Legomanbiffo's sound Blog

Nice piccy Bif. Was that really taken with your iPhone? Captured the essence of the day really well.

 

Funny you should have promoted the 127, I have been working on the 104 for the same reason.

 

I can see there is going to be a rash of top quality DMU sounds available soon. About time, too.

 

Paul

I'm not sure how many models of 127s are around, Bif, but I applaud you for doing something different (well, I love hearing all the different sounds of these things, anyway!).

 

As for the 104s, I remember riding a train of two power-twin 104s from Manchester Victoria to Blackpool in the '80s and the coach I was in definitely had a rasp to it. That was quite an exhilarating ride as the acceleration was electric - we arrived at every stop early and had to await departure time.

 

Going back to the 127, could those sounds also be used for other RR/hydraulic units such as the Cravens ones, or were they different again (does anyone remember?)?

Hello Bif,

 

Per our conversation at Members Day about 'having a go' what recorder are you using now ?

 

Rgds,

 

Andy

Yes Paul, the picture is from my iphone. In good daylight with a stationary subject the pictures are superb given the size of the lens, but not so good in more challenging conditions. Very handy to carry around with you. Superb HD video too! Best gadget I have ever bought.

 

I'm not aware of any models of the 127 but a handful of other DMU's used Rolls Royce engines as far as I know, including the 110's which Hornby make a model of. Not sure if they were exactly the same engines but...

 

The new recorder is a Roland R26, it's a superb piece of kit. Very flexible in terms of inputs, small & easy to carry about, touch-screen operation, great sound quality, built in speaker, batteries and memory card would probably be good for 24-36 hours of continuous recording, works on AA's if all else fails etc etc.

Hi Bif. 110s certainly used RR engines but had a 6 cylinder version with mechanical gears (SCG, like most blue square DMUs), whereas the 127s had a hydraulic transmission and 8 cylinders. I'm fairly sure the RR Cravens units had the 8 cyl engines and some (but not all) had hydraulic transmissions but I never ever encountered those in real life so I cannot say what they sounded like.

 

The 110s and similarly engined 111s seemed to me to have a rather flat and uninteresting engine and exhaust note (I rode them on quite a few occasions between Leeds and York, and sometimes further afield too, to Manchester).

 

Don't get me wrong: I'm not criticising your choice at at all, I was merely wondering how much demand there will be for the 127 sounds ... and I would still love to hear them in all their glory. Being so far away I cannot just go down the road to even a preserved railway to see and hear these things nowadays. I think my last trip on a traditional DMU would have been in 1986. On subsequent visits to the UK I still rode many trains but the Sprinter families had taken over by then. The sounds provided by you and the likes of Howes do bring back pleasant memories of some of the earlier trips.

 

As an aside to my SR and LT modelling, I have a varied collection of DMUs, including classes 101, 104 (from Hornby 110), 105, 107 (one DMS only, done as an experiment), 108, 110, 114 (brass kit), 117 (modified Lima), 120 (Craftsman) and 121 (converted from Lima well before they offered one RTR), with unbuilt conversions still to do for 119 and 129 units. I only have sound in the Bachmann 108 at the moment and I wouldn't even consider it for the older Hornby and Lima based units because the running qualities are rather inferior to the more modern models.

I suspected there would be differences. There are various pitfalls for using these or the Leyland engines as generic sounds for other DMU's (type of transmission, number of engines, number of cylinders, type of exhaust etc, all of which can have a bearing on what they sounded like). I'm planning to offer two or three fairly generic DMU chips to begin with and enhance the range with completely authentic sounds as time goes by. There are dozens of classes of DMU so I think this approach makes sense.

Definitely. That sounds like a very smart approach. Don't forget that some units had AEC engines too, mostly replaced by Leylands as parts became scarce. Then there were some later builds that had the more powerful Albion engines (Chiltern lines 115s come to mind). It may not be possible to get all of these sounds as authentic ones simply because some of these units don't exist any more.

 

Whatever you choose to do, I'm positive the results will be excellent.