Everyone knows that a solenoid sounds terrible with a leslie RS5T, but would it be ok to use a motorized ball valve with one so that I don’t have to run the airline to near the front of my car (which could look messy and be a hassle) but I could still use a dummy metering valve of some kind to trigger the valve actuator? I’m basically assuming that it’s ability to gradually open and close will better mirror a normal manual valve, am I correct?
I rigged up a simple servo mechanism on a ball valve ages ago to test the principle. Although I haven’t used it in a horn system, it does work though. Check this thread (there’s a link to a vid in post #14)
https://www.trainhornforums.com/showthread.php?t=6250&page=2
Mine seems less complicated, but I’m hoping that you’d still have a good degree of control when feathering it. That one looks like it’d break over time.
We have used some “automatic” ball valves in industrial applications. Both pneumatically actuated and electrically actuated. The thing I would note is that they are slow. I think that would be frustrating. For example, you would always have the same feather on speed and feather off speed. The feather off would sound weird.
So anyway, try to find something that actuates quickly.
There are fast motorized ball valves like this >
WHEN OPENING THIS VIDEO, PRESS THE YOUTUBE ICON ON THE BOTTOM RIGHT TO PLAY https://www.youtube.com/v/yAyvgYBNdvY
Or I was thinking that you add a solenoid near the horn so that it can cut off the air supply quicker for a more genuine sounding ‘feather’ off.