Hi Dave,
Thanks for chiming in on this issue, it is much appreciated.
I want to thank you and the team at Lionel for bringing us great products. I know it is not easy or cheap to develop these models, and I as hobbyist thank you. Lionel locomotives make up the vast majority of my fleet along with Legacy and many other products (rolling stock, buildings, etc).
I do, however, want to suggest that Lionel please try to, at times, be a little more dilligent in the whistles used on premium legacy locos. It is well known that the whistle on the recent PRR J1 was not in any way correct, lots of evidence was offered on this forum for that. Speaking for myself, it is somewhat disappointing when a loco has a completely wrong whistle. It is especially disappointing when either: 1) there are ample sound clips/movies/historical societies, etc. that can provide the correct whistles, or 2) Lionel has included the correct sound in previous releases of the model.
This only seems to happen from time to time, and please don't get me wrong, there are many examples of "home runs" for Lionel in engine sounds (Vision line Big Boys, Niagaras, Amtrak F40s, and on and on).
In my opinion, Lionel has been the leader in engine sounds for a long time. I well remember getting back into the hobby in the mid-1990s and blown away by Lionel Railsounds. Lionel advertised for a long time that they always try to go to great lengths to get the correct sounds for an engine. I just want Lionel, whenever possible, to continue to do that. Again, I know it's not easy.
I must say that you have me very interested in the upcoming 5 whistle/horn option in the new locos. I think I'm going to have to pull the trigger on the new Legacy Reading T-1 (I was on the fence as I already have one from the first release!)
Thank you again, Dave, for your post and for your working on delivering Lionel products to us. I wish you all the best.
Rob