Western Railroad Discussion > Run 8 or Full Dynamics?

After watching numerous train videos on youtube prompted this thought...which sounds better trackside, a train grinding uphill in Run 8, or a train in full dynamics descending?  Your thoughts are appreciated.

Kent in CArmel Valley

"knotched out" in run 8 for me, especially if it is an sd70 mac or ace...............

66

My best sound memory was 5 Rio Grande tunnel motors in run 8 climbing the Price River canyon with Castle  Gate behind them. Slow and loud with turbos screaming!  Another brace of EMD turbo charged 645s mid train moments later!  All of this mixed with flange squeal, I'll never forget it!

Rick Bacon
Windsor, CO



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/23/20 20:51 by rnb3.

The best sounding units, besides a big consist of SD or GP9s, was when we would use four of five GP39s on our run over to Toledo. Those V-12s sounded really nice in notch 8 going up the hill.

I`m gonna 50/50 my answer as In doing pacing Up,and also Down Cajon Boulevard and Tehachapi Boulevard,, Hearing a Solid Set of AC4400s or AC6000s working uphill is a Sound that is better then any Bedtime Nursery Tale. Dynamics can be fun as well as hearing them Shoosh,Whishhh and Whoosh enough to then Kick on a Whoop and the Air compressor is another Soothing Tune.
I have audio tapes from Tehachapi I made in the 90s that on a warm night,you could hear stuff coming from Miles and miles away,,and could take 30 minutes just to get to the Loop.

Phil



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/23/20 22:48 by CT97.

Run 8 (EMD all the way, baby)

~ Mr. MRL

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How about two or more E8s or E9s in Run 8 getting a roll on about eighteen passenger cars, like on the GN's "Empire Builder" in the summer on the CB&Q's fast portion of the run East of St.Paul?
SR2

Posted from Android

SR2 Wrote:
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> How about two or more E8s or E9s in Run 8 getting
> a roll on about eighteen passenger cars, like on
> the GN's "Empire Builder" in the summer on the
> CB&Q's fast portion of the run East of St.Paul?
> SR2
>
> Posted from Android

Boy, I'd love to hear that in Stereo S U R R O U N D sound...

~ Mr. MRL

Heavy train in Brake 8 decending. Or, solid consist of older Dash 9s in Run 8. Also, a single DPU moving away from you always sounds good in Run 8; a single MAC sounds best.

Posted from Android

Full dynamics always sounded like a clogged vacuum cleaner to me.  Run 8 all the way.

Run 8 on the diesels and as I told the dispatcher one time, Run 48 on 844.
Best sounds I ever heard in my lifetime, besides steam, were those of the EMD 567 prime movers in the 8th run.
Steam wise it was when I was running 844 shoving the stalled freight 20miles from Burns to Archer WY.
We never got over 25 mph wide open and the old gal really was barking that afternoon.
Let's start a "What was your favorite sounding locomotive" list.
 

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/24/20 06:34 by Bob3985.

IMHO, while running on Cajon Pass, I loved the sound of a bunch of old EMD's in full dynamics bouncing off the hills and inside the tunnnels descending the pass in the middle of the night. I "believe" that older EMD's in dynamics only revved to around throttle position six?
JB

DynamicBrake Wrote:
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> After watching numerous train videos on youtube prompted this thought...which sounds
> better trackside, a train grinding uphill in Run 8, or a train in full dynamics descending?

It's a personal preference of course, as expressed in this thread.  One thing that I find interesting about it is that the dynamic sound carries farther than the power sound, at least in open territory.  My farm is located about 6½ miles of almost totally flat land directly east of UP's control point VP741 at MP 740.9, the SSS at Hito on the Brooklyn Subdivision.  Hito siding has numerous private crossings between the switches and I almost always hear the whistle being blown but, except on calm nights, can't hear the roar of the engines pulling or the whine of the dynamics braking as they're dealing with the southbound ascending 1.1% grade from near the Pudding River Bridge to about the middle of Hito.

On calm nights I can't hear the diesel's roar as they're pulling up the grade and then increasing their speed by 20 MPH after clearing the curves near the north switch at the end of the permanent speed restriction.  But, in the opposite direction of movement, I can easily hear the dynamic's whine as they're slowing for the speed restriction and then holding the speed on the descending grade.

Here's a picture that FunnelFan Ted took on the next to the last day of 2014, and posted a week later, just cresting the hill on a southbound move.

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For me personally, trackside, the most amazing sound I have ever witnessed was six Alco/MLWs pulling tonnage uphill at full throttle on the Missouri and Arkansas when I visited in June 2006.

After that I'd have to vote for a set of vintage (pre -8) GEs pulling tonnage uphill. I remember sets of U36Cs and C30-7s on Cajon in my youth and the sound was inspiring.

Finally, any set of EMD 20-cylinders pulling a grade made a heck of an impressive sound. 

If I have to ride it though, give me some modern EMDs. Uphill, downhill, doesn't matter. Nice, relatively quiet, and comfortable. Makes a 12-hour run a bit more relaxing than having to listen to a bunch of barking rattle-traps all day long.

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Mid 1970s IC rebuilt GP9s in a 4-5 unit consist accelerating hard with a long train.

rnb3 Wrote:
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> My best sound memory was 5 Rio Grande tunnel
> motors in run 8 climbing the Price River canyon
> with Castle  Gate behind them. Slow and loud with
> turbos screaming!  Another brace of EMD turbo
> charged 645s mid train moments later!  All of
> this mixed with flange squeal, I'll never forget
> it!

Ditto. Was at a store in Helper when a loaded coal train left town ...and shook the entire town in the process. Best "audio only" railfan memory I have.

And to be the contrarian, 5 U30/C30 units on a heavy coal train Southbound up the hill out of Trinidad CO.

Out 

Best sounding locomotives? GE Dash-7s --  under load, or throttling up. For me, this one's easy. 

One of the experiences that made me a lifelong railfan was watching a couple of C36-7s (and another loco, don't remember what) throttling up and leaving the west end of the yard at Huntington, OR, one morning in the spring of 1994, leading a mixed freight that had ducked in to let a Z overtake it. Those were frankly such beautiful locomotives -- I was a little kid, but I was already a fan of them --  and listening to them notch up from a stop and clank over the switch and out onto the main added another layer to the experience.

I always preferred the sounds of wide ope throttles on EMD roots blown units, like GP9s or GP38s. Then again, the sound of the UP DDA40X unit/units at full throttle and full load, are NOT to be missed. The DDA40X had the highest HP, highest RPM, 16-645 engines WITHOUT exhaust silencers, ever produced by EMD. 

Jack's right and the Roots blown 645's in the heritage E-9's sounds absolutely awesome in the 8th run.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY