It seems the latest fashion in Model Railroading, apart from the timeless vest covered with railroad patches and the tie tack with blinking crossbucks, is on-board sound. Tiny speakers nested under coal bunkers or in fuel tanks emitting tinny noise are on the list of any beginner, and even many more experienced guys. A speaker that's supposed to evoke standing trackside listening to the roar of an EMD 567, or the chuff of a steam locomotive have captured the hobbyist's imagination.
But not mine.
I've had the pleasure of installing a number of sound decoders into both N and HO scale locomotives. I've also participated in a few operating sessions where sound has been in use by one or God forbid, more than one operator, and I have to say that after the first few moments of novelty, and the delight of pressing F2 and getting a faint "woot woot" from the kazoo-like speaker, the excitement plum evades me.
Maybe it's because when I'm running my trains, I've just gotten used to listening to old vinyl records. (A fact which should say a lot about my affinity for technology of another age.) Or maybe when I have three diesels on the point of a heavy N scale train, I like to hear them working... often sounding a lot more like a lashup of real diesels than those little micro chips can.
In either case, on-board sound just doesn't do it for me. I don't like the way it adds significantly to the power drawn by the locomotive, I don't like the way it sounds so thin compared to the real thing, I don't like installing sound decoders and speakers and all those wires, and I don't like having more buttons on the throttle to fool around with while I'm trying to operate my train with one hand, and sip a beer with the other.
Nope. Sound is not the savior of the hobby. There are many who would argue otherwise, but rest assured, they are wrong. Sound is a novelty, it will amuse the uninitiated briefly, and be a crutch to people who would rather not pursue a higher standard of model building.
If I wish to enjoy the sound of some historic diesel, I shall spend a few moments scanning You Tube, and I'll find what I want in a matter of moments. If I want to really enjoy the thrum of a big diesel, then I shall take my web lawn chair trackside. And there I'll get the full Monty! Squealing flanges, flattened wheels tapping by. Maybe, just maybe, there will be some jointed rail and a healthy dose of clickety clack!
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