GG1 Sound

[Green_Elite_Cab]

My experience, for what it's worth, is that there are two basic sounds in an electric locomotive, gear growl and traction motor (or other equipment) blowers. Jack shaft locos have additional siderod clank. (There are David J Williams III DVDs out there with the VGN EL-3s and authentic sound.) I grew up in part hearing the old DL&W 3000-volt MIU cars from 1930, and they had a very pronounced gear growl that I learned to recognize in the sounds of other electrics. (For that matter, I once rode directly behind an F40, in the vestibule, and heard a gear growl there, too.) With a GG!, you would hear blowers, gear growl on acceleration, and the noise of wheels on track. My impression of GG1s going by at stations was it was a combination of roar-whoosh. But the problem with the PRR/NEC was that it was harder to be close to trackside or close to the loco, whereas the DL&W in my childhood was always right there on my way to school!

Yeah, I'm always told that the MP54s have a "unique" sound, but i can never be sure if the sounds on my DVDs are just dubbed, or if they are legitimate. I have a DVD on SEPTA that covered the retirement of the "blueliners", the old 1930 MU cars that got retired in 1989. I imagine they most sound like the gear growl. The DVD makes them sound like its grinding bolts.

Its always frustrated me though, that somehow, model manufacturers have GG1 sounds, but they don't have an AEM7 or Acela sound. For an AEM7, you don't even have to both Amtrak. MARC and SEPTA have them, and as far as SEPTA goes, those locomotives just sit there most of the day.

How hard could it get the sounds for these? I really wish they had sounds for the recitifiers as well, since I can't believe they all sound the same.