In the olden days, before 50's were called Hoovers we used to refer to them as 'bleeps'. I have no idea where that name came from, or if it was in common usage. Answers on a postcard...

The photo is a vintage scene from Birmingham New Street in the late 70's. I wonder if Jim is planning to have hordes of spotters at the platform ends like this?! Those were the days.

The Class 50 project is shaping up nicely with a full set of auxiliary sounds recorded recently at the ELR. I've ended up using engine sounds recorded from the same loco back in 2008, simply because they provided everything I needed to make a 'multistart' chip including both cold and warm starts. The cold start is great, slow and chuggy but eventually blends seamlessly into the idle. This single clip ate up 81 seconds of the four minutes available on a v4 chip!

Recordings from Bo'ness have already been put to good use in the Class 37 project. I recorded the horns at both ends of their loco and have replicated this in my two projects (37/0 & 37/4). Also, it's now possible to do shorter, more prototypical 'toots' than was possible before.