These were certainly the dark ages of train sounds... 
Still, for me personally the mighty sounds of static bring back fond childhood memories of watching all the TM VHS tapes produced when those sounds were still considered new. Funny just how archaic those videos look as the years go on.
Same here, that is until Lionel brought out RailSounds 1.0, and TM used them heavily in the early 90's. As a result, those sounds stayed in my head much more vividly than the SOS, and they sounded a lot better than the SOS despite still being primitive by today's standards.
The chugging of the SOS nonetheless doesn't really bug me, though depending on the engine, the whistle can be at best tolerable to at worst awkward. The earliest whistles sounded like a broken fire alarm.
