Steam & Excursion > Which runby type do you prefer?

Today the Waterloo Central Railway held a special memorial run for my late uncle, Sherwood Hume. As a qualified engineer with steam experience, I asked the CMO if I could run the engine today. We had 2 runbys, one was to be done in quiet mode, no whistle, no bell, just stack talk. The other was to be your standard runby, with extra smoke, whistling etc. Which do you prefer of the two?

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#2.

#1 Being as you can hear the engine working.

-Fred-

I would like a combination of the two. The second video with the whistle theatrics is not as pleasant to me as hearing a whistle blown in shorter more normal blasts. In between those sounds it is nice to hear the engine working. When you lay on the whistle you don't get the combination of sounds. 

#1 is better but I prefer a Combo. Start w/ 2 short to whistle off start camera rolling. A quick crossing blow, hold and quill last note. All stack talk the rest of the way. No open cylinder cocks unless cylinders have cooled, then only at start.

I prefer neither, or as others have said, a combo.

In real usage, trains operated with whistles, even starting from a stop. So #1 does not depict real life operation.

In real usage, crews did not go out of their way to produce extra smoke just for the sake of producing extra smoke. Crews also whistled in a certain way/sequence at start of movement and approacing a crossing. In both cases, whistling was done over and above what was normal. So #2 does not depict real life operation.

IMHO, steam trains should be operated as closely as possible to how they were actually done "back in the day" bowing of course to present day policies, rules and regulation.

I prefer Runby 2!


Chris

When time and rail traffic allows, doing both would be a god-sin.

Bells and whistles should ONLY be used when they would be called for in regular operation. The practice of using them in all runpasts seems to be strictly and American invention.  Overseas, the whistle and bell are typically only used when operation rules require them. In a 30 minute video from a photo charter, hearing the whistle is really annoying on every runpast. Another area of debate is use of the headlight if there is one. Again, only turn on if operating conditions require. And for God sake, lose the yellow or orange vests on board the train during all runpasts!

A quick video, no excessive whistling, bell rung while passing equipment on an adjacent track, no orange vests visible...

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#1 thx for sharing!!!

Most pros do one each at each run by location.

That either makes everyone equally happy or equally PO'd.

I prefer the no-whistle, stack-talk-only runby. But whenever I tried to run one like that with the 765, I got chewed out! ;-)

There's enough whistling at grade crossings throughout the day.

I like both, but 1 is a nice break from the routine.

Posted from iPhone

I love both sounds, but I prefer the stack talk. I always like to set up a quarter-mile or so from a crossing so that I get the whistle approaching, then stack/rod sounds only as the locomotive passes. I don't like to be right at a crossing, because the whistle drowns out all of the other sounds.

Grew up on the New York Central in Cincinnati in a residential area with a double track main line. The whistles were blown short so as to keep the noise down.

If at a crossing, blow the crossing signal, otherwise let the engine working be the sound. If there are several run bys at one point, a mixture of both would be great. Also the whistle close up really overwhelms many video cameras.

Great run by videos

Coaster