Coming soon to a DMU near you, Rolls Royce engine sounds courtesy of the Class 127 high-density 'Bed-Pan' unit at Llangollen. After a very successful weekend spent recording the 104 and 127 with Paul I'm afraid to report that the 127 has leapfrogged everything to the top of the editing pile. The unit had a lovely rasping exhaust which we managed to capture in addition to the engines. Rasping exhausts is something the previous DMU's I've recorded didn't have so it had to be done. I know there are
I've had to set the Deltic to one side for a while as it was seriously doing my head in! However, one man's loss is another's gain as my time has been temporarily diverted to the recordings of 37901 made at the East Lancs Railway last year. Regular viewers will know this to be a habit of mine, switching from one project to another in order to maintain sanity and enthusiasm. Progress on the slug has been rapid and satisfying. Don't get me wrong, I love the Deltic sounds and they are really good i
The last two or three weeks have been a bit of a blur, with a week's working trip to Norway followed immediately by Warley and then another week away from home on a course. Work is such an inconvenience when you're trying to develop new sound chips :-) As is customary with Warley, everyone left their orders until the last minute so getting them ready whilst in Norway was a bit of a challenge. Fortunately this possibility was forseen and a family member received full training in the use of the Lo
Two models that came close to the lump hammer treatment this weekend were a Hornby 50 in 4mm and a Heljan 20 in 7mm, after I expended an inordinate amount of time on both.
The 50 is the Rail Express limited edition 50149, weathered by Grimy Times and destined to become the star in a You Tube video demonstrating my v4 Class 50 sounds. Yesterday I milled off the weight in the underframe and spent most of today building a long speaker enclosure to fit down the middle with cut-down tanks etc glu
Sometimes the simplest things can be a whole lot of fun. The 90's have got a really quirky sounding handbrake that operates automatically (via a push-button I think; I didn't see because I was outside recording the sound!). When it's applied the thing clunks and whirrs away quite loudly. When you take it off again the noise is the same but different. So the mind starts thinking, if I could work this feature into the sound project the loco could be realistically parked without shutting it down. A
No doubt someone can tell me what these locos are. Each one had three more pantographs than most electrics in the UK, presumably for multi-voltage operation. We waited 20 minutes to get a better picture without the catenary masts in the way, only to get 'bowled' by a poxy two-storey Dutch bogcart!
Yes, after talking about it for several years my pal and I finally got round to visiting the Eurospoor show in Utrecht, courtesy of Stena Line from Harwich to the Hook of Holland. I was well impres
Take one Hornby 08, add two sugar cube speakers in the nose and the result? Gronk heaven!
Over the past few years I've tried about 6 different combinations of v3.5 chip and speaker (standard & micro chips, 23mm round and micro speakers. In the nose, in the cab etc etc) and have never achieved a sound even approaching acceptability. Having heard the superb sound from the sugar cubes in Paul Chetter's 03 at the LYDCC show, I thought I'll have to try these. They sat in the speaker box for s
These titles get worse, it took me at least 3 minutes to think that one up. Yes, ped-antics on my workbench this week as my Class 31 project gets its upgrade from v3.5 to v4. Relive the glory days of the Birmingham-Norwich in it's full audio splendour. The photo of such a working dates from Summer 82 and is one of my favourites from that period. Eagle-eyed viewers will note that it's running wrong-line through platform 1 at Nuneaton instead of the more usual 5 going in that direction (towards Le
I'm just reviewing the latest set of recordings from a full day at the ELR yesterday. Fortunately the rain didn't impact on the recordings themselves but merely added to the general discomfort of standing up all day, holding mics in uncomfortable positions and struggling inside confined and dirty places (no, not Bury). After leaving here on Tuesday morning it was raining within 15 minutes and it didn't stop chucking it down until early on Wednesday morning. 50mph all the way up the M6 in heavy t
With several months passing since the last entry there's a fair bit to report.
To begin with, what a brilliant summer we've been having for photography. After seeing some superb examples with incredible resolution in Rail Express last month I decided I had to upgrade to a D800 and up my game. Initial results were slightly disappointing (we're talking relative here, disappointing vs those Rail Express photos I'd set as a personal benchmark) but as with most things, application brought progress.
Ding ding ding ding ding, can I have some order please! Younger viewers should turn over to Dick & Dom now.
XL'ing the Class 33 for v4 has highlighted one or two things about the project that I wasn't happy with. I also noticed that some improvements made to other projects hadn't found their way to the 33 yet so this evening was time to start putting this right. I'm not quite finished yet but the new version will have 'Multi-Start' (prime more than once, extend the cranking, have the loc
Late February means it’s time for our annual pilgrimage to the frozen North and Model Rail Scotland. This year’s trip started a day early on the Wednesday, for reasons that will become apparent shortly. First stop was to stoke up at the Little Chef just off Jcn 16 on the M6 (Crewe), our usual breakfast stop for this trip.
Several en-route photo opportunities had been discussed but in the end we went to a favourite from last year; Docker, on the WCML in Cumbria. Upon arrival, a search on Real Ti
Not my favourite track by The Undertones (that would be John Peel's favourite, Teenage Kicks) but good all the same.
Yes, the Siberian winter has finally drawn to a close and not before time - I was getting fed up with it. The camera has been out a few times and I was especially pleased with this one of 90041 near Dordon. 'It's all about the sky' as they say.
On the workbench I've finally completed engine #1 of the Deltic sound project. In 7mm it sounds really good. In 4mm it's good but
It's not very often I finish two projects at once but that's what has happened this time. I have a policy of continuous improvement so I don't really consider any project as truly 'finished' but the Class 50 & 303 are both at the stage where I'm happy to release them into the wild. It will be a while before I do videos of either though.
As mentioned before the 50 comes with multistart which in this case means user-controlled priming and both cold and warm starts. It has two different set
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 u
I've just had a really enjoyable weekend in the company of the Airthey Park & Warren Lane crews who were kind enough to let me join them on the other side of the 'stage' and then socially afterwards. Experience of driving my sound-fitted locos in an exhibition environment allows me to optimise the chips for exhibitor's needs as well as everyone else's, so public thanks to everyone concerned. Apologies to Alan for driving my 86's into a non-electrified road on Warren Lane - doah!
With the
A week off work has enabled me to clear the decks of reblow work and progress loads of dormant modelling projects;
08 After cracking the sound, attention has moved on to the weathering job. I've tried to make mine look faded, oily and dirty similar to this one; http://www.flickr.co...9@N22/lightbox/ I'm really pleased with the results so far. I'll post some pictures once I'm finished.
108 After trying various methods of passing two wires down the train to the second speaker I've finally
I can't believe it's so long since my last update, an unfortunate reflection of how busy I've been of late. My missus has been labouring under the misapprehension that DIY and household chores somehow have priority over serious model railway business. She was helping me clean out the loft the other day. All dusty and covered in cobwebs, but she's good to the kids. Actually, she's not been very well lately, she's even had to give up her coal round...
The new Deltic videos, filmed at a friend's 7
A few days off work has, for once, coincided with decent weather so two days of photography was kicked off with my newly-acquired D700 at Elford & Portway on the NE-SW route between Burton and Tamworth. Despite being just down the road I'd never been before. It's a cracking location though, and was pleasantly busy. As well as the usual fare of 170's, Voyagers and HST's I saw two 60's on the Kingsbury tanks, Colas's 56094, two 66's, and a DCR 31 towing another 31 and a 56, all within three ho
No, not flared trousers, kipper ties or mind-altering drugs, I'm afraid it's bad news for whistler fans; the 40 project has temporarily returned to the back-burner as the weekend threw up another opportunity to attempt the Class 60 engine recordings. I wasn't going to take any chances this time and with Paul Chetter's assistance, three mics were brought to bear; one in the engine room, one against the grille closest to the engine room, and another on the bodyside near the exhaust. The engine roo
After trying the 60 engine recordings through a bass reflex speaker in a loco I have reluctantly decided that they are not going to be worth running with. Whilst the pounding bass sounds stunning through the hi-fi it simply isn't cutting it in model form. I need to go back and record again from two or three different places and hopefully I'll end up with something more usable. All the other sounds have been edited and sound great from the model so once the engine sounds are captured we're laughi
I decided that a blog of what I'm up to sound-wise at the moment might be of interest and also provide a useful forum for discussion and feedback. Here's what I've been up to in the last few weeks. Imagine a butterfly flitting from one thing to another and you won't be too far off the mark :-)
Upgraded the 26, 27, 37/0 and 37/4 projects with 'multi-start' (user control of engine priming, cranking and starting (or not starting)). It's my intention to add this to all projects where appropriate
You see there's two kinds of people in this world my friend. Those with loaded guns, and those who dig. You dig.
A classic line from a classic film, the relevance being; which of the three are these two in the photo, taken at Newton Heath during a recording visit in April 2010? The 180's are notoriously unreliable and the front end design could be good, bad or ugly depending upon your point of view. And the 142's, what can you say? Two Leyland Nationals on train wheels with no suspension. Th
Saint Collen's coracle would have come in handy over the weekend when the Chetter & Bishop 'dream team' paid a two-day recording visit to the Llangollen Railway at the kind invitation of the Llangollen Railcars Group. The weather was not kind, the wettest since Temple Mills in my case, but didn't hinder proceedings unduly. Four mics were pointed at the 108, Wickham (109) and 141 on several runs each up and down the full length of the line, producing some excellent under-load engine sounds. A
It's all gone quiet while I get my Bachmann 20 ready for its video debut. Star of the show will be the disc-fitted 20058, currently on the workbench getting the faded rail blue treatment to depict a loco in the last years of its life. I can't decide whether to team it up with the completed OTA rake or the 3 BDA's I've finished so far. This afternoon was spent hopping between the 20 itself and making steel billets for the BDA's. These are made from lead flashing sprayed first with red oxide prime
