ROCK CRUSHERS!! If you have any cats, these engines can guarantee that they’ll fly out of your layout room![:p][(-D]
There was guy that was having problems with his cats jumping up on his layout and chewing things apart. It was about 3 weeks ago. He should some loud airhorns from deisels to scare the cats away.
Well, had an interesting one a few years back. The railway line past my house is sometimes used by freight if another section of the network is closed for repairs, as it’s normally maintained as a Light Railway on the section south of here (max speed 25mph, lighter axle loadings, basically a way to avoid spending money on keeping a decent service going…). Normally we just get single car or two car railbusses cruising through, their wheels make more noise than the power units from outside, riding in them is a different matter at the engines are underfloor-mounted, so when pulling away and running on the main line “up north” at around 70mph or so they are loud…
One night at about 2am I was awakened by a noise like a 747 at takeoff - something very large had been re-routed and the driver had decided to open the throttle wide (bringing the turbo up to speed and making an amazing noise) just as he cleared the overbridge down the road. I’ve no idea what the train was as it was completely dark at the time!
Anything with a two cycle engine.
WHAT???