Model Railroading > BNSF 72’ Frostline Reefer (Part 24) – Sound

This is Part 24 of a series on the BNSF 72’ Frostline Reefer project.  (Parts 1 thru 23 were posted earlier.)
 
Ever since the PFE (Pacific Fruit Express) 57’ Reefers, I have been obsessed with sound for reefers.  They had a vented equipment room at one end of the car.  It housed a diesel generator and refrigeration unit.  It was loud enough that it could be heard above the rumble of a passing train.  I wanted sound in my reefers before I wanted sound in my locomotives.  (Mainly because it was much more achievable, and affordable.)  The hollow interior of a reefer is perfect for housing the electronics and a large speaker for good bass.  The old stand-by is a circuit that basically creates a semi-buzzing noise.  It was better than no sound at all, and was pretty cheap. 
 
Fast-forward 2 decades.  With the advent of iPods, there were a flood of knockoffs.  They play a recording with reasonable fidelity, and are cheap.  But how do the knockoffs perform?  They can drive earbuds, but what about a 28mm speaker?  I purchased a few and ran a torture test.  I ran one for over a month 24/7 at full volume through a RailMaster speaker.  (I kept it in the garage to keep from driving my wife crazy.)  To my amazement, it ran fine.  It didn’t get hot or fade.  The circuit is relatively simple, so as long as the components are of reasonable quality, and the amp is powerful enough to drive the speaker, it should (in theory) last a long time.  I designed a cradle to hold the computer board on top.  In the event the board fails for some reason, it will be a relatively easy swap.  If the car wiring were attached to a harness (like the ones for a DCC locomotive) then the swap would be even faster.
 
Frozen Audio
Athearn had released a 57’ reefer with on-board sound.  Perhaps the sound unit was available as a spare part.  Athearn didn’t have them.  Digitraxx supplied the board to Athearn.  I contacted Digitraxx and was told it was not available as a separate part, nor did they have plans to offer one.  I contacted other DCC manufacturers to see if they had anything like this on their drawing board.  I was told they did not.  It seemed like a no-brainer to me that this would be a winner.  I decided to expand it from a DIY project, to a product for sale.  I named the venture Frozen Audio.  However, it was not merely loading a sound file onto an MP3 player.  That was the easy part.  Should it be controlled by DCC to turn it on and off?  What about a magnet to turn it off instead? Maybe keep it simple and if the rails have power, the sound is on?  How shall the volume be adjusted?  Shall it have a Keep Alive circuit?  Should the components be name brand (more expensive) or no-name?  The thought of having 100s of failures in the field to save 50 cents on a capacitor kept me up at night.  Lots of testing was in order.  Then, a website was needed to describe the product.  What about tracking write-offs for taxes?  Should it be an LLC or S-Corp?  
 
RTR Option?
I contacted ExactRail to gauge their interest in offering onboard sound in a future run of their fine 64’ Reefers.  They were indeed interested.  A working prototype was shipped for their review.
 
RPM
I reserved a vendor table at the San Bernadino RPM with Joe D'Elia (Mr. A-Line).  After hearing Frozen Audio is a fledgling start-up, he offered some sage advice.  “Only invest as much money as you are willing to lose.  Worse-case scenario you will end up with your first batch of product to use on your own reefers.  If you are OK with that, then it will be a fun ride.”  I had no idea how prophetic his words would be…
 
I built a stair-step stand to display several reefers while they were operating.  A poor man’s fog machine was built from a heating pad and a pot of water.  Adding dry ice, fog cascaded down the terraced display, under and around the reefers.  If the sound didn’t attract attention, the fog of the dry ice did.  I received positive feedback regarding the sound modules, and the foggy display as well.  :-D
 
MRH Podcast
One of the visitors to my table, Paul Gillette, asked me to be interviewed on the Model Railroad Hobbyist podcast.  A few weeks later, he, Jim Lincoln and I spent about 30 minutes discussing the technology involved, and source of the sound recordings.  They were impressed that the sound was not just a random engine running, but a reefer unit running under load, on a railroad reefer. 
 
As part of the marketing for Frozen Audio, I put together some short videos of how railroad refrigeration units operate.  They are still on YouTube.  (Live links to YouTube are not allowed on TrainOrders, so you will need to cut-n-paste these into your browser.)
 
   youtube.com/watch?v=dtrVkyzGYCY&t=30s
 
   youtube.com/watch?v=Mw1u2F6JM6k
 
The prototype design was ready to go.  As soon as I ordered the parts, the first batch of sound modules would roll off of the assembly line.  All indicators were pointing in the right direction.  Interest was high.  The prototypes were reliable.  Not a competing product in sight, until… 
 
Shock and Awe
While all of this was keeping me busy, Digitraxx announced their SoundCar product.  Not only is it a DCC decoder, but offers a reefer sound, flange squeal, and lighting functions.  It was several generations ahead of what I was going to offer.  Rather than try to compete with them on price, I decided to pull the plug.  It was a fun ride, and I learned a lot.  And, in a way the introduction of the SoundCar did me a favor by preventing me from turning my hobby into a treadmill.  I still have the first batch of prototype sound modules.  I will put them in the Frostline Reefers and know that Frozen Audio rides again.  :-D
 
Sidebar – While researching the viability of launching Frozen Audio, I had contacted Digitraxx earlier.  Though they claimed they had no plans to offer a product like the Athearn sound board, clearly were already months into the development of the SoundCar.  However, they weren’t going to tell some random caller (like me) about it.   The lesson learned is manufacturers can hold their cards close to the vest when it comes to future products in their pipeline.
 
Dave
 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/30/22 00:11 by tmotor.

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tmotor Wrote:


> I contacted ExactRail to gauge their interest in
> offering onboard sound in a future run of their
> fine 64’ Reefers.  They were indeed
> interested.  A working prototype was shipped for
> their review.

A product like yours would have certainly complimented their fine refrigerator car!

Happy New Year!  ghemr:

> A product like yours would have certainly
> complimented their fine refrigerator car!

INDEED! :-D
The prototype shipped to ExactRail took the realism to the next level.
Of course, after the SoundCar release, I never did hear back from ExactRail.  I expected ExactRail to contact Digitraxx for a bulk purchase.  If I were ExactRail, I would do the same thing.  (Better to deal with an established company with a good track record, than a new start-up.)  

Little did I know that about the time they got the prototype, there were some major changes about to occur at ExactRail.  For whatever reason, they had a hemorrhage of talent. They used to have a new car released every few months, but suddenly there was nothing.  Then the ExactRail website suddenly morphed into TrainLife.  Instead of creating their own products, now they were basically an online hobbyshop.  It has been a long time since something new has had an ExactRail logo on it. Most are reruns of their previous offerings, :-(

Take care and God bless!
Dave