Turn off all sounds, no whistle,bells or chugs. Just sit back and enjoy the silence of the purring can motors and wheels rolling on the rails. You’ll realize your layout is a smooth running work of art.
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It is good. Sometimes, the sounds of silence are the best sounds. Steamers chugging, diesels humming, whistles and horns blowing and bells ringing can be overwhelming. Old ears, if they still function seem to be more sensitive to noise. And, sometimes the sweet sounds created by a single locomotive can become noise when combined with several locomotives running at once.
Sound is neat, but I find myself running my non-sound stuff more often and let my imagination fill in the blanks.
Rusty
I've been battling the temptation of trying to add sound to my BPRC engines, but they (especially pulling some cars) make enough sound that I feel I don't need additional noise.
The past few days I've been tearing down my layout, getting ready for my order at Mianne to come in. As I was tearing it down I wondered "Do I even want to ballast the new track?" I'm going to experiment with the rubber anti-fatigue matting I'm using to see if I can spray it with some of that textured paint to make it look ballasted and be done with it. If the paint doesn't work I just may leave it bare, contrary to what some say ballast IMO does make things louder.
The good thing about less sound is you can actually hear what your engine is doing, if it's struggling or if something is loose you may hear it with the sound down/gone.
I was once flown from SoCal to Santa Catalina Island in a single engine plane. I loved the sound of the engine because its steady one hour roar assured I was safe. But nothing can match the exquisite beauty of the sound of silence when we deplaned at Catalina’s isolated mountain top airstrip. I enjoy something like that when I turn off the excellent sounds of my 3rd Rail brass Mt-4 Mountain with its silent drive train and rail hugging sprung drivers. Runs like a Swiss watch.
The one sound item I keep the volume kinda loud for is a parked steam tender. The pressures cycling is calming, not overwhelming. I turn it down for running till the chuff is hardly audible. My E-33 has it's sound at a minimum too. Parked or starting up you here it. Running, the engine cant be heard except for brake squeal, which you can barely hear, downed out by the wheels rolling.
I run my silent post war much more than these.
I love the sound! It was a game changer for me and I've been in this hobby more than 45 years. There was no sounds at all other than the wheels on the rails in the 60s...and 70s...
I just tried this tonight for the first time. A great change of pace. My DCS training wheels are still on, having just added it a few days ago. Tonight I did some experimenting with the sound controls, and I really like having nothing but the clickety clack of the 3 rail track.
At present, all my standard gauge engines have BAL motors and the steam have air whistles, so there is no "silence", just the sounds of trains running and the occasional whistle, relaxing in their own way!
BlueComet400 posted:I just tried this tonight for the first time. A great change of pace. My DCS training wheels are still on, having just added it a few days ago. Tonight I did some experimenting with the sound controls, and I really like having nothing but the clickety clack of the 3 rail track.
Now rail those passenger cars and turn off the lights
I do turn the sounds off everyone sometimes, but then I keep then turned down all the time. On DCS I keep all sounds set at no more than 20% some at 10% and still sometimes that is a bit to loud. I like to hear what's going on around my environment.
I just bought a second LIRR RS-1 to double head with one I bought a few years ago. The Alco's clunking along is fun for a while, but I had to turn off the motor noise after a while ....then it was click clack heaven!
Yes. The sound of model trains. A good way to get evicted from your apartment.
I often marvel at people whining along on their horrible Jet Skis while I’m sailing along in my 1914 designed sloop... they’re like really loud mosquitoes really...
Sometimes it’s cool to just run genuine pre-War tinplate... no smoke... maybe an air whistle... and the sound of those cars rattling and banging over bridges and switches ...
Jon 
In the small environs of most of our layout rooms, single steam loco with sound is fine. Two diesels running together and you can still distinguish one from another and everything is copostetic. But, run two steamers or a single steamer and a couple of diesels and you have noise, plain and simple. Now, if we all had 20 high ceilings and 100 foot by 100 foot rooms, we could run everything, sounds, smoke, and music, and it would probably be tolerable. But, in my small 17 x 13 foot room with a 7 foot dropped acoustical ceiling, one train with sound at a time is quite enough, thank you very much.
About the only advantage associated with my 70% hearing loss is that diesel and steam sounds don’t really bother me when I’m running trains in the basement.
On the other hand; my wife can hear a gnat fart a quarter mile away, so I do have to make concessions where my operating hours are concerned. 😉
Curt
Guess Simon and Garfunkle had trains wirh the Mighty Sounds of Silence.....!
