Henley-on-Thames - GWR in the 1930's

[Andy Keane]

25 minutes ago, Gopher said:

Andy - I think Neal dis-connected the smokebox speaker, so only using the Youchoos 4ohm

 

Clive 

Interesting. I think Phil @Harlequin left his connected and got to 4 ohms in total. I wonder if having both is worthwhile. I assume the inbuilt decoder is happy at 4 ohms but I guess it invalidates the warranty.

[Harlequin]

1 hour ago, Andy Keane said:

Interesting. I think Phil @Harlequin left his connected and got to 4 ohms in total. I wonder if having both is worthwhile. I assume the inbuilt decoder is happy at 4 ohms but I guess it invalidates the warranty.

I think it would be worthwhile if the speaker in the smokebox was also upgraded to something with a bigger sealed enclosure.

 

BTW @Neal Ball, giving the sound a clear path out is as much about the sound quality as the volume. The little plastic box of the tender does something to the sound.

 

What really lets my Manor upgrade down is the sound project. Instead of barking it wheezes... When the Accurascale project is pushed through a decent speaker, as Neal has done, it does sound better.

 

Edited April 21 by Harlequin

[Andy Keane]

9 minutes ago, Harlequin said:

is the sound project

Is this a YouChoos set of recordings you are using?

[Neal Ball]

Evening all, thank you for the comments - we’ve been in Benidorm for the day! It’s very Marmite, but if you stick to the old town then it’s very good.

 

A return coach trip for €12 each isn’t too bad and we met up with some friends from the UK. ( it’s 1 1/2 hours drive from here or 2 hours by coach ) bargain at €12?

 

To answer your questions and comments as below:

 

11 hours ago, Andy Keane said:

If you get stuck I will cut a bit of mine off my stock and stick it in an envelope!

 

Thanks Andy, I will try the tat shops here and see how I get on. (Our Chinese tat shops sell everything)

 

8 hours ago, Gopher said:

Thanks for posting this Neal.  I think there is a huge improvement in sound volume and quality.  I think I'll have to do the same.  I did replace the tender speaker with a larger flat speaker (so no surgery required, apart from removing the factory fitted speaker).  The sound was only marginally improved IMHO.  Can I ask did you remove the loco body to disconnect the smokebox speaker ?

 

It is a lovely loco  but definitely let down by the low volume on the sound project (for those of us who are fans of DCC  sound).  I wonder if Accurascale will re-engineer this to fit a bigger speaker in the tender in future releases ?  I guess not if the sound fitted versions are selling well despite the volume issue  

 

Thanks

 

Clive

 

Thanks Clive, I looked at removing the loco body, but decided against. I merely snipped the cables in the tender marked LS. 
 

You would hope that Accurascale do a louder sound, perhaps @McC could advise,
 

6 hours ago, Harlequin said:

Accurascale are very aware of the sound volume/quality issue from the feedback they got when the Manor was first released so we can hope that they will make changes.

 

(I think the people who are happy with the factory sound have probably never hear a good steam sound project before...)

 

I did a similar upgrade but I removed the circuit board entirely so I have more room for a speaker. It's documented somewhere on here. Found it:

 

Yes the loco is lovely and yes the factory fitted sound is underwhelming.

 

5 hours ago, MAP66 said:

Nice work Neal, I will soon be tackling something not too dissimilar when I attempt to install a sound decoder, speaker and stay alive into the tender of a Bachmann Fowler 7F. Having never tackled anything like this before it was timely to see your efforts have paid off and it was good to hear the sound on the video.

Thanks for this, good luck with the 7F.

 

3 hours ago, Andy Keane said:

Neal

have you wired this in series or parallel with the smokebox speaker? I am wondering about the total impedance the sound chip is driving.

Andy

Both of the original speakers have been removed (tender) and isolated (smokebox).

 

I should add that wiring in this way has invalidated the Accurascale warranty 🙁🙁

 

2 hours ago, Gopher said:

Andy - I think Neal dis-connected the smokebox speaker, so only using the Youchoos 4ohm

 

Clive 

Agreed.

1 hour ago, Andy Keane said:

Interesting. I think Phil @Harlequin left his connected and got to 4 ohms in total. I wonder if having both is worthwhile. I assume the inbuilt decoder is happy at 4 ohms but I guess it invalidates the warranty.

The size of speaker I chose, didn’t allow that to be an option. I pushed it for size and sound!

 

1 hour ago, Harlequin said:

I think it would be worthwhile if the speaker in the smokebox was also upgraded to something with a bigger sealed enclosure.

 

BTW @Neal Ball, giving the sound a clear path out is as much about the sound quality as the volume. The little plastic box of the tender does something to the sound.

 

What really lets my Manor upgrade down is the sound project. Instead of barking it wheezes... When the Accurascale project is pushed through a decent speaker, as Neal has done, it does sound better.

 

I’m very happy with the sound project now, it’s made a big difference.

 

54 minutes ago, Andy Keane said:

Is this a YouChoos set of recordings you are using?

No, I’m using the Accurascale sound project,

 

Hope that Helps guys.

 

Note my comment earlier guys; by doing this change it has invalidated the Accurascale warranty. 🙁 let’s hope Accurascale upgrade the sound project to be louder on the next batch of Manors.

 

Plus of course any future steam loco must be LOUDER 😎

[Andy Keane]

I think I will get one of the Zimo Dumbo 8 ohm speakers and use that on my Manor, which has the accurascale sound project so getting the best of both  worlds. It should allow the smoke box speaker to be used alongside the dumbo.

[Neal Ball]

1 hour ago, Andy Keane said:

I think I will get one of the Zimo Dumbo 8 ohm speakers and use that on my Manor, which has the accurascale sound project so getting the best of both  worlds. It should allow the smoke box speaker to be used alongside the dumbo.

Good luck Andy, let us know how you get on.

 

As ever with something like this, I relied on the advice from John at Youchoos to determine the maximum I could do.

 

Regards, Neal.

[Harlequin]

2 hours ago, Andy Keane said:

Is this a YouChoos set of recordings you are using?

Yes.

[Neal Ball]

Manor news!

 

 

My Manor loco has had its coal load applied - it is still just as loud 😎 and I have used a little bit of weathering powder to try and reduce the shine form the LED lights.

Seen here with the e153 Composite Brake 3rd

[Neal Ball]

At the same time, the a23 Clerestory is being glazed.

 

 

The carriage is seen drying - At the same time I test fitted a door handle and grab handle.

[Neal Ball]

Today has seen the final bits of glazing added to the clerestory carriage, hopefully tomorrow I can turn my attention to the door furniture etc.

 

While that was drying, I went back to the County tank. Today's jobs were the weight and sorting out the pick-ups, whereupon it ran very nicely. The rear pony truck needs springing I think - it hangs too much! I've added a pick-up to it as well, but at the moment its hindering the wheel rotation - more fettling needed.

 

Anyway, a couple of quick iPhone photos:

 

 

 

[Andy Keane]

6 minutes ago, Neal Ball said:

Today has seen the final bits of glazing added to the clerestory carriage, hopefully tomorrow I can turn my attention to the door furniture etc.

 

While that was drying, I went back to the County tank. Today's jobs were the weight and sorting out the pick-ups, whereupon it ran very nicely. The rear pony truck needs springing I think - it hangs too much! I've added a pick-up to it as well, but at the moment its hindering the wheel rotation - more fettling needed.

 

Anyway, a couple of quick iPhone photos:

 

 

 

That's a lovely model Neal. I suppose they ran into Henley back in the day?

[Neal Ball]

7 minutes ago, Andy Keane said:

That's a lovely model Neal. I suppose they ran into Henley back in the day?

 

Thanks Andy.

 

No 2237 was a Reading based engine until about 1934 when it was sent for scrap. There are a couple of photos of County tanks at Henley-on-Thames on local services.

 

Strangely I have not found any photos of the County 4-4-0 locos at Henley, but I suppose the County tank, together with Pannier tanks might have been sufficient in the 1920's and early 1930's until the 61xx were introduced. At the same time you started to see Hall class 4-6-0 locos as well.

 

Thanks again,

[Neal Ball]

A very momentous day today!

 

My County tank 4-4-2T brought its first train into Henley-on-Thames today. Given at one point, it struggled to pull its own weight, I am very pleased to get this far!

 

Work this morning included adjusting the rear of the loco which had settled at 2mm too low, then adding a Kadee coupling box onto the rear post truck. Whereupon it could bring three carriages into platform 2.

 

Needless to say, I am very pleased with the progress.

 

 

I now need to reinstall the stay-alive, which I removed a while ago as it was so bulky when I was taking the loco body off etc. Then fit some crew and coal.

 

Probably the last job will be some springing on that rear Pony truck.

[MAP66]

Superb work Neal, it's all about the fettling as I am beginning to find out.

Can I ask where you source your coal from, is it real coal crushed up or do you use one of the so called realistic scatter types, as I have never found anything of the right size and realistic as yet.

[Neal Ball]

1 hour ago, MAP66 said:

Superb work Neal, it's all about the fettling as I am beginning to find out.

Can I ask where you source your coal from, is it real coal crushed up or do you use one of the so called realistic scatter types, as I have never found anything of the right size and realistic as yet.

Thanks, fettling seems to be an on-going project which is why the loco was sidelined for a bit.

 

The coal is mainly geoscenics which I bought as a coal load bundle years ago at Warley. Locos and wagons get the same coal now.

[Neal Ball]

Quick update! The loco has just brought 6 carriages effortlessly into Henley-on-Thames 😎

[Nick Gough]

4 hours ago, Neal Ball said:

A very momentous day today!

 

My County tank 4-4-2T brought its first train into Henley-on-Thames today. Given at one point, it struggled to pull its own weight, I am very pleased to get this far!

 

Work this morning included adjusting the rear of the loco which had settled at 2mm too low, then adding a Kadee coupling box onto the rear post truck. Whereupon it could bring three carriages into platform 2.

 

Needless to say, I am very pleased with the progress.

 

 

I now need to reinstall the stay-alive, which I removed a while ago as it was so bulky when I was taking the loco body off etc. Then fit some crew and coal.

 

Probably the last job will be some springing on that rear Pony truck.

Looks good and perfectly at home at Henley.

[Neal Ball]

1 hour ago, Nick Gough said:

Looks good and perfectly at home at Henley.

Thanks Nick - I’m very pleased with it - it’s taken a lot to get here!

[MrWolf]

Great job Neal and something different from all those prairie tank variants.

 

If and when I can get back to The Bench of Bodge I have a 2-4-2T in the pipeline and seeing your County up and running is making me more determined to see it through.

[Neal Ball]

2 hours ago, MrWolf said:

Great job Neal and something different from all those prairie tank variants.

 

If and when I can get back to The Bench of Bodge I have a 2-4-2T in the pipeline and seeing your County up and running is making me more determined to see it through.

Thanks Rob. Probably the hardest part is getting enough weight into the loco. If your 2-4-2T is a normal white metal kit then you will be fine.

 

It looks as if the leading bogie needs more weight adding to it, so that’s going to be a plasticard box made up with lead shot added. The idea being to stop the leading wheel riding up on the double slips!

[Neal Ball]

On the day that 6880 Betton Grange was launched to its supporters, I finished off the C23 Clerestory all 3rd carriage..

 

Thanks to Tony @brumtb for both this carriage and the body kit for the County tank.

 

 

All the door furniture is now on and we even have some passengers gazing out of the windows.

 

Essentially at this point in their life, this would have been a strengthening carriage to add extra 3rd class seats. With 10 compartments at (say) 4 across - this carriage would have 80 extra passengers. I'm sure on busy Regatta days, it would have been standing room only - so we could easily be talking about 150... 5 across, plus 5 standing...  probably more.

[Neal Ball]

It was only right that my Grange loco was hauling todays train of two sunshine carriages and the C23 clerestory carriage.

 

 

My Manor class loco was waiting to take over and take the carriages away from Henley-on-Thames.

 

[Neal Ball]

Some more photos from yesterdays running session:

 

Anthony Manor seen approaching Henley-on-Thames with the c23 clerestory 3rd carriage:

 

 

Plus two photos of Grange class 4-6-0 6860 on the approaches to Henley-on-Thames. I couldn't decide which one I prefer:

 

 

 

Both speakers are the same size squeezed into the small Collett tender. I am of the view that the bigger size speaker will offer the better sound.

When I posted the image of the Manor and its new speaker onto Facebook, someone said I should have gone for a slimmer version from Roads and Rails..... interesting thought, it would have been easier to get in, but I still cant get my head round the logic..... Anyway, I am happy with my large Youchoos speaker.

[Harlequin]

3 minutes ago, Neal Ball said:

 

When I posted the image of the Manor and its new speaker onto Facebook, someone said I should have gone for a slimmer version from Roads and Rails..... interesting thought, it would have been easier to get in, but I still cant get my head round the logic..... Anyway, I am happy with my large Youchoos speaker.

That sounds like rubbish to me unless it’s a very special type of speaker.

 

[Neal Ball]

3 minutes ago, Harlequin said:

That sounds like rubbish to me unless it’s a very special type of speaker.

 

 

He showed me a photo and dimensionally it was the same size, but half the height.

 

Of course anything is better than the puny speaker Accurascale supplied.

 

I shrugged my shoulders and put to down to facebook - 🤣

Edited Sunday at 05:06 by Neal Ball