How to - Create a Basic Sound Wagon

[SDJR7F88]

A quick and easy way of adding sound to any G Scale Locomotive in your fleet, with just a basic MP3 Player, Micro Speaker and Real Sound Recordings.
(PLEASE NOTE); Apologies for the sound being a bit on the quite side during the test run, turns out I only had the speaker on Half Volume. The end result was a lot louder after some more testing.
Hope you enjoy!

 

[Moonraker]

Yes, this method is viable for people who just want to watch their G scale loco going round and round continuously on their lounge room floor. However, it is no use at all for people who wish to operate a track powered garden railway where trains start and stop and generate a wider selection of more realistic sounds. For them, a proper sound van can be implemented for not much more money.
The solution is MyLocoSound. Let me start with a brief video of what a MyLocoSound steam soundcard will do:

To set up a soundvan, you will need a steam soundcard (£49), an 8 ohm speaker, a rechargeable 9v battery and some phosphor-bronze springs to pick up power from the wheels. Total cost around £70. No radio control is needed, the chuff is synchronised to the track voltage. You can adjust and trigger all sounds using your TV remote control. Sounds can also be triggered automatically or by magnets under the track. The battery keeps sounds going when the train is stopped and recharges automatically when in motion. The wiring diagram below, which includes the optional use of trackside magnets to trigger sounds, shows how simple it can be.

Please visit www.mylocosound.com for more information.

 

[dunnyrail]

Plus of course with a slightly different wiring setup the Track Power could be Batteries. No mire track cleaning, though with my setup wired into a non sound Aristo Crest Card the selectable sounds are restricted to I think 4. Perfectly adequate for me.

However Callums setup is as you say ideal for a simple go round chuffing setup that will please many for little cost. In fact I already have all the kit, as would perhaps many you ger midellers should I/they choose to try that.
JonD

 

[idlemarvel]

For completeness it should be noted that the mylocosound solution does not work with DCC track power.

 

[Moonraker]

That's correct, I should have mentioned that we don't do large scale DCC. We did a DCC sound decoder for small scale but our research indicated that the large scale DCC market in the UK was too small to be worth developing a sound decoder.

Regards
Peter Lucas
MyLocoSound

 

[Madman]

An il cheapo method of creating a sound car is to use one of the older 1980s technology, AHM or Athearn sound equipped gondolas. These cars have a simple sound system that uses a 9 volt battery. One axle has a brass strip mounted lengthwise to it. Two brass wipers make contact with the strip and close the circuit, thereby creating a steam sound effect.

I took the sound system of of one of these gondolas and mounted it in my own sound car. I glued three brass strips to the axle. This gives a more realistic number of chuffs.

And I use battery power so the the sound car is also my battery & R/C car.

Here is the end result.