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Noisy Cabs!

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RichmondCommu

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G'day,

I've often wondered how much diesel engine noise can be heard inside the cab of a loco and whether this causes train drivers to dislike certain classes. In the event that say a class 37 is hauling a train up to Aisgill (unlikely nowadays but hey you never know) given the racket that is being made it can't be great sitting in the cab.

Before the HST's were rebuilt with MTU engines it can't have been much better inside the cab of a HST but I'm assuming that things are now a bit quieter :) Even so, sitting next to a MTU power unit at 125 mph can't be too easy on the ears!

Your thoughts on this would be much appreciated!

Kind regards,

Richmond Commuter!
 
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SPADTrap

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G'day,

I've often wondered how much diesel engine noise can be heard inside the cab of a loco and whether this causes train drivers to dislike certain classes. In the event that say a class 37 is hauling a train up to Aisgill (unlikely nowadays but hey you never know) given the racket that is being made it can't be great sitting in the cab.

Before the HST's were rebuilt with MTU engines it can't have been much better inside the cab of a HST but I'm assuming that things are now a bit quieter :) Even so, sitting next to a MTU power unit at 125 mph can't be too easy on the ears!

Your thoughts on this would be much appreciated!

Kind regards,

Richmond Commuter!

I'm not sure about what you've asked but early this morning I called the signaller via the GSM-R and quickly realised it was a mistake, I couldn't hear him for the wind nose through the draughty drop light windows and nose end door (and heaters on to compensate for the freezing draught) and that was on an EMU!
 

fgwrich

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Certain Dogbox 153s are known for having rather whistling cabs due to the various small holes in them - the ex FGW/Wessex 4 in the East Mids fleet were IIRC renown for this for a while!
 

MrPIC

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the cab HVAC on electrostars is enough to drive me mad, I wouldn't be able to cope with a great big engine behind me!!
 

ComUtoR

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the cab HVAC on electrostars is enough to drive me mad, I wouldn't be able to cope with a great big engine behind me!!

Oddly I find it mildly therapeutic.

I also use the various noises in the cab to help with fault finding. Every time the heating drops out I check the linelight.
 

class 9

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Class 66 locos are terrible, so much so that a couple of TOCs have issued Drivers with noise cancelling ear protectors.
 

scotraildriver

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67 cabs are not great - loads of vibration. And engine room doors that pop open by themselves just to give u a big fright!
 

Crossover

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I've been a passenger on a whistling 153 (though the driver apparently couldn't hear it)

I would imagine logos are quite noisy. I suspect the likes of 185s have fairly quiet cabs
 

cin88

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The Class 40 Preservation Society's loco has an annoying whistling/squeeking sound in one of the cabs that can be heard whenever the loco is accelerating, but noise from the engine is fairly minimal as long as the doors to the engine room are kept shut.
 

HLE

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Certain Dogbox 153s are known for having rather whistling cabs due to the various small holes in them - the ex FGW/Wessex 4 in the East Mids fleet were IIRC renown for this for a while!

Recently , a slightly bigger hole in a dogbox cab appeared on one particular trip....the bloomin gangway door came open! Now that was drafty!
 
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gimmea50anyday

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Valenta fitted HST's were suprisingly quiet when you consider how noisy the power units were.

185's are very noisy in the cabs when at full pelt but thats the noise of air trying to get in thru the cab doors and not the engines. Personally the engiles running at full bore thru standedge while sitting in centre cabs with windows fully open sounds pretty impressive!
 

Crossover

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Valenta fitted HST's were suprisingly quiet when you consider how noisy the power units were.

185's are very noisy in the cabs when at full pelt but thats the noise of air trying to get in thru the cab doors and not the engines. Personally the engiles running at full bore thru standedge while sitting in centre cabs with windows fully open sounds pretty impressive!

Morley Tunnel must be quite good for that in the Manchester direction - the speed seems to raise into the tunnel just after Morley station (45 to 70, possibly?) and some drivers go for it. Even from the saloon it has sometimes sounded rather impressive so with some open windows it must be even better!
 

RPM

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Turbostar cabs have a constant fan blowing air into the cab which cannot be overridden by the driver, as well as being draughty I find the fan noise very intrusive.
 

gimmea50anyday

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Morley Tunnel must be quite good for that in the Manchester direction - the speed seems to raise into the tunnel just after Morley station (45 to 70, possibly?) and some drivers go for it. Even from the saloon it has sometimes sounded rather impressive so with some open windows it must be even better!


Its the same with both standedge and morley tunnels. You have the speed restriction on the curves and thru both stations (morley and marsden) then open up the power as you enter the tunnel. With first gear the engines running at full power at that point is pretty loud! Leeds bound unless you have been held for something already in the tunnel you are pretty much running at linespeed already and therefore coasting along in second or third gear doesnt sound as impressive
 

aylesbury

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Some time ago I watched a programe filmed on a Deltic the noise was deafening and that was with only one engine working.Think that BR put a curtain up in the cab as noise damping device surprised the unions didn't complain.
 

HSTfan!!!

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66's are awful, very hard to talk to anyone on but the brand new ones are slightly better however. Found 142's quite noisy for wind. 158's were rather quiet in my experience, HST's you can easily hold a conversation in. Never found turbo stars to be there bad, voyagers pretty quiet apart from the engine drone.
 

Blindtraveler

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67 cabs are not great - loads of vibration. And engine room doors that pop open by themselves just to give u a big fright!

I did FortBill to Edin the other week and when bording joked with the driver who was chatting to the guard on the platform that Id rather be in the cab than on the seats and he said no you wouldnt, seriously so you arnt the only one who thinks this it would seam.
 

455driver

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All the time I drove 455s I i neverhad one that had a whistling or leaky gangway door.


these rose tinted specs are brilliant. :lol:
 

RichmondCommu

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Many years a go whilst on holiday I got chatting to a retired train driver who had driven class 76's over the Pennines on the old Woodhead route. He told me that the cabs were full of old newspapers to try and stop the icy blast into the cab on a cold winters night.
 

lazydragon

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Although not really relevant to today's engines, my dad still tells a story about how we went to visit my uncle, who used to work in Holbeck depot, and we went down to the shed one night, and he took us in to the cab of what we think was a Class 25. I was only three at the time, but when my uncle fired up the engine I cried so loudly at the noise they switched off the engine!

Not 100% sure on the loco class, but having ridden in a 37 cab too, pretty much any of the big diesel locos would have made me cry at that point!
 

Moodster020

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Traveling in any machine tends to be noisy by default. Try a motorcycle on the motorway...! (drafty too :D )
 

RichmondCommu

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Although not really relevant to today's engines, my dad still tells a story about how we went to visit my uncle, who used to work in Holbeck depot, and we went down to the shed one night, and he took us in to the cab of what we think was a Class 25. I was only three at the time, but when my uncle fired up the engine I cried so loudly at the noise they switched off the engine!

Not 100% sure on the loco class, but having ridden in a 37 cab too, pretty much any of the big diesel locos would have made me cry at that point!

On the contrary your post is completely relevant :) I'd expected a loco that was designed in the late 1950's / early 1960's to be louder than the more recent designs but having read about the class 66's perhaps that assumption is incorrect!
 

Cherry_Picker

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It's already been mentioned but 67 cabs are bloody awful, if you get the number 2 cab then the radiator screams at you on a hot day and if you get the number 1 can then the engine room door might pop open you get subjected to an ear splitting din. Even if neither of those things happen it's still noisy with the rattling and shaking. It's not like they are even old!
 

fgwrich

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It's already been mentioned but 67 cabs are bloody awful, if you get the number 2 cab then the radiator screams at you on a hot day and if you get the number 1 can then the engine room door might pop open you get subjected to an ear splitting din. Even if neither of those things happen it's still noisy with the rattling and shaking. It's not like they are even old!

I'm not surprised at all! In one of my previous jobs, I was fortunate to have a look around a 67 cab one evening and noticed a small pool of water forming - asking the driver how that had come to form, unsurprisingly he'd said that the cab was leaking (that's the politer edit!) as well. Unfortunately, they really were locos built on the cheap!

I can't say much for the 66s as I've not been in one under load but I can imagine - the first batches especially - are pretty rough!

31s I've found can be an odd bunch, depending on the roughness of the loco. Although the worst feature I've found of them are those dam cab doors - on a hot day they can become stuck or relatively heavy - Yes, I have managed to find myself getting stuck in a Ped Cab before! A good boot solved that one! :lol:
 

PFX

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On the contrary your post is completely relevant :) I'd expected a loco that was designed in the late 1950's / early 1960's to be louder than the more recent designs but having read about the class 66's perhaps that assumption is incorrect!

I've never been in the cab of a modern loco but Irish A and 141 classes (built in the 50s and 60s respectively) both have pretty noisy cabs, mostly from the engine, but the constant tick, tick of the Hasler Bern speedo does nothing to improve matters. At least they're both windproof and warm once the cab heaters have had a while to heat up.
 

MrPIC

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Turbostar cabs have a constant fan blowing air into the cab which cannot be overridden by the driver, as well as being draughty I find the fan noise very intrusive.
On the electrostars I've been in, there is a breaker behind the driver for the cab HVAC but its blocked off now, as drivers used to trip it constantly to stop the fan noise. According to Bombardier, they are "sealed" units so must be ventilated. Except for the opening cab windows and massive draughty door on the front yeah... sealed...
 
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