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 Christmas for me...

Well here’s my idea for addressing these issues; stagger Christmas alphabetically. All families with surnames beginning with A or B would have Christmas on 25th January, C & D on 25th February and so on. Every year it cycles forward one month so we all get a shot at a spring / summer / autumn / winter Christmas. You read it here first!

Anyway, on to business...

One of the most enjoyable recording sessions of the year was with Richard Armstrong at the Spa Valley Railway back in August. The weather was absolutely superb and the Kent countryside magical. Add in the Thumper and 26038 and what more could you want? (drink! girls! etc). The Thumper was excellent; lovely rolling idle, honking horns, great turbo whistle and so on. The 26 presented a problem as far as DCC sound goes; there was an issue with the engine governor that meant the revs at any given notch were not steady and hunted up and down. This will make it difficult if not impossible to use the sounds. I’ve yet to fully assess them but fortunately my existing engine sounds are fine. The horns and all the other auxiliaries will come in handy though. It just goes to show how considerable time and expense can come to nought – something the chip buying public doesn’t always appreciate. The photo shows yours truly tieing one of the mics on at the start of the day.

You can see more of what we got up to here;

October saw another trip oop-North with Richard again, at the East Lancs to record 40145 & the Hymek. I’ve yet to make a start on the Hymek but the 40 has provided the exhauster sounds the project was previously missing. In the fullness of time I’ll process the 40’s engine sounds to provide an alternative to the existing project (recorded from 40135, also at the ELR).

The final recording session on 2014 was a significant departure from the norm; my first full main line recording. I previously made recordings of a 350 from the cab window with the help of London Midland, in order to capture the tone change that you hear at around 25mph, but this was something much more advanced; at the invitation of Hastings Diesels Limited, Charlie and I travelled on board the Christmas trip of said unit from Hasting to Kensington Olympia and back.

Needless to say you cannot cable-tie a mic to the handrail or out of the window here. Quite some time was spent working out how we were going to put a mic near the exhaust in a safe and indeed fail-safe manner. The extremely remote possibility that you might somehow cause the trip to be delayed or cancelled if something went wrong certainly focusses the mind. I’m pleased to say that everything went exactly to plan and we got the recordings we wanted. There’s no video yet, but the chip itself is ready for those wishing to partake.

One happy consequence of the Hastings trip was that I now have recordings of an authentic Southern Region whistle (two actually), so this feature has now been added to the Thumper and the generic SR EMU project that I did for Charlie (but don’t admit to). Answers on a postcard - what else carried them?

One amusing anecdote from the trip was the ‘tourist information’ given by the ageing Italian waiter at breakfast, who offered to tell us where we could get ‘cheap sex’ in the town and get the hotel porter to turn a blind eye! Perhaps Charlie and I fitted the profile... (Before you ask, we didn’t!)

In other news the 37/4 has recently been upgraded with the addition of RETB token exchange sounds. These are set to a level as if heard through an open cab window, so they are subtle but clearly audible. You can repeatedly request the token, and ‘grant’ it when you are ready. This feature will be added to the 67, 156 and other classes that have worked on the West Highland & Cambrian lines as time permits (suggestions on a postcard please).

The Scottish theme continues with the addition of user-configurable Scotrail on-board announcements (to the 156 initially);

Welcome aboard this First Scotrail service to <destination>, please familiarise yourself etc, where the <destination> can be chosen from a list of 17 different ones by changing a single CV. Destinations include all the popular terminii and larger stations served by DMU’s in Scotland (Aberdeen, Ayr, Dundee, East Kilbride etc). This feature will be added to the 150 and 158 as time permits.

A similar feature with all the popular Scotrail EMU destinations is also in preparation (Ardrossan, Ayr, Balloch etc), to be applied to the 303 & 320 chips, and similarly configurable Welsh announcements are in preparation for the Arriva Trains Wales 143 (thanks driver for those – you know who you are).

Work is continuing on the Ruston 37/9 engine sounds which are approximately half-finished and sounding very good chugging round the layout. Time is currently being spent between this and bringing the long-lost sounds of a train back from the dead...

Latest attraction on Charlie’s stand is the mighty Heljan 40 with sound to match. The model has a large void in the centre of the casting which I’ve used as the speaker enclosure, closed off with a thick plasticard lid at the top and a single large speaker facing down at the bottom. Whistle while you work.

See you all at Stafford , Donny and Glasgow! If things go to plan I’ll be recording again while we’re in Scotland...