Do people like this stuff? The announcements and particularly the tower communication always sounds terribly cheesy to me. How many times do I need to hear the same thing?
"All clear on track 1, moving out" lol
I understand nobody is forcing me to use them, but I'm genuinely curious if most people like and use them.
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My Grandson calls em the "Talkie talkie" and uses them all the time ..I seldom do but love when he does as we listen then talk about what and why they are saying it
@Snkbittin posted:My Grandson calls em the "Talkie talkie" and uses them all the time ..I seldom do but love when he does as we listen then talk about what and why they are saying it
That's a great use as an educational tool.
Yes. They really bug me as well
I use them all the time, they’re better on older engines though with different voices, sequences, and road name/number specific. Most legacy engines now all use the same crew talk and towercom. More variety like the MTH PFA sequence is needed
Use them occasionally. They are meant for amusement. If they don't amuse you, don't use them 
.
I personally do not like all the crew talk and startup sequences on the modern trains. I find them annoying. Even when I watch those videos and reviews I move past this stuff. When I want to run trains….I want to turn up the throttle and have them go. I guess that’s why I only have and run prewar standard & O along with postwar and some early MPC. There is something for everyone in this hobby and I’m glad we can all find those features we can enjoy.
Yes, I do like them and I do use them. After all, the train can't move until the crew is ready.
I don't use them and don't like them, especially in steam locomotives. Steamers rarely had 2 way communication, the engineers watched the signals.
@PRRick posted:Do people like this stuff? The announcements and particularly the tower communication always sounds terribly cheesy to me. How many times do I need to hear the same thing?
"All clear on track 1, moving out" lol
I understand nobody is forcing me to use them, but I'm genuinely curious if most people like and use them.
Can't stand them.
@PRRick posted:Do people like this stuff? The announcements and particularly the tower communication always sounds terribly cheesy to me. How many times do I need to hear the same thing?
"All clear on track 1, moving out" lol
I understand nobody is forcing me to use them, but I'm genuinely curious if most people like and use them.
Rick,
I genuinely appreciate you taking the time to post this. It means that you're not narrow-mindedly dismissing them, unlike so many people.
When most threads that touch on this topic get posted there's usually a rather vivid dichotomy in the comments -- they're either loved or hated.
No one has to turn on either CrewTalk or TowerCom. These features could stay quiet for for the life of the product if you don't like them. The power is in your hands.
However some people detest them so strongly that they wouldn't buy a product that has them. Even worse, and this happens perhaps too often, some of those people appear to question the sanity of someone who finds them appealing.
We need to remember that our beloved OGR forum is not only about those who've moved on from toy trains to those that are more realistic -- that it's also about those who love the toy trains from which they evolved.
Are CrewTalk and TowerCom toy features? Definitely. So are smoke, and whistle, and lobster claws, and many others.
Are people who like them crazy? Definitely not.
Social media, in all it's forms, and including this forum at times, is increasingly being used to divide people.
Thanks for being open-minded, and taking the time to try to understand, and not divide.
Mike
I don't like it either. Except for the crew talking on the Legacy crane and boom car .... I get a kick out of them.
To each his own.
@Mellow Hudson Mike posted:
Mike,
I fall somewhere in between. The PFA feature on protosound engines is great and nothing beats the crew talk on the latest legacy gp-30’s
BUT…
The sounds on my original LionChief 0-6-0T are like nails on a chalkboard to me. And this is mostly because you can’t turn it down or off in some cases.
Don't like it? Don't PUSH THE BUTTON!
Just remember that what talking you are hearing is 100% fictional! It is best that I leave my opinions at that.
"Be governed accordingly!"
@MIKATT1 posted:Don't like it? Don't PUSH THE BUTTON!
There it is...a genuinely "adult" response... 🤔
Mark in Oregon
@EricTrainMan posted:I use them all the time, they’re better on older engines though with different voices, sequences, and road name/number specific.
I agree, while I can take or leave the crew talk.
My tmcc 0-8-0, "Bawston and Awbany fifty twee heeyaw, We're awf to da clam bake" . Is one of my favorites.
I use the General Code of Operating Rules (GCOR) 6th edition April 7, 2010 as applied to my railroad. Section 2.0 deals with Railroad Radio Rules. Radio generally did not exist in the era where hand signals, flares and lanterns were used. There are later transitional exceptions, such as the PRR. So, for me, it comes down to whether I want to operate within a certain era and the what the practices at that time were. Mark
I like crew talk sounds!
@MIKATT1 posted:Don't like it? Don't PUSH THE BUTTON!
Its a nice feature that I use from time to time. Like all items one might purchase today, there are features that you use all the time and others that are used once in a while. Its your choice, but I wouldn't want to loose either.
I use them all the time!
Ron
I like it to some extent. I like legacy best where one can select individual sequences. I have a Lionmaster Challenger that I read has Rich Melvin's voice as the engineer. Where its really good is for non-model railroader guests. They really react to it. I recently had a senior guy over who had done post-war with his kids years ago and was amazed to discover modern sound systems.
Bill
@Big Jim posted:Just remember that what talking you are hearing is 100% fictional!
AMEN!
None of the Crew Talk in model locomotives from Lionel or MTH bears any resemblance to how radio communications are really done in the railroad industry. Most of it is quite laughable. And I say that, even though my voice is used in the Lionel NKP Berks and a few other locomotives. The "scripts" are written by people who have never worked in the industry and are not familiar with what railroad radio communications really sound like.
It's an interesting gimmick, and I'm sure it adds play value to the products. But don't get the idea that it's prototypical. Not even close.
I'm amazed at all the animosity for an optional feature, if you don't like it, don't use it! I don't routinely use the crewtalk when I'm running, but like others have stated, many visitors get a kick out of it.
@MIKATT1 posted:Don't like it? Don't PUSH THE BUTTON!
Dave the only issue with this concept and the Lionchief I had was there is a chuff sound each time the locomotive transitioned directions and it could not be disabled.
@gunrunnerjohn posted:I'm amazed at all the animosity for an optional feature, 7
John,
You need to look at the other side of the coin. I have no idea what you did for a living, but, I do know that you dabble in electronics a bit. How would you feel if someone tried to explain to you how to build a circuit using the wrong names for every component and the wrong procedures for putting the circuit together?
Well, people try to tell me my business every day, but I don't get wrapped around my axles about it. 
While not crew talk per se, my favorite announcements are in the MTH subways and, although I'm not familiar with the announcements in the modern Lionel subways, I imagine they are just as good if not better.
I have what I believe is one of the 1st MTH Proto 1 subways, which is the D train. The 1st announcement is for 161st Street and Yankee Stadium. It's the perfect subway for my layout with its Popsicle Stick Yankee Stadium:
Crew talk in other modern O Gauge trains is something I rarely activate when running trains by myself, but I think it's a nice feature because visitors often like it when they hear it.
Arnold
I hated them when I first got locomotives that had them but I find them amusing now. I still rarely use them.
Personally, I have been annoyed by sounds ever since Lionel came out with the 'Chicken' car years ago. But as they say, if you got 'em smoke 'em.
I don't use it on my Lionel or MTH locomotives. However several of my Lionel models will play some form of crew talk when they are shut down. The most annoying one is my Legacy ATSF 3751 class Northern. It'll say it's going to get beans or some other silly thing.
I don't like the talking. I shut it off most times.
I have an automated layout control system built around an Arduino, and I use the crew talk sequences extensively.
Since the system is commanding engines to start, stop, decelerate, or accelerate, I also trigger an appropriate dialogue to accompany that change.
Of course it's not prototypical for something like a steam engine, but it's neat to hear the 'tower' command something and then see the engine respond.
We will still be debating this twenty years from now. But that is a good sign.
Got to go now; have to "start up" my steam locomotive! 
Visitors like it. I can do with or without it. As He-Man used to say "I have the Power!" to not use it. I wish folks were this vocal on things that matter. I might still have a Lionel 611J.
Keep in mind that not everyone in the hobby, like myself, is aware that the crew talk is fictitious. We have no reason to believe it is not valid. I could use the ADPCM tool to change the audio to something more interesting, like the standard BORG greeting or various lines from the Wicked Witch from The Wizard of Oz.
Speaking of the various sounds loaded on PS3 units, I did want to attempt to start a general discussion on the quality of MTH engine sounds verses ESU LokSound where you can freely customize each sound to your hearts content with their software.
Anthony
@Lou1985 posted:I don't use it on my Lionel or MTH locomotives. However several of my Lionel models will play some form of crew talk when they are shut down. The most annoying one is my Legacy ATSF 3751 class Northern. It'll say it's going to get beans or some other silly thing.
Press ENG and use the bottom middle key
on the CAB2, it doesn't do the crewtalk that way.
@gunrunnerjohn posted:Press ENG and use the bottom middle key
Unless I am misunderstanding you, if you press and hold that key it will play the "shutdown dialog". Pressing ENG and just tapping that key will shut the engine down without the dialog. Same with start up. ENG Push and hold the startup key, dialog. Tap and just start up.
@palallin posted:Since you asked: I loathe CrewTalk in all its forms and functions. As noted above, I don't have to push the button, and I don't. Were I forced to use it,I'd cut the wires to the speakers. Again: since you asked.
Wouldn't you lose the horn/bell also? I do not mind them but the rest, I agree with you.
I’m curious… for those of you who “hate” crew talk. Why do you hate it?
Is is because of what they say or is it crew talk in general?
@Madockawando posted:I’m curious… for those of you who “hate” crew talk. Why do you hate it?
Is is because of what they say
Yes, and how they say it. Certainly NOT prototypical.
or is it crew talk in general?
That pretty much covers it!
@palallin posted:If I had to choose between CrewTalk and absolute silence, I would take absolute silence.
Perhaps I should note that I don't like CrewTalk
One of these days you'll have to tell us how you really feel.
@Madockawando posted:I’m curious… for those of you who “hate” crew talk. Why do you hate it?
Is is because of what they say or is it crew talk in general?
I don't "hate" it, however it does bother me because it is not at all prototypical. I worked in railroading for many years and never heard anything on the radio that sounds even remotely like the stilted and awkward conversations you hear from these locomotives.
This could have been an opportunity for the model industry to do a little teaching by making Crew Talk sound like the real world, using proper railroad terminology. But that didn't happen. They just forged ahead without any research into what the real world sounds like, and we are left with the comical nonsense that passes for Crew Talk.
Largely idiosyncratic: I deplore the implausibility of it (note: not the impossibility. It goes to the ancient literary dictum: The plausible impossible is to be preferred to the implausible possible). The list of unrealistic aspects of 3R O Gauge is as long as the list of Casey Jones' rule infractions. 3R O's tongue is often planted firmly in cheek, but CrewTalk's tongue is nowhere near its cheek. It takes itself seriously. Were it applied to Mickey Mouse handcar, I'd grin and ignore it, maybe even find it cute. As is, nothankyouverymuch. Even the Kickapoo Valley Express is more plausible.
If you enjoy it, please do so! I'd never try to argue it shouldn't exist. I'll just beg you to spare me!
@gunrunnerjohn posted:Press ENG and use the bottom middle key
I have a TMCC base/Cab-1 so I can't do that. The rest of my Lionel locomotives are TMCC, so I'm not buying a Cab-2/Legacy base for one locomotive 
.
@Madockawando posted:I’m curious… for those of you who “hate” crew talk. Why do you hate it?
Is is because of what they say or is it crew talk in general?
Because it's silly. I'd rather Lionel had gone through the effort to have the locomotives play preprogrammed whistle signals (forward, reverse, crossing) than talk to me about getting beans when I shut the locomotive off .
I dislike crew talk for the same reason I don't like movie editors who feel that every time a horse appears the have to edit in a whinny, or every time there's a dog we have to hear a whimper or a bark, or every time a tree is in the shot we have to hear birds chirping ... etc. It doesn't depict real life for me. I don't hear the chatter of the crew on the radio when I'm watching a train pass by, why should I have to listen to it with my model railroad?
IMHO, crew talk was invented for the people who have the TV on in the next room as they're doing dishes, on in the bedroom as they're sleeping or have the radio on in the car at a volume one can't possibly understand what's being sung or said. It's audio clutter to me, and just unnecessary.
Yup, I don't mind silence once in awhile ...
Some of you train guys feel about CrewTalk the way I feel about how radio DJ's are portrayed in TV and movies... No headphones? Taking calls "live"? Magically saying the one thing that moves the plot along as soon as the radio is turned on?
I could go on...
Jon 
I do not care for crew talk, however my nephew does. I have not hooked up my TMCC yet. He thinks crew talk is great and gets on me about the one room schoolhouse I cannot get it to light. He said schoolhouses back in the late 40's and early 50's period were not lighted at night in rural areas. Thank you, third rail and barrister.2u for reminding me that they used hand signals, flairs etc. in that period. I like to run trains in the evening its relaxing at the end of a day.
just curious, to rich and all the real railroad engineers. retired or active. why could you not be asked to help with the crew talk dialog by mth or lionel?
rich as you said you did some of the voices for lionel. surely they asked for your input on the various dialogs they were using? if not they were foolish and missed a real opportunity there.
mth and especially lionel keep pushing there engines to greater levels of detail and smoke features to make them as real as possible for a model train.. maybe the sound department needs a little help from some experts like you and other retired engineers.
I use them sometimes, but not all the time. they do get old after a while.
@Lionelzwl2012 posted:just curious, to rich and all the real railroad engineers. retired or active. why could you not be asked to help with the crew talk dialog by mth or lionel?
My personal opinion is that they are afraid that they will have to pay somebody! Other than that I have no idea. Probably the same reason they do not ask for help getting details right...NIMBY!
@Lionelzwl2012 posted:just curious, to rich and all the real railroad engineers. retired or active. why could you not be asked to help with the crew talk dialog by mth or lionel?
rich as you said you did some of the voices for lionel. surely they asked for your input on the various dialogs they were using? if not they were foolish and missed a real opportunity there.
I did offer some suggestions about the script used in the Lionel NKP 765 Berk. Some were accepted, others were not.
For example, there is a sequence where you push a certain button on the Legacy remote and I ask the dispatcher if we are good to go. Using this button, the answer is always no. If you push that button several more times, the dialog changes slightly each time, but the answer from the dispatcher is still always no. I think it is the fourth level where I actually sound a bit upset and say something about outlawing (running out of time on the hours of service rule) right where we sit, or something like that. The original script did not have anything like that in it.
As I said above, there was a teaching opportunity here, but none of the manufacturers chose to take advantage of it. What we got instead was comical, toy train nonsense.
Rich, that would have been very cool. I'd like crewtalk a lot more if it had some of that kind of dialog!
Some of the MTH stuff for trolleys and subways is not bad. I have the Red Arrow Liberty Liner, and it has station stops that actually sound pretty much like the real thing.
MTH has some crew talk on their modern diesels that sound like actual scanner recordings, that I really like. The MTH passenger "NOW ARRIVING" and "NOW DEPARTING" announcements are nice too.
Here's the NKP 765 Crew Talk section that I mentioned in my post above. My conversation with the dispatcher starts at 1:50 into the video.
The sound engineering and product development teams apparently need to listen to hours and hours of actual recordings of conversations from the crew and controllers/dispatchers.
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