If your sound level on the 2-6-0 mogul is too low...

[Patrick Durand]

If there is any air leak between the tender tank body and the frame your sound will go to nothing.  The tender body is the enclosure for the speaker.  If you make any holes they need to be filled and the body must be secure to the frame.

If the enclosure is broken, increaseing the CV volume level will just begin to distort the sound.

Experience is the teacher in this case for me.

Pat Durand

[rogertra]

The sound volume is just fine.  I don't want mine to fill the room, I set my sound so that you cannot hear it from over four feet away.

Most manufacturers set the sound volume way too high.

[full maxx]

The sound volume is just fine.  I don't want mine to fill the room, I set my sound so that you cannot hear it from over four feet away.

Most manufacturers set the sound volume way too high.

I agree completely... way too loud...that loud in real life would be heard across the state

[rogertra]

PF.

Yes, you can hear a steam loco from some distance away but only if they are working hard and climbing a grade.  A steam locomotive's exhaust can be muffled by just the sound of the train's wheels when running on the level. The exhaust doesn't "bark" all the time, the way that all North American sound systems seems to think they do.  A steam loco can pass you by and all you hear is the clank of the rods, the rumble of the wheels and the sounds of the turbo-generator and no hint of a barking exhaust. What I think you need to do is set the sound level for the "scale" distance between you and the model loco. Let's say the average distance from your ears to the model loco is four feet, that's 348 scale feet away. How loud would a steam locomotive be at that distance? That's how loud I feel you need to set your sound levels.

I "operate" my model railroad.  I don't just run trains "'cause they look good."  I run my model railroad as close to prototypical as I can. This involves other operators also running trains at the same time.   If you have three of four people in a room, and they are within six or so feet of each other and are all running sound equipped locomotives, the LAST thing you need is the sound volume turned up so you can hear the other operator's trains. The noise would quickly become annoying. So I have the volumes set so that train a operator can hear the sounds of the locomotive they are operating but not so much the sounds of the other operators' locomotives.

Having several sound equipped trains running at the same time with the volume cranked will drive you nuts. Well it does me.

Oh, BTW, I've fired and driven real steam locomotives and diesel locomotives and know what it's like to be in a locomotive cab for hours on end. However, the sound levels you hear in the cab are NOT the same sound levels you hear at the lineside.  In fact, from inside the cab, you don't always hear the exhaust, you tend to feel it.  In fact, part of the operating of a locomotive is knowing how it feels, through the seat of your pants.