RMweb Premium coronach Posted January 4, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 4, 2015 I have discovered that Transacord has been re-established with the aim of releasing the Peter Handford collection of railway sound recordings from the 1950s. If you are interested, the link is: http://www.transacord.co.uk/ I have purchased three albums (Shap, GW and North of Kings Cross) and they are excellent reproductions. The albums are £3.50 each if you are interested. I have no connection with Transacord but I am a keen enthusiast of Peter Handford's work. Coronach 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonny777 Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 (edited) Thanks very much for that link Coronach. At £3.50 each, they appear to be excellent value. What I would like to hear are unedited recordings of some of the sessions, not just what appeared on the original albums. I would love to hear all the background noises and warts 'n all recordings that were not considered good enough for the original vinyl pressings. There could be some real gems hidden away there, or maybe I am just dreaming? Edited January 4, 2015 by jonny777 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium coronach Posted January 4, 2015 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted January 4, 2015 Thanks very much for that link Coronach. At £3.50 each, they appear to be excellent value. What I would like to hear are unedited recordings of some of the sessions, not just what appeared on the original albums. I would love to hear all the background noises and warts 'n all recordings that were not considered good enough for the original vinyl pressings. There could be some real gems hidden away there, or maybe I am just dreaming? Indeed! I have been in touch with the owners via their website and they are responsive to comments. I am sure they would be keen in peoples interests and find it encouraging. For my part, I really hope the venture is successful otherwise this excellent resource might be hidden away in NRM archives. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonny777 Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 Yes, it is an excellent project, and I will support it as much as I can. I have just downloaded the Great Central album and compared it with the MP3 copy I made of the original vinyl from the 1970s, and there is a noticeable increase in quality; although I can't vouch for the condition of the stylus when I recorded my original. As far as I am concerned, the star track of the Great Central album is the recording of 60831 on a late running newspaper train passing Princes Risborough in an August night in 1959. I have no idea what speed the V2 is doing, but even allowing for the fact that the train may consist of short wheelbase bogie vans and therefore appear to be going faster than it was, it is still racing along and the fact that it can still be heard when a mile or more away in the distance just adds to the wonderful atmosphere of that recording. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium coronach Posted January 4, 2015 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted January 4, 2015 Yes, it is an excellent project, and I will support it as much as I can. I have just downloaded the Great Central album and compared it with the MP3 copy I made of the original vinyl from the 1970s, and there is a noticeable increase in quality; although I can't vouch for the condition of the stylus when I recorded my original. As far as I am concerned, the star track of the Great Central album is the recording of 60831 on a late running newspaper train passing Princes Risborough in an August night in 1959. I have no idea what speed the V2 is doing, but even allowing for the fact that the train may consist of short wheelbase bogie vans and therefore appear to be going faster than it was, it is still racing along and the fact that it can still be heard when a mile or more away in the distance just adds to the wonderful atmosphere of that recording. Yes, I have that on cassette but it has deteriorated so it is unplayable. I remember that one - a late running newspaper train. A V2 is a 3-cylinder loco and so adds to the effect of speed. Your comments about the type of vehicle is interesting. I find it fascinating to work out what type of stock is on each train - 12 wheelers for example, or 57ft stock as opposed to 65ft mk1s. So different to modern sounds Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium New Haven Neil Posted January 4, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 4, 2015 Indeed! I have been in touch with the owners via their website and they are responsive to comments. I am sure they would be keen in peoples interests and find it encouraging. For my part, I really hope the venture is successful otherwise this excellent resource might be hidden away in NRM archives. I downloaded one last month, but was disappointed to have no sleeve notes. I tried twice to contact them via the website to ask if they had them, but got no reply. A shame, as I love these records I have a lot of them on vinyl both EP's and LP's. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonny777 Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 That is strange, you have no sleeve notes because I received jpeg files of both the front and back cover of the original vinyl release with my files. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodenhead Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 Excellent, I used to love listening to the Shap recordings as a child. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raised On Steam Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 About time these were digitised. The Railway To Riccarton is highly recommended, I still have it on vinyl! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bike2steam Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 Mmm, I've got about a dozen Handford vinyls ( EP's & LP's) which I've had for about 50 years, but haven't had a record player for half that time . Steam Powered Video of Canterbury, Kent have been supplying a limited number of Peter Handford recordings, on CD for a few years. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
34theletterbetweenB&D Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 (edited) ...What I would like to hear are unedited recordings of some of the sessions, not just what appeared on the original albums. I would love to hear all the background noises and warts 'n all recordings that were not considered good enough for the original vinyl pressings. There could be some real gems hidden away there, or maybe I am just dreaming? Only possible if the original tapes still exist, rather than the masters edited for cutting/transfer to commercial pre-recorded media, the latter will most likely have been all that was held by Argo and then ASV. Worth asking the NRM what they have, or if they know if the original takes remained with Peter Handford? I can imagine that a very high proportion of what PH taped will have been rejected due to the hundred and one accidents that are bound to occur when recording in an uncontrolled environment. The weather not cooperating, a low flying aircraft or local road traffic noise, signal level overloading, two trains coinciding and masking each other to the extent that it's just an unintelligible racket. Did he just overtape on the spot anything that he felt unsatisfactory? (The recording kit was heavy, tape bulky; he may only have carried enough for relatively few takes, and immediately overtaped anything not up to his high standard.) Whatever, really grand that these are now being reissued, the best of which are as near perfection as one could hope for. Edited January 4, 2015 by 34theletterbetweenB&D Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
coachmann Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 I bought a good number of the LP's when I was much younger and bought Stereo wall speakers well spaced out to obtain the true effect of a trains passing from one side of the room to the other. Railway to Riccarton was a favourite but there were Trains in the Night and too many to mention. They have not been played for nearly 40 years. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium ColinK Posted January 4, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 4, 2015 Many thanks for posting this as I would probably not found out. Agree, Sleeve notes or track listings on the web would be useful Hope they will release the full set of recordings. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mobylette Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 Thanks, Coronach, for this tip-off. I'd been looking for digital versions of the Transacord recordings a couple of years ago, and had heard they might soon appear. Time for a real nostalgia fest, I think. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bike2steam Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 I can imagine that a very high proportion of what PH taped will have been rejected due to the hundred and one accidents that are bound to occur when recording in an uncontrolled environment. The weather not cooperating, a low flying aircraft or local road traffic noise, signal level overloading, two trains coinciding and masking each other to the extent that it's just an unintelligible racket. Did he just overtape on the spot anything that he felt unsatisfactory? (The recording kit was heavy, tape bulky; he may only have carried enough for relatively few takes, and immediately overtaped anything not up to his high standard.) Whatever, really grand that these are now being reissued, the best of which are as near perfection as one could hope for. His recordings on the Lickey had plenty of back ground noises, which I feel made them all the better, bird song, an old motor cycle plodding up the hill, kids playing on a gate nearby, distant drop forge foundry banging away - great. Oh and the ring of worn coupling rods as a LMS 2P coasts down-hill past a freight working up. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium coronach Posted January 5, 2015 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted January 5, 2015 Many thanks for posting this as I would probably not found out. Agree, Sleeve notes or track listings on the web would be useful Hope they will release the full set of recordings. The MP3 downloads come with JPEG images of the front and back LP covers - in the case of Shap and GW, different copies of each release Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium coronach Posted January 5, 2015 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted January 5, 2015 Many thanks for posting this as I would probably not found out. Agree, Sleeve notes or track listings on the web would be useful Hope they will release the full set of recordings. From their correspondence with me, they intend to eventually re-release the lot. They have digitised all of the UK stuff and are starting work on the overseas material. It is clearly not a very profitable venture so apparently further albums will be released as funds allow. 28 have been issued so far, Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonny777 Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 Only possible if the original tapes still exist, rather than the masters edited for cutting/transfer to commercial pre-recorded media, the latter will most likely have been all that was held by Argo and then ASV. Worth asking the NRM what they have, or if they know if the original takes remained with Peter Handford? I can imagine that a very high proportion of what PH taped will have been rejected due to the hundred and one accidents that are bound to occur when recording in an uncontrolled environment. The weather not cooperating, a low flying aircraft or local road traffic noise, signal level overloading, two trains coinciding and masking each other to the extent that it's just an unintelligible racket. Did he just overtape on the spot anything that he felt unsatisfactory? (The recording kit was heavy, tape bulky; he may only have carried enough for relatively few takes, and immediately overtaped anything not up to his high standard.) Whatever, really grand that these are now being reissued, the best of which are as near perfection as one could hope for. The website says this:- "Following the death of Peter Handford the master tapes of his recorded legacy were bequeathed for safe keeping to the National Railway Museum in York where they are now kept in a controlled and conditioned environment, but for a few weeks the tapes were packaged up and taken on a special excursion to the studios of Original Sound in Cornwall to be digitally remastered." I am not sure what they mean by "master tapes". Whether that refers to the tapes produced by Decca or their subsidiaries in the original recordings, or the actual original tapes that Handford recorded on, I don't know. Somewhere buried amongst mounds of dust and spiders I do have his autobiographical account - Sounds of trains and their recording, or something like that. Maybe that gives a clue as to how he worked? I must dig it out, and re-read it for the first time in nearly 40 years. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
34theletterbetweenB&D Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 His recordings on the Lickey had plenty of back ground noises, which I feel made them all the better, bird song, an old motor cycle plodding up the hill, kids playing on a gate nearby, distant drop forge foundry banging away - great.... Those are examples of what you want, adding versimilitude relating to the location without masking the railway's sounds. But it is all too easy for 'something' to intrude to the point that it detracts from the main subject... ...I am not sure what they mean by "master tapes". Whether that refers to the tapes produced by Decca or their subsidiaries in the original recordings, or the actual original tapes that Handford recorded on, I don't know... 'Master tape' has a specific meaning in audio recording. This was the final edited compilation of tracks that will be used to cut records or make transfers onto tape for commercial issue. Those are what I would expect Argo/Decca/ASV to have held for use in the issue of EP and LP, Cassette and CD recordings. Where the same tracks could be compared, the CD transfers produced by ASV are identical in run time and content to the tracks on the LP's that I had available for comparison. I don't know how much processing Harvey Usill's team did at ASV for the CD issues, but suspect it was little to none as there are no audible artefacts of processing like 'pumping' of background tape hiss. All you hear is just what a cracking audio techician could deliver from the available gear. Wind the volume up to 11, and let it wash over you... What was recorded at trackside are equivalent to 'session tapes' in the studio. Did those survive? My suspicion is that most of the 50s and early 60s lineside recordings will have been lost, over-recorded (high grade tape wasn't cheap, and he was spending enough as it was at the time) once the good takes selected for commercial issue had been transferred in the mastering process. Hope I am wrong, but I cannot help feeling that if any original un-issued material existed, some of it would have re-emerged already. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
luke_stevens Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 Their website seems to have been dead for the last week or so. "The site is temporarily off-line for track maintenance. We apologise for any inconvenience caused" Hopefully it will be back up soon and some of the recording are of interest. Luke Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium coronach Posted January 13, 2015 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted January 13, 2015 Their website seems to have been dead for the last week or so. "The site is temporarily off-line for track maintenance. We apologise for any inconvenience caused" Hopefully it will be back up soon and some of the recording are of interest. Luke I reported a problem with their website which made it difficult to download to my PC. I presume they are implementing a fix. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold TheSignalEngineer Posted January 13, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 13, 2015 His recordings on the Lickey had plenty of back ground noises, which I feel made them all the better, bird song, an old motor cycle plodding up the hill, kids playing on a gate nearby, distant drop forge foundry banging away - great. Oh and the ring of worn coupling rods as a LMS 2P coasts down-hill past a freight working up. DCC sound has a long way to go to come anything near the effect of Peter's recordings. IMHO it won't be any good until background sound speakers are fitted within the layout for the general hum, as when you were at the lineside the sound of trains only happened for a very small amount of the time. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
edward66 Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 Some of my favourites are the tracks featuring Super D 0-8-0s with all the wheezing and clanking these locos. produced plus the sound of wagon buffers crashing together. I still have several of the 45rpm records but would love to add to the collection so this revival is very welcome. Edward Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
luke_stevens Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 DCC sound has a long way to go to come anything near the effect of Peter's recordings. IMHO it won't be any good until background sound speakers are fitted within the layout for the general hum, as when you were at the lineside the sound of trains only happened for a very small amount of the time. Easily done! I only have a small shelf layout but have rigged up a couple of active speakers in the pelmet and use some of the tracks from http://www.fantasonics.com/. It's an american company but I suspect lots would be useful to a British modeller. At the Nescot show last year there was an amazing n-gauge layout of Penzance. But it was slient. I had on my phone a sound of a beach with waves, seagulls and the like. I played it just loud enough for me to hear it. It made an amazing layout an even better experience. I got my cd from DCC Supplies. it really makes a difference! Luke 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium coronach Posted January 22, 2015 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted January 22, 2015 Of course, its not only a steam archive: http://6lda.wordpress.com/2015/01/02/this-is-the-sound-this-is-the-sound-of-the-sulzers/ I wonder it they will re-release this one Website still down though :-( Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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