• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Best sounding DMU's

Status
Not open for further replies.

Stathern Jc

Member
Joined
30 Nov 2019
Messages
285
Location
Inverness
One not mentioned so far is the Class 210.
I'd only seen 210001 a few times, and with the 6 cylinder Paxman which was basically half a Valenta, I always thought it sounded pretty good.

Some might think it a bit tenuous to consider it a Multiple Unit as there weren't any others the same for it to work with. But if it wasn't, what could it have been??
I never saw or heard 210002 which had an MTU engine so can't comment on that.
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

Ken H

On Moderation
Joined
11 Nov 2018
Messages
6,272
Location
N Yorks
Class 124 trans pennines. When accelerating hard out of Leeds station trainshed.
 

DustyBin

Established Member
Joined
20 Sep 2020
Messages
3,613
Location
First Class
One not mentioned so far is the Class 210.
I'd only seen 210001 a few times, and with the 6 cylinder Paxman which was basically half a Valenta, I always thought it sounded pretty good.

Some might think it a bit tenuous to consider it a Multiple Unit as there weren't any others the same for it to work with. But if it wasn't, what could it have been??
I never saw or heard 210002 which had an MTU engine so can't comment on that.

I never saw the 210s but there are a couple of videos on YouTube of them (or one of them) and like you say they sound good, more loco-like than DMU just like the original DEMUs (although they sound nothing alike!). They were definitely multiple units, I don’t think anybody would argue otherwise.
 

londonmidland

Established Member
Joined
22 Dec 2009
Messages
1,814
Location
Leicester
Personally I don't really understand the enthusiasm for the 185s.

To me, they don't sound of much except loud... they're not really particularly distinctive, having the same engines as the 175s, 180s, 220s, 221s and 222s.
This video demonstrates well why I like the sounds of 185s. Despite having the same engines as certain other trains, they have their own distinct sound.

in particular to the 185s, I like the sound as they rev up from standstill. Loud exhausts as well as the scream of the (turbo charger)? It’s the variety of different sounds I like, whereas a 22x just sounds pretty much like a low constant drone when departing.

The idling sounds less high pitch compared to a 22x too. I assume it revs at a lower RPM?
 

Bletchleyite

Veteran Member
Joined
20 Oct 2014
Messages
97,541
Location
"Marston Vale mafia"
The idling sounds less high pitch compared to a 22x too. I assume it revs at a lower RPM?

185s seem to idle really slowly at times, a bit like an old lorry, to the point that you can almost hear each individual cylinder firing and a pronounced gap between them when it sounds like the engine is slowing (or something else, e.g. resonance, gives that feeling). Does it perhaps reduce to firing only every 4th rev to save fuel, rather than every 2nd as it would be normally with a 4-stroke engine?
 

hexagon789

Veteran Member
Joined
2 Sep 2016
Messages
15,716
Location
Glasgow
in particular to the 185s, I like the sound as they rev up from standstill. Loud exhausts as well as the scream of the (turbo charger)? It’s the variety of different sounds I like, whereas a 22x just sounds pretty much like a low constant drone when departing.
I think that difference is due to the 22x being Diesel-Electric and the 185s being Diesel-Hydraulic, the way the engines produce power for traction and the way in which they rev to do that results in different sounds under low speed acceleration despite having the same engines
 

37057

Member
Joined
3 Jul 2009
Messages
422
185s seem to idle really slowly at times, a bit like an old lorry, to the point that you can almost hear each individual cylinder firing and a pronounced gap between them when it sounds like the engine is slowing (or something else, e.g. resonance, gives that feeling). Does it perhaps reduce to firing only every 4th rev to save fuel, rather than every 2nd as it would be normally with a 4-stroke engine?

They don't run below 850 rpm unless there's something going wrong! No clever selective firing either, they're actually quite basic in that regard.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top