FSB

here's the really good news. Buy a basic Loksound decoder for the recommended retail of £100 and with an esu programmer British sounds are available FREE from esu. Diesels availability have already started. These are not cheap basic sound systems but from recently recorded top quality recordings. Get your programmer and start downloading your sounds now.

I have 3 of these locos - 2 Mainline, 1 Bachman and a fourth which requires a left hand cylinder (anybody got one?) They have all suffered from split chassis problems at times. However careful cleaning and servicing and NEVER pushing the loco manually keeps them going. The Mainline ones with traction tyres are particularly prone to go out of quarter if pushed. The split axle causes them to act like a differential which locos don't have! Clean and reassemble the axle in quarter with a very little superglue in them. It helps a lot. Someone at Bachman servicing gave me that tip. As for dcc and sound, I have successfully fitted decoders in all of them with sound in the Bachman. I never fit speakers in the tender of a loco. I never heard a tender chuff. It is possible but you have to do some modelling and not expect it to work 5 minutes after taking it out of the box. FSB

Have three of these wagons. Only satisfactory product I have come across but does need a heavy diesel to pull round. I have Bachmann 37 and 47 locos kept just for this both with sound which enables me to get diesel noise on my essentially steam layout. My steam locos will not pull these wagons. Have successfully cleaned the pads with ipa on a cotton bud. Have regular cleaning sessions using both locos while the third wagon is being cleaned. FSB

You say your sound system is from DC Kits but whose sound system is loaded? South West Digital's system will not chuff to a halt and will coast when the throttle is turned back.

Many GW locos sound very similar. For that reason South West Digital group their GW sounds. So their group 1 sound is very appropriate for most pannier tanks and other small GW locos. Various varieties of pannier tanks (and others) will sound slightly different. Also two or more locos of the same class will sound different to each other. This is the nature of the steam loco. Try using different speakers and maybe in different positions - that will give subtley different versions of what is essentially the same sound. I have done this in both 7mm and 4mm panniers.

That's an interesting thought but I think it unlikely that the steam heat would be used in summer. FSB

P.S. Further to my posting yesterday, I have made SWD aware that I have mentioned them on this site. They're OK with that and suggest that anyone interested in finding out how their systems work, you should visit their stand at Telford or Warley where advice will gladly be given. FSB

Have a Kernow Bulleid diesel loco 10203. I read that they originally had a chime whistle. This presumably would have been air operated, so does anyone know or have reference to how this sounded. I did see these locos as a kid but do not remember their horns. We know that some steam locos had chime whistles particularly the A4 and Britannia for instance but they both sounded very different to each other. A whistle driven by air would sound much less vibrant, I would guess. I originally thought they would be similar to the air whistle as on the Thumper DMU. Does antone know? FSB

This is a topic which South West Digital have been addressing for the past two or three years. The ESU decoder, in the right hands, is capable of producing the right sounds at the right time, hence they market their sounds as YouDrive. With their systems it is possible to imagine you are indeed driving your steam locos. They are created by someone who knows the decoder intimately and has the support of someone who knows how to drive a steam loco and what should typically happen and when. Guidance notes are given with each system but improves with practice and familiarity. Many sound systems are videoed on YouTube and frankly many are substantially flawed, usually by ignorance of the prototype and sometimes, amazingly, by the attitude 'that it doesn't matter'! You spend quite a lot of money on currently available r-t-r locos so why put up with a poor and often inaccurate sound system? FSB

I had the opportunity of hearing (just) a sound fitted Minerva pannier recently and was totally unimpressed. Absolutely no-one comes near the latest system from South West Digital. Furthermore, having fitted a sound system to one of my Minerva panniers (bloody good model) the instruction to fit a speaker just below the chimney is not very helpful. Tried various speakers in this way and have come to the conclusion that the sealed accoustic nature of the loco body does not allow the sound to escape as you would like. It is muted to say the least. Now have two sugar cubes wired in parallel fitted at each end of the outside of the chassis and this works well. The nature of the chassis design means you don't really see them unless you go looking. But I stress ONLY the SWD system is like the real thing - no-one else gets anywhere near it. FSB

Try reblowing with a SWD UDrive 8F - you won't be disappointed. FSB

Am building a fairly large 4mm scale layout and intend using servos to drive my points. Have done quite a bit of research and, of course, servos are very much cheaper than anything else. Have finally settled on MegaPoints equipment - look up loolee.org and you will find a very useful load of advice. Moreover Dave at Mega is usually available on the phone and is very helpful. He is a Super Geek but he does know what he is talking about. Have been using Frog Juicers for a long time in 7mm scale with complete success. They are more reliable than the switches on Tortoise motors where the copper on the switches eventually wears away. Hope someone finds this helpful. FSB