Two years before John Sing started this helpful thread....
I submitted an article to N-Scale Magazine called "Locomotive Noise: A Troubleshooting Guide". That was 2014. My rationale was - hardly two months go by when someone on discussion boards asks for help with a noisy loco.
Two years later, John starts this great thread.
I was an active contributor ...... but I held back... because I expected that article to come out.
The heart of my article was a flow chart to help a person know where to look and what to check.
Since that was publishable info.... I never published it here.
On post 129, I referenced that article sitting in a file for two years. (and then later 5 years).
With all that said.....
You can imagine my surprise when I was on vacation (summer of 2026) and I got an email with a proof copy of my article.
I had honestly given up hope they would ever publish it.
And to be fair to them..... I always thought it was a boring article.
And then I later concluded that N-Scale Mag had moved in a different direction from the typical articles I used to publish with them (e.g. Kitbashing is somewhat dead because of 3D printing).
So I had no hard feelings against them for not publishing it.
Anyway, I'm posting here to remind you guys that I did not steal info from this thread (
). My article predates you!
And while there's probably nothing I wrote that is not already contained here, the Flowchart might be helpful for someone.
I'm obviously not going to post that here, but its existence can now be referenced in this thread.
And here is the irony. My thinking grew in all those years. Lately, I was carrying that flow chart with the intent to update it.
So I was thankful that Andrew Schlotfeldt (the design editor) was gracious to allow me a chance to actually make some changes to the article (something they generally don't want to do right at publishing).
The bottom line if you are new to this old thread- which was elevated to a Best Of ranking....
You can often diagnose a locomotive simply by listening to it and discerning the KIND of sound it makes.
This thread is well worth your time.
