Signalbox sounds

[wellsy]

I've had a bright idea - what with all this DCC sound, station and in-train announcements included, what about a signalbox emitting suitable sound effects? Doea anyone know of recordings made in signalboxes, for example by Peter Handford/Argo Transacord, which could be put on a player and broadcast through a mini-speaker in my signalboxes? Be interesting to hear if anyone has any info or leads

Thanks

Peter W

[BlackRat]

I've often asked about wagon or coach chips. There's a lot of emphasis placed on say a sound chipped 37 belting past with a rake of 16 toners, but after the loco......silence seems to be golden.

 

Most unrealistic to me, where's the banging, buffer clashing, de dum de Dums etc etc etc.

 

Signal box sound is a great idea, calling and accepting bells and gongs, levers crashing etc, has to be a winner!

Edited July 28, 2015 by BlackRat

[chriscleveland]

I like the idea I'm after sounds of birds and workshop machinery so I'll watch this post with interest

[TheSignalEngineer]

There are some signalbox sounds like block bells on one of Peter Hanford's recordings. I think it may have been "West of Exeter"

[ian]

There's at least one audio CD of signal box sounds available from the Signalling Record Society.

 

More info here: http://www.s-r-s.org.uk/audio/stockport2.html

 

A sample clip is available: http://www.s-r-s.org.uk/audio/stockport2.avi

[RJS1977]

I like the idea I'm after sounds of birds and workshop machinery so I'll watch this post with interest

 

It's usually preferred to have people operating the machinery though....

[SM42]

It would certainly add something if you could DCC operate the signals / points and have a corresponding thump of lever come from the box at the same time, with all the correct bells signals sounding at the appropriate moments as the train makes it way along the layout.

 

I'm sure such a thing could be done by people with a bigger brain than mine.

 

Having said that I can see an intensive timetable would soon have you reaching for the ear plugs. You might even appear in the "How to get lynched at an exhibition" thread

 

Andy

[Adrian Wintle]

I've often asked about wagon or coach chips. There's a lot of emphasis placed on say a sound chipped 37 belting past with a rake of 16 toners, but after the loco......silence seems to be golden.

 

Most unrealistic to me, where's the banging, buffer clashing, de dum de Dums etc etc etc.

 

 

For North American freight cars there is this http://www.soundtraxx.com/dsd/soundcar/soundcar.php

 

Adrian

[Joseph_Pestell]

Great idea - but seriously complex. The block bells would have to ring the right code according to the train being offered from the fiddleyard (or wherever).

 

And don't forget the whistle of the kettle (always on in my experience of traditional signal boxes).

[garethashenden]

How well could these sounds have been heard from outside the signal box?

[beast66606]

How well could these sounds have been heard from outside the signal box?

 

On a summers day with the windows open they are quite audible from a fair range.

[Londontram]

Back in the day as kids we would be playing near by but rush back to the track side to see what was coming after hearing the bells from the box and the clunk of levers in the frame

[New Haven Neil]

One of the Handford Argo recordings on the central Wales line has a good sequence with the sounds of a box, before the train (Manor?) passes, even has the board bouncing sounds.  I don't have access to my vinyl at the moment to see which one it is, sorry.  It even has the chickens scratting around and the radio on in the background, a fantastic 'sound picture', that he was a master at capturing.  Headphones on, eyes closed, and you are there.

[28XX]

Or, if modelling Sutton Coldfield in the "Black Country Blues" era, the bobby calling the chess moves down the phone to Four Oaks or Erdington, interspersed with spoken bell codes, while the DMUs rumble up and down.

[TheSignalEngineer]

How well could these sounds have been heard from outside the signal box?

From the Signalman's vegetable patch, from the old gravel pit behind the box used by the angling club or even the pub across the road. 

[TheSignalEngineer]

Great idea - but seriously complex. The block bells would have to ring the right code according to the train being offered from the fiddleyard (or wherever).

 

I remember doing some wiring alterations at Saltley Junction in the days of two gasworks site and nose to tail coal trains on the Camp Hill goods lines. There were fourteen bells on the shelf there, all with different tones

[The Stationmaster]

From the Signalman's vegetable patch, from the old gravel pit behind the box used by the angling club or even the pub across the road. 

But strangely not from the 'box's toilet (according to more than a few Signalmen)

[StewMac]

But strangely not from the 'box's toilet (according to more than a few Signalmen)

When I was a Signalman in York Yard North Signal Box in the late 60's, "What the hell was a toilet", We had a bucket out the back which was emptied by the "book boy" twice a day.

[wellsy]

Thanks everybody, apart from some useful leads, I had a lot of fun reading some of the more "off the wall" posts, great fun, made me smile and laugh after a difficult day!

If and when I track down some sounds and manage to get them on some sort of player, I'll make it known on here

Thanks again

Peter W

[beast66606]

I took a portable tape recording to Port Sunlight when a certain Flyingsignalman was on duty - there was a total block failure and he banned me from ever taking a tape into the box again. Unfortunately I recorded it on very cheap tape and it's been lost over the years.

 

I own several block instruments so it would be easy enough to record some instruments rattling out some codes.

[darrel]

Would it include the signal man cursing a driver who has annoyed him? Then again we don't have locos sound chipped with drivers cursing signallers who have annoyed them.

In my experience most signal boxes had a radio on. Even though radios were not permitted.

[br2975]

Oh ! No !

.

I can picture it now, loner leaning on barrier at exhibition attracts operators attention with ....

.

"Excuse me, the tone of your signal box bells are definitely Westinghouse and they should be GWR Reading bells - there is a slight difference you know !"

.

"Oh - and it sounds like the bobby didn't pull them off in the right sequence for that move....................."

.

Brian R

[peach james]

It certainly can be done with DCC, as I have a set downstairs.

 

(the bell codes are not 100%, but are close)  Also, there is a time related issue in that I am well aware a good pair of bobbies could and did ring not quite in accordance with, whereas mine are nice and slow so that even a ham handed bucket of stuff like me can manage them...

 

James

[Happy Hippo]

When you stand at the lineside, the sound is heard by your ears from a fixed location..  Having each and every bit chipped and speakered would create a most unrealistic aural situation.

 

You only tend to hear one joint on the track, which gives the classics tum te tum sound.  All of them must do it mustn't they?

 

In the end I think we'll be defeated by the cost of the whole set up. although a fixed loop recording of country noises quietly playing in the background sounds a good idea.

 

Perhaps the next improvement will be railway smells:  You know, that unique smell of steam,coal and oil, mixed up with bacon on the shovel?  Then there's the diesel fuels, the ionised smell of the air around an electric loco!

 

We'll gloss over the country smells, which could be included in a chip containing the grunts and strains from the signal box privy!

Edited August 3, 2015 by Happy Hippo

[TheSignalEngineer]

 

Perhaps the next improvement will be railway smells:  You know, that unique smell of steam,coal and oil, mixed up with bacon on the shovel?  Then there's the diesel fuels, the ionised smell of the air around an electric loco!

 

We'll gloss over the country smells, which could be included in a chip containing the grunts and strains from the signal box privy!

Or the smell of wood sleepered track and non-retention toilet stock on a hot afternoon.