Trolley Sounds???

[LDBennett]

I found that Dallee is working on a trolley sounds system, what they call TRACTION / TROLLEY CAR SOUNDS. But it is months away. Is there another sound system that covers traction/trolley sounds? The picture in the Dallee catalog, announcing it as a future product, is of a common street car that might have run in the 1950's and pretty much match the PCC streetcar by Bachmann.

LDBennett

[richg]

I have seen and heard some on You Tube videos but no idea what is correct. I have been on some different trolleys at a trolley museum in Connecticut. Not too much in the way of sounds for some.

Check the bellow site. I did a search for digitrax trolley sounds. SoundTraxx does not appear to have any.

http://fnbcreations.net/projects.htm

I think LokSound might have them also. Do a search.

Rich

[ebtnut]

In general, there are two types of trolley sounds - -pre-PCC and PCC.  Trolleys up into the 1920's used straight gear reductions from the motors to the axles and had a characteristic gear growl.  The air compressors for the brakes were also quite noticeable when they kicked on.  The PCC cars had a different motor/gear system that was much quieter, and if the PCC was an all-electric car, they were very quiet except for the wheel squeal that all trolleys generated going around those ultra-tight curves. 

[bapguy]

Look in the last issue of Model Railroader. Fred Miller did an article on adding sound to a trolley. The decoders he used are Digitrax. He created a sound file that can be loaded into Digitrax sound decoders. These can only be done using a Digitrax PR3. This might be a good article to look at.  Joe.

[richg]

Look in the last issue of Model Railroader. Fred Miller did an article on adding sound to a trolley. The decoders he used are Digitrax. He created a sound file that can be loaded into Digitrax sound decoders. These can only be done using a Digitrax PR3. This might be a good article to look at.  Joe.

Just in case, that is the link I posted earlier.

http://fnbcreations.net/projects.htm

Everyone, store the link in Favorites.

Rich

[LDBennett]

 ebtnut:

I never would have guessed there was a difference in the sounds. Thanks for the info.

richg:

I went to the link and it was interesting. But for my non-DCC trolleys and little layout I was just thinking of a stationary sound source. The one from Dallee can be hooked up to detect current going to the tracks (trolley in motion) to make startup and stopping noises and offers push button controls on thing like the bells, etc. The problem is their current model for trolleys is for the latest greatest modern trolley (Is it the RD?). That won't do but as I said earlier they are working on a PCC version. That will have to do for my Birney and my Peter Witt although it is probably the wrong sounds (oh well). Thanks for you info.

LDBennett