# are there animal sound "Decoders" ?



## santafealltheway (Nov 27, 2012)

i would love to make some cattle cars 'moo' at random intervals.

anyone know anything?


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## Mark VerMurlen (Aug 15, 2015)

There are several ways to do this. If you have stationary cattle in a field or stockyard, you could do something like I've done on my layout. See post #165 in the thread documenting my layout (http://www.modeltrainforum.com/showthread.php?t=53721&page=17). There are several sound boards that will playback a sound when an input button is pressed. I chose to use a board called the Super WAV Trigger board. I have it playing back several different kinds of sounds to 3 different locations on my layout. I have a continuous loop that plays back forest sounds, including bird calls. I've got a pushbutton that when pressed will play back a random bird call or wolf howl.

However it sounds like you want your sounds to be coming from within a mobile cattle car. You could look for mobile DCC locomotive controllers that allow for user programmable sounds. But since it sounds like you just want this to happen randomly, I think I'd still go with a standalone sound board. Check out https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11125 and https://www.adafruit.com/product/2210.

I found all my sounds on the internet, except for a couple I've recorded myself. You can find many free sound files as well as inexpensive ones. So I have no doubt you could find cattle sounds.

Mark


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## lovin it (Nov 21, 2012)

Broadway Limited has HO stock cars with sound.


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## Cycleops (Dec 6, 2014)

A EMD SD 70 MAC is a bit of an animal


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## Mark VerMurlen (Aug 15, 2015)

lovin it said:


> Broadway Limited has HO stock cars with sound.


Looks like modeltrainstuff.com has the BLI cattle/sheep/chicken sound stock cars on sale for $50. Probably couldn’t build your own for less than that.

Mark


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## Rip Track (Dec 15, 2012)

I wonder if we'll get animal sounds on our locomotive decoders one day. I'm trying to imagine a locomotive barking along my layout!  Sorry, couldn't resist!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ain-barks-snorts-prevent-deer-collisions.html


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

santafealltheway said:


> i would love to make some cattle cars 'moo' at random intervals.
> 
> anyone know anything?


I know millions of things, but mooing railroad cars escapes me.

No seriously, i have seen CD's of recorded sounds. Play the through a portable CD player and small speakers under the layout. Speakers could be hidden in a barn, stock pens, etc.


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## santafealltheway (Nov 27, 2012)

CTValleyRR said:


> I know millions of things, but mooing railroad cars escapes me.
> 
> No seriously, i have seen CD's of recorded sounds. Play the through a portable CD player and small speakers under the layout. Speakers could be hidden in a barn, stock pens, etc.


true, but i have a very large around the room lay out, at a proto speed, i may forget i even have a train running i t comes by so rarely haha

a random mooing cow might make my day lol.


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## santafealltheway (Nov 27, 2012)

lovin it said:


> Broadway Limited has HO stock cars with sound.


i did see that car shortly aft er i posted... i think i might just order one, but im still curious about user uploiaded sound modules. for other sound sin other places


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## Cycleops (Dec 6, 2014)

CTValleyRR said:


> No seriously, i have seen CD's of recorded sounds. Play the through a portable CD player and small speakers under the layout. Speakers could be hidden in a barn, stock pens, etc.


Damn, I wish I’d have known that when I did my nativity layout.


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## Rip Track (Dec 15, 2012)

On a visit to an O scale layout, I noticed a cattle car that made motion activated cattle sounds. (I'm not sure if it was a Lionel car or what.) IIRC the cattle seemed more distressed the more the car shook. If the BLI cars are anything like this, they should be worth looking into. 

Funny thing about the O scale car, the layout owner's track work was so smooth, the cattle car didn't activate as often as he liked. I think he ended up putting drops of solder on the rails where he wanted to hear the cows.


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