European Railroad Discussion > OBB Railjet "musical" locomotives?

Good evening.  A question of curiosity on my part-- OBB 1100 series locomotives (I believe these are Siemens Eurosprinters, but not certain) make a very unique sound when beginning to pull, almost like cello music.  Is this truly the sound of the traction motors coming under load, or did OBB/Siemens add some sort of synthetic sound to make a unique beginning to these locomotives' departures?

Thank you for any insights.

Mike Derrick
 

Here is a quick phone video of the 1840 departure to Salzburg from Zurich this evening, with the "music" for those who have not heard these locomotives before.

 

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I wonder if the whine may be from the changing frequency/duty cycle of the AC waveform being applied to the traction motors (being varied electronically for torque management as speed increases)?

Oliver Barrett

Assuming it didn't change performance significantly, I wouldn't put it past the inverter designers to have picked particular modulation frequencies that produced more pleasant sounds.  I'm guessing there's some latitude of range that will work for each rotational speed, and why not pick one that sounds decent?  It may not have been entirely altruistic, either.  If you had to listen to these in a test lab for a couple weeks and had the option, you'd quickly move away from frequencies that sounded like a squeezed weasel.
 

The Montreal Metro cars of the early 1970s (MR-73 series, the 2nd series) had a five-stage electronic chopper motor control system with three audible frequencies that corresponded to the musical notes F-B flat-F. This made for a distinctive "doo-doo-doo" sound every time the train started up.

Here's more detail:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MR-73

Ray 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/30/22 18:16 by Ray_Murphy.

I have a cab ride audio track of the ICE train that toured the US as it left Washington DC.
It made very similar sounds as the speed increased, with many more steps.
This was from the "Back East" CD sold by David Reaves.

ShortlinesUSA Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Here is a quick phone video of the 1840 departure
> to Salzburg from Zurich this evening, with the
> "music" for those who have not heard these
> locomotives before.

Interesting, thanks for posting. Never heard that before, although it sounds like it hits a bad note right at the end of the startup sequence...

JG 

ShortlinesUSA Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Good evening.  A question of curiosity on my
> part-- OBB 1100 series locomotives (I believe
> these are Siemens Eurosprinters, but not certain)
> make a very unique sound when beginning to pull,
> almost like cello music.  Is this truly the sound
> of the traction motors coming under load, or did
> OBB/Siemens add some sort of synthetic sound to
> make a unique beginning to these locomotives'
> departures?
>
> Thank you for any insights.

All Siemens Eurosprinters equipped with Inverters using GTOs make the sounds, so ES-64F, ES64F4, ES64U, and ES64U2 models, Plus ICE powercars in various trainsets. Because of large leasing fleets at least a few can be found in every Western European country using 1435mm gauge track, plus Spain and Portugal.

Noticed the same thing when passing thru Vienna Meidling on 8 July - would have sworn htey were playimg a tune.

Douglas Jacques
Sierra Vista, AZ