[Tom_C]

Is there any place I can find an explanation of the sounds a steam loco makes? I bought a bachmann 2-4-4-2 On30 and I want to adjust the volume of various sounds. I figured out most of them since they are similar to other locos, but it has a clank-clank-clank sound (I know, very helpful, not) that slows down once the train stops and speeds up when moving, but even at full stop is continues to clank. I can't figure out what it is so I can lower it's volume.

Any help appreciated.

 

[mesenteria]

That rhythmic and slowing clank is the decoder's loaded sound file for the valve gear levers and rods that are no longer under load when the throttle is closed and the steamer is coasting or gently braking.

If you find it exceptionally loud, the decoder's manual will tell you which CV is 'rod clank', and you simply programme a lower figure into that CV than is currently set in it.

If there is a clanking sound while the engine is stopped, I think, if it's a steam Tsunami decoder from Soundtraxx, that it is either water cistern lid being opened on the tender, or more likely it's the 'fireman' shoveling coal into the firebox, something that isn't played during movement on the Tsunami decoders. Again, there's a CV for that (I would think), and that sound, as with all 'neutral' sounds made when the locomotive is parked, can be adjusted.

 

[wvgca]

i might be the water injector ?? don't know from your info ??
you might have to try individual ones at a reduced volume to see which one it is ..

 

[Tom_C]

Thanks. I have tried rod clank, and have gone through many of the sounds cv's and haven't found it yet. I'll go through again, maybe I programmed the rod clank wrong, but I was able to adjust all the others without issue. This sound gets faster when moving, so I guess that would not be the cistern lid, but I will try that too.

 

[Tom_C]

Here's a video of the clang. This is a .mov file in my onedrive, in case you're wondering about the link.

https://1drv.ms/v/s!AqauGi_CqW_2iXrHXdT8YiquXj7I?e=oXIoWg

Here is the CV list from the Soundtrax site. I've gone through 1 by 1 and set every cv volume to zero, no change:

https://soundtraxx.com/content/Refe...d/Bachmann/Spectrum/on30_2-4-4-2_bachmann.pdf

 

[Tom_C]

I reset the unit and reprogrammed all the CVs. It is the air pump, cv=132.

I have a feeling some of those CV descriptions are wrong.

 

[mesenteria]

Ah, good sleuthing. I had forgotten that the air pump sound in some files sound more like a clicking sound.

BTW, I eventually gave up trying to reduce the volume of rod clank on an early Tsunami I have installed in a BLI "Sleuth" J1 4-8-4. I got that balky drivetrain as smooth as a baby's backside by tinkering with drive-smoothing CVs, about four of them, but I just could never get the rod clank to back off.

[Added] - I just listened to the video, and yes, it's clearly the air pump. If I had heard it, I would have been able to tell you right away. I think there's a ton of reverb in that sound settings, so that's why it's so clanky and pervasive. FWIW, I really like the cross compound pump sound that BLI uses in their steamers. Great sound.