Wright writes.....

[Tony Wright]

2 hours ago, Clive Mortimore said:

There are a lot of people who enjoy sound fitted locos. I hope they continue to do but it isn't for me. I actually like the sound that my toy trains model locomotives make because that is what they are. The noises coming from them can indicate if they are in need of some attention. Also I like to hear the sound the wheels make on the track as the trains whizz around the railway room.

 

We all have our own thoughts on what makes a fun operating session.

 

 

I'm with you here, Clive,

 

I've yet to be convinced of any steam-sound effect, and from what I've encountered on diesel-depot layouts throbbing away throughout a show (especially when I'm sitting next to them), no thank you. 

 

Like you, I enjoy the natural mechanical sound my own models make as they run by. The locos don't emit steam or smoke (even less-convincing than sound in model form in my opinion), but the clickety-clack of the wheels on the rail joints is very satisfying. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[RLBH]

52 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

I was quite impressed with the sound, Al,

 

However, two things stood out as being incongruous in the scene. One, the incorrect lamp code (stopping passenger train), and, two, assuming it's a branch line terminus, why would a full coal wagon be departing? Picky, I know, but with such a high standard of modelling...............

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

Wrong type of coal shipped by a clerical error somewhere along the chain? Or a siding further along the branch that can only be shunted from the Up direction, which seems more likely.

[gwrrob]

A very good balanced and informative review of the new Hornby GWR suburban stock in this month's BRM Mr Wright. Excellent indeed.

[Re6/6]

The only well executed 'sound' on a layout that I've ever encountered was a few years ago before DCC sound became available was on a North Wales P4 blue diesel layout that had Class 37 sound which followed the train from underneath in what must have been bass speakers placed at intervals. Thoroughly realistic with the bass quietly rumbling following the train as it progressed.

 

So much more effective than, dare I say. 'tinny' sound. Never heard such a thing again.

[Theakerr]

I am not into sound preferring my imagination, but i have heard the Rolling Thunder sound system and its not bad.  I also came across an ad for a system that moves with the loco but cannot find it.  Then there is the system that Ken Patterson demonstrated a few years ago where there is a speaker in a number of box cars that give the rail clicking as the cars move along.

 

www.broadway-limited.com/rollingthunder.aspx

[Clive Mortimore]

3 hours ago, Re6/6 said:

The only well executed 'sound' on a layout that I've ever encountered was a few years ago before DCC sound became available was on a North Wales P4 blue diesel layout that had Class 37 sound which followed the train from underneath in what must have been bass speakers placed at intervals. Thoroughly realistic with the bass quietly rumbling following the train as it progressed.

 

So much more effective than, dare I say. 'tinny' sound. Never heard such a thing again.

Was it the Barrowmore group's Mostyn? I saw it a couple of times with a sound system that was under the baseboards. I think was at a show in Woking or Aldershot where Charlie from DC kits was getting a little tired of it. He now sells sound chips. 

 

I too experimented with under baseboard sound with my depot layout Hanging Hill. I would get complaints from traders over the other side of the hall where the bass tone had travelled. Sadly on board sound does not have that bass. 

[thegreenhowards]

11 minutes ago, Clive Mortimore said:

Sadly on board sound does not have that bass. 

Wait for the Accurascale Deltic. I have high hopes!

[timbowilts]

Mr Wright, Sir,

I’ve just read your piece in the June RM. What’s with this phrase you used “in retirement”? Don’t see much evidence of you slowing down?

Tim T

[Tony Wright]

46 minutes ago, timbowilts said:

Mr Wright, Sir,

I’ve just read your piece in the June RM. What’s with this phrase you used “in retirement”? Don’t see much evidence of you slowing down?

Tim T

Thanks Tim,

 

I'm making up for lost time - about two years out of doing things in this great hobby some little time ago because of mental illness. 

 

Speaking with Steve Flint the other day, it would appear nobody has taken offence at what I've just written in the RM. Perhaps that's what my 'retirement' means.

 

Anyway, I need the money. Returning at dusk from Stamford last evening, some bl**dy little munchjack deer decided it wanted exactly the same bit of road as me. The result - probably its death and my car needing £1,300.00 to fix it. New radiator, new air conditioning unit, new bumper, new trim, some expensive engine-management system wrecked and all by a small deer! I hate killing things (though the species is not indigenous) and they're rather attractive little creatures. What can one do, though? Yes, I'm surrounded by lanes, but they're good roads - good enough to travel with ease at 50 mph. Negotiate a curve, and a couple of them are in the road. Brake, congratulate myself on avoiding them, and another just bolts out from the hedgerow, right in front of the car! 

 

The perils of country living I suppose.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

Edited May 17, 2019 by Tony Wright
to clarify a point

[Chamby]

1 hour ago, Tony Wright said:

.... Returning at dusk from Stamford last evening, some bl**dy little munchjack deer decided it wanted exactly the same bit of road as me. The result - probably its death and my car needing £1,300.00 to fix it.....

 

The perils of country living I suppose.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

Thats not nice, Tony, I feel for you.  I had the same thing with a red deer a few years ago, just stepped out of a hedgerow straight in front of me, shortly after dark.  There’s nothing you can do in that situation.  Made a mess of itself and my car, which was only four months old.  Fortunately about ten minutes later a guy turned up with a shotgun and put it out of its misery.  I found out later he was a professional deerstalker... what an odd “co-incidence” that he was there so quickly....  The police said I was lucky that the deer didn’t get thrown through the windscreen, apparently that sometimes happens.

 

I’ve travelled the same bit of road many times since and always remember it, but haven’t seen another deer there since.  I do slow down there still, though.

 

Do you have any wildlife on LB?  Maybe you could have a deer lurking somewhere in the hedgerows!

[St Enodoc]

9 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

I'm with you here, Clive,

 

I've yet to be convinced of any steam-sound effect, and from what I've encountered on diesel-depot layouts throbbing away throughout a show (especially when I'm sitting next to them), no thank you. 

 

Like you, I enjoy the natural mechanical sound my own models make as they run by. The locos don't emit steam or smoke (even less-convincing than sound in model form in my opinion), but the clickety-clack of the wheels on the rail joints is very satisfying. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

The only loco sound that I might consider using is the whistle, so that when shunting the driver can give a "pop" to the bobby when he is clear of the points, then another as he starts to move. Fixed speakers would probably work for this - perhaps one at each end of the station.

[Tony Wright]

6 hours ago, Chamby said:

 

Thats not nice, Tony, I feel for you.  I had the same thing with a red deer a few years ago, just stepped out of a hedgerow straight in front of me, shortly after dark.  There’s nothing you can do in that situation.  Made a mess of itself and my car, which was only four months old.  Fortunately about ten minutes later a guy turned up with a shotgun and put it out of its misery.  I found out later he was a professional deerstalker... what an odd “co-incidence” that he was there so quickly....  The police said I was lucky that the deer didn’t get thrown through the windscreen, apparently that sometimes happens.

 

I’ve travelled the same bit of road many times since and always remember it, but haven’t seen another deer there since.  I do slow down there still, though.

 

Do you have any wildlife on LB?  Maybe you could have a deer lurking somewhere in the hedgerows!

Thanks Phil,

 

I don't actually have any wildlife on LB. There are very few figures (typically) and a dog, and that's about it. 

 

Up to the real thing being completely fenced off a few years ago, various species of deer used the old MR/M&GNR formation as a deer highway, dropping down on both sides to cross the ECML. Occasionally, one or two would end up as 'road kill' (railwaymen call tracks the 'road'), though I doubt if they caused damage to trains. Anything killed on the railway is rapidly recycled by the numerous red kites in the area.

 

Perhaps I should install splattered wood pigeons on the fronts of some of my locos. It's usual, whenever I pick up friends from Grantham Station, to see the remains of these rather dim birds (and pheasants) on the front of a 91 or HST. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[Re6/6]

11 hours ago, Clive Mortimore said:

Was it the Barrowmore group's Mostyn? I saw it a couple of times with a sound system that was under the baseboards. I think was at a show in Woking or Aldershot where Charlie from DC kits was getting a little tired of it. He now sells sound chips. 

 

I too experimented with under baseboard sound with my depot layout Hanging Hill. I would get complaints from traders over the other side of the hall where the bass tone had travelled. Sadly on board sound does not have that bass. 

No it wasn't Mostyn. I think that it was called Amlwch.

[Dr Al]

14 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

 

Anyway, I need the money. Returning at dusk from Stamford last evening, some bl**dy little munchjack deer decided it wanted exactly the same bit of road as me. The result - probably its death and my car needing £1,300.00 to fix it.

 

Hope you are fine. The car will fix - I know your feeling on it (IIRC you have the same car as I do).

 

Worse though, you may not have heard, but on Facebook it's been reported that the Stamford show is cancelled as it was broken into overnight by some 15 year old scum, and all layouts and traders stands have been vandalised/destroyed. It sounds like this is true as traders (Trains4U) as well as individuals were posting reports of it there.

 

Comes back to your post a little back on the state of society. Only model trains, but the time, effort lost is heartbreaking.

 

Best wishes,

Alan

[Dr Al]

Thread here:

 

Cheers,
Alan

[DougN]

Well Tony here in Australia any time out in the country (ok we have rather a large amount of it) all drivers need to be aware of the wild life. Never hit a kangaroo or a wombat these will write off cars very happily. Some say Aussies are pretty tough but the kangaroos are so tough they don't even rust! The kangaroo will roll up the bonnet then through the windscreen and kick the proverbial out of the occupants! Then die. 

 

Wombats on the other hand are like hitting a large rock at 100km/hr this will wipe out the front end of practically any vehicle. Therefore the animals are killed out right normally but a large number of drivers and passengers also injured and killed. 

 

This was all brought home home to me when I was driving to then BRMA convention last year to see Tony  as there was so much road kill on the main free way between Melbourne and Sydney. This I see about 870Kms between the 2 state capitals. All the way through Victoria the road is protected by wire rope barriers but ever few hundred meters from Seymour to Albury there was road kill caught in the wire barriers or off to the side of the roads. On the NSW side of the border it was the same or slightly more.

 

i have to agree with Tony that it I see never nice to kill any animals. There is a rule here if you do hit any of our native animals the driver has to check the pouches for young. I have no idea what to do if you do find a joey but there are a number of native animal carers details along the road. So I guess you ring and possibly deliver the joey to them. 

[St Enodoc]

21 minutes ago, DougN said:

There is a rule here if you do hit any of our native animals the driver has to check the pouches for young. I have no idea what to do if you do find a joey but there are a number of native animal carers details along the road. So I guess you ring and possibly deliver the joey to them. 

Doug, here in NSW we're supposed to call WIRES (Wildlife Information, Rescue and Education Service) on 1300 094 737 - or the police of course.

[polybear]

1 hour ago, DougN said:

There is a rule here if you do hit any of our native animals the driver has to check the pouches for young.

 

That's when you discover that Skippy (who's now grown up and the size of a barn door) is only stunned, and the guy who's just bounced skip off a set of bullbars is trying to kidnap Junior.  Good luck.....

[PMP]

The wife had a deer strike too a few years back. They both got away with it, however the damage was extraordinarily awkward to repair. New radiator/aircon exchanger, front valances headlight, some wiring and the realisation that some RTR product designers clearly cut their teeth in the Peugeot design studio regarding access to vital fixings and serviceability!

With a partial respray too, my modelling skills played a part in getting it apart, repaired, and back on the road, who’d have thought?

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

15 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

The only loco sound that I might consider using is the whistle, so that when shunting the driver can give a "pop" to the bobby when he is clear of the points, then another as he starts to move. Fixed speakers would probably work for this - perhaps one at each end of the station.

You might only need one speaker, unless the layout is very large. While vision is proverbially 'line of sight', sound is inherently multipath. The result is that we are well accustomed to marrying up sound to the appropriate source object, even if there is some disparity between actual position of the object and apparent position of the sound source.

[Tony Wright]

8 hours ago, Dr Al said:

 

Hope you are fine. The car will fix - I know your feeling on it (IIRC you have the same car as I do).

 

Worse though, you may not have heard, but on Facebook it's been reported that the Stamford show is cancelled as it was broken into overnight by some 15 year old scum, and all layouts and traders stands have been vandalised/destroyed. It sounds like this is true as traders (Trains4U) as well as individuals were posting reports of it there.

 

Comes back to your post a little back on the state of society. Only model trains, but the time, effort lost is heartbreaking.

 

Best wishes,

Alan

Thanks for that, Alan,

 

I heard at the Ely Show about the destruction at Stamford. I'm a member of the Market Deeping Club, and, had the two shows not coincided, I'd have been there. 

 

I can't imagine the grief (and it is grief) felt by those who've had their models destroyed. Those personal models can never be replaced - they represent years of endeavour; years no longer left to those who built them, no matter how good any insurance might be.

 

And for what?

 

Others have said on the thread in question that we shouldn't consider (in our minds?) anything punitive by way of retribution with regard to the perpetrators. Perhaps it's a good job that I keep my thoughts to myself. 

 

I think it's a good idea to have some sort of 'fund' set up via RMweb, and I'll certainly be willing to assist in this. In a practical way as well.

 

Returning to the Ely Show; what a great event, though any 'satisfaction' gained is rather meaningless under the Stamford circumstances. I was able to fix a few things, or at least point folk in the right direction, and Mo and I raised a fair bit for CRUK. May I thank all those with whom I spoke, and those who donated so generously? May I also thank the show's organisers?

 

If you get a call from a chap with a dud N Gauge loco in the next few days, it's probably because of me.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[ArthurK]

23 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

Thanks Tim,

 

I'm making up for lost time - about two years out of doing things in this great hobby some little time ago because of mental illness. 

 

Speaking with Steve Flint the other day, it would appear nobody has taken offence at what I've just written in the RM. Perhaps that's what my 'retirement' means.

 

Anyway, I need the money. Returning at dusk from Stamford last evening, some bl**dy little munchjack deer decided it wanted exactly the same bit of road as me. The result - probably its death and my car needing £1,300.00 to fix it. New radiator, new air conditioning unit, new bumper, new trim, some expensive engine-management system wrecked and all by a small deer! I hate killing things (though the species is not indigenous) and they're rather attractive little creatures. What can one do, though? Yes, I'm surrounded by lanes, but they're good roads - good enough to travel with ease at 50 mph. Negotiate a curve, and a couple of them are in the road. Brake, congratulate myself on avoiding them, and another just bolts out from the hedgerow, right in front of the car! 

 

The perils of country living I suppose.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

Do you mean muntjac?

 

ArthurK

[Tony Wright]

Just now, ArthurK said:

 

Do you mean muntjac?

 

ArthurK

Without doubt, Arthur,

 

I've never seen the animal's name in print before.

 

Many thanks,

 

Tony. 

[Compound2632]

... but I suspect Tony can spell correctly the names of numerous species of South African antelope.

[Tony Wright]

10 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

... but I suspect Tony can spell correctly the names of numerous species of South African antelope.

Thanks Stephen, though I doubt it.

 

The B1 animal names are certainly interesting, and very puzzling. I once wrote some notes regarding these for a magazine and found that several were tautological (GNU and WILDEBEESTE for instance) and others were the same species but with different dialect spellings of their names. I've read somewhere that some don't even exist! 

 

To some of the travelling public, the names must have been incomprehensible. I'd never heard of a sassaby until I saw 61022, at Chester, of all places. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony.