This week, the rain of Llangollen was swapped for the blistering 27-degree heat of East Anglia, with a Class 90 & DVT recording session at Norwich Crown Point, hosted by the fine fellows of Greater Anglia. My partner in crime this time was Richard Armstrong, aka the 'Armstrong Powerhouse' who produces sound packs for various Train Simulator packages.
The loco (90012, Royal Anglian Regiment) was in fine fettle and our assistant did a great job of getting the noises we wanted from it. Alth
If there's one thing I've learned over the years about railway modelling and photography, it's this; take photos of the boring things as well as the interesting, because one day they won't be boring any more and you'll wish you took more photos of them. This Class 318 is a case in point. Despite living in Ayrshire for 16 years and seeing them almost daily I have only two photos. Now my Bratchell kit has arrived and......I wish I'd taken more photos. I think the same applies to recording sounds.
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
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
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
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
Ha ha ha ha ha, boom boom! He's not just a puppet, he's a British icon! The Tweed jacket, the refined accent, the toothy grin, the razor-sharp wit. Remember his constant interruptions that would cause 'Mr Roy' to grab him round the snout?! I'm laughing now just thinking about it. Pure TV heaven.
On the subject of brushes the most recent task has been upgrading the 92 project to v4 standards. I've yet to do a full recording session with one so a little artistic license has been used along wit
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
Did you threaten to overrule him....? Aah, a truly classic political interview by the man at title. Now if I ran the BBC, all political interviews would be conducted with a Nicholas Parsons 'just a minute' style bell. As soon as the interviewee failed to answer the question or decried the opposing party, the bell would be abruptly rung and the interview terminated. Tell us what you're going to do, not what the other party aren't doing, otherwise you're off.
Anyway, as you've probably gathere
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.
Things in Legomanbiffo's world have been extremely hectic lately, mainly due to three weeks of training in Manchester and Scotland, punctuated with a day's intensive recording session. The trip to Manchester gave a welcome opportunity for rail travel and photography, with stops at Crewe, Stockport and Manchester Picadilly on the way up. On the return journey I spent some time at the Crewe Heritage Centre with Brian Porter, trying to coax more sounds out of the APT. We had minor sucesses but it w
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
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
Well that’s the misery of Christmas over for another year! I actually quite enjoy Christmas itself but two things spoil it for me;
The ridiculous three-month build up, the over-commercialisation of everything, and everyone being on holiday at the same time and clogging up the shops / roads / Post Office etc.
The three things that spoil Christmas for me...
And there’s having your railway time compromised because you have to spend time with family.
Amongst the things that spoil Chr
Well that's the trauma of Christmas over for another year. Another chunk of modelling time irretrievably lost, bah humbug!
Progress on the Deltic has been slow as a result but it's going in the right direction. The loco had the opportunity to stretch its legs on my pal's layout this evening and I'm pleased to say that it's shaping up very nicely. The slow wind-up to the highest notch is pure Napier heaven! The session also gave me a good idea how I can enhance the two-engine experience, some
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
One theme of this period in the sound lab has been consolidation; instead of working on new projects I’ve concentrated on rolling out specific improvements across the range, where suitable recordings are available. One example of this is to change F5 from a simplistic brake dump sound to a multi-function brake sound experience! If you press F5 whilst stationary you’ll hear a brake dump sound . If you turn on F5 when moving, nothing is heard initially, but you now have a ‘playable’ brake applicat
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
A two-week course in Scotland provided an ideal spring-board for a bit of recording during the middle weekend. Various Scottish modellers have been asking me to record the sliding doors on a 303 and adapt my 304 project accordingly. However, with the help of the hard-working chaps at Bon'ess I've managed to go well beyond that and record almost all the sounds that the 303's made, including horns, driver & passenger doors, hustle alarm, main & auxiliary compressors, guard's right away bel
I'm pleased to say that the Glasgow show was better than last year's, which was hopefully just a blip in the year-on-year improvement. Well done to all concerned. As usual it was great to meet up with old friends, and put some faces to new ones. Deviations on the way up included photting at Winwick Junction and Carlisle, and on the way back, Tower Models followed by fish & chips on the front at Blackpool!
Back in the sound lab the 73 diesel / electric transitions have been sorted out aft
The 2013 recording season has gotten off to a flying start. The text, received with 48 hours notice said words to the effect; 'do you want to come along and do some recording, with three or four different locos to choose from, one of which you haven't recorded before?' Let me think about that for a minute.....
After an hour's drive and a generous helping of lard to set me up for the day, a start was made on the previously unrecorded loco, the 'genetically modified' 57. I must say that when I
I had an enjoyable day out at Doncaster yesterday and succumbed to the persuasive powers of a superbly weathered Bachmann 37/5 in Railfreight Metals livery from 'Dirty Boy' / Lord & Butler. Whilst I am reasonably skilled at weathering, this was in a different league and I was happy to pay the money.
As a bonus the loco came pre-fitted with the latest SWD v4 chip so it was a good opportunity to listen to the competition. After trying it 'out of the box' it was clear that the dire speaker
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
I often find that as a project is nearing completion it pays to step away from it for a while and do something else. You then return to it with a fresh pair of ears, add the finishing touches and iron out any last remaining niggles. As such, I have briefly stepped away from the 40 to the Voyager.
I upgraded one end of my Bachmann Voyager from a v3.5 to a v4 some time ago but never got around to the other. Having now fitted the second chip and ran it, I found that the engine sound editing and
The last couple of weeks have seen me snowed under literally and metaphorically. I thought the chip workload might have slowed a bit in January but not so as you would notice. It genuinely pleases me to know that my work brings a little pleasure into people's lives. Another enjoyable part of what I'm doing, and one which Paul Chetter and I have often spoken about is the importance of capturing these sounds as an historic record; a part of the nation's heritage. As I've said before it would be ni
