New Amtrak E60 Electric

[CAB_IV]

I plan on eventually coming up with E60 sound effects that would be downloadable to a Digitrax SoundFX decoder. I have the horn sounds already, but getting the decoder to properly simulate the way electric traction motors whine as speed increases may require some complicated computer programming.

Could the QSI GG-1 electrical traction motors sounds be used?

No, it can't.  Keep in mind that the GG1 was built in the the mid 1930s, some of them with westinghouse (not GE) parts.

the E60CP on the other hand was built in the 1970s, with much more modern motors and drives, far beyond what was carried by the GG1. 

the only sound you can take from the GG1 is it's cooling fan sound (and generic train noises like wheel flange squeak). 

Listen to this NJ Transit E60CH (it says CP, its wrong) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdTibIVZJzE

the fans would work if you made them quieter.  On the real GG1, these fans were that loud, but on a modern engine such as this they made them quieter.


Now listen to the E60MA (its the second train in the video)-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWGqfTwNf_o&mode=related&search=

That is some shriek, its like a jet plane!  I'm betting there are other traction motor sounds, and a good place to start looking for electric sounds is Loksound.  Despite the E60CP being all american, the components may be used in other electric such as those in europe, or atleast, a better standin sound can be had.

Keep in mind that most E60s had PO1235 horns, which astroshane  has (speaking of which, can you send me these sounds? would it be possible to put them on a Loksound decoder?).  I'm modeling 610 just because it has the more common K5LA horn instead.

I'll need to look through the sounds to see what has a good shriek like that.

[astroshane]

QSI's sounds aren't very good anyway in my opinion. They all seem kind of muddled and dull, and there's not a whole lot of variety between engine types (granted, the GG1 is an obvious exception to that, but I still don't like the way it sounds). Although they've introduced a downloadable capability to their latest systems, so you can replace the sounds with a different set, the actual sound sets are still proprietary and uneditable.

I'm not that interested in LokSound at this point because although the Digitrax decoders have a long way to go in terms of add-on sounds becoming available, my belief is that they'll be more flexible for sound programming in the long run, and they make it cheaper to add sound to a whole fleet. They also work with ordinary 8-ohm speakers, so you don't have to worry about finding a 100-ohm type that fits and will work with LokSound.

The P01235 recording I have was made by a friend who owns at least one of those horns, so I can't just send it to you, but there may be something usable on his website. He also has in-cab audio from an E60MA late in its life, and that will serve as a guide for when I start assembling my sound set. But I don't expect to get around to that for many months yet...I still have to do F40PH and P40/P42 sound sets, essentially from the ground up, to simulate the way those engines sound depending on whether they're supplying HEP or not.

[Conrail Quality]

Well, pictures of the new E60 have been posted. Naturally:

A. It still says 8-Wheel drive. Is Bachmann convinced that it uses a A-1-A!?

B. They're labeled E60CP. This is incorrect, both are E60CH. does it matter? Of course it does!The CP's pulled far different cars then the CH's.

C. #974...I'll need to see a picture before I accept that this is anything like the prototype.

None of these should be particulary expensive changes to make, especially #1. Bachmann did such a wonderful job on the Acela and HHP-8..why is the E60 being ruined by stupid mistikes?

On the other hand, the tooling appaers correct, and overall it looks nice. Now if Bachmann would just do an E44 or E60C...

[CAB_IV]

I'm sure most people can live with the problems. i dont' see a big deal with it.

[Conrail Quality]

It's just irritating that Bachmann messed up on these minor details, especially ones that can so easily be corrected. However, the tooling appears completely correct, and that's the important part. Everything else can be fixed.

[CAB_IV]

as far as the labeling goes, its probably better they made "CH" models anyway, since they already sell the Amfleets to go with it.  besides, they don't look that much different in the end anyway from the CPs.  The CH can also have more stuff done with it.