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Cheap sound effects?


hartleymartin

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Watch this video. I didn't know that Hornby did this with the B12 (I've never owned a B12).

 

They have a little attachment to one axle of the tender which rubs against what I surmise must be sandpaper to provide a "chuff" sound effect. If there were two on the axle, it would be closer to the proper chuff rate of a real locomotive.

 

I'm wondering if anyone has ever tried to build a locomotive with this? Assuming that the tender wheel is about half the diameter of the driving wheel and you put two such fittings on the axle, you'd get the right chuff rate. Theoretically, one could attach a 4-pronged fitting like this to a driving axle on an O gauge locomotive and get the right effect.

 

CHUFF on DC power!

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Watch this video. I didn't know that Hornby did this with the B12 (I've never owned a B12).

 

They have a little attachment to one axle of the tender which rubs against what I surmise must be sandpaper to provide a "chuff" sound effect. If there were two on the axle, it would be closer to the proper chuff rate of a real locomotive.

 

I'm wondering if anyone has ever tried to build a locomotive with this? Assuming that the tender wheel is about half the diameter of the driving wheel and you put two such fittings on the axle, you'd get the right chuff rate. Theoretically, one could attach a 4-pronged fitting like this to a driving axle on an O gauge locomotive and get the right effect.

 

CHUFF on DC power!

 

When I was a kid, my dad used to fasten a folded fag packet to the frame of my bike with a clothes peg, so that it rubbed against the spokes on the wheel making it sound like a motor bike when moving.

 

It was as close to a motorbike as Hornby's 'sandpaper chuffs' are to real locomotive sounds.

 

There are better ways to get chuffs on DC.

 

Kind regards,

 

Paul

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Watch this video. I didn't know that Hornby did this with the B12 (I've never owned a B12).

 

They have a little attachment to one axle of the tender which rubs against what I surmise must be sandpaper to provide a "chuff" sound effect. If there were two on the axle, it would be closer to the proper chuff rate of a real locomotive.

 

I'm wondering if anyone has ever tried to build a locomotive with this? Assuming that the tender wheel is about half the diameter of the driving wheel and you put two such fittings on the axle, you'd get the right chuff rate. Theoretically, one could attach a 4-pronged fitting like this to a driving axle on an O gauge locomotive and get the right effect.

 

CHUFF on DC power!

My best friend George Brown - no not that George Brown - received a Triang-Hornby Albert Hall with a chuffing sound for Christmas in the late 1960s. It was rubbish then and is still rubbish today. I am therefore unable to endorse the correspondent's enthusiasm for this product.

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All sound fitted locomotives need your imagination to make the sound appear realistic to you. Just the same as riding the pushbike with the card in the spokes. There is an interesting area of experimentation/play in extending the simple mechanical system, as Martin mentioned, so that it perhaps better stimulates your imagination. 'Scratch' building, if you like.

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All sound fitted locomotives need your imagination to make the sound appear realistic to you. Just the same as riding the pushbike with the card in the spokes. There is an interesting area of experimentation/play in extending the simple mechanical system, as Martin mentioned, so that it perhaps better stimulates your imagination. 'Scratch' building, if you like.

 

Some more than others.

 

For some, the term  'Scratch' couldn't be more apt. Lol.

 

I meant to add to my earlier post that, as a child, I loved it.

 

Then, every boy in the street copied the idea and I needed something better to stand out.

 

The first improvement I came up with was to use two packets, one on each wheel which turned my bike from a Bantam to a 200cc Royal Enfield. Unfortunately, an unanticipated side effect came violently to me one day when the front wheel jammed and I somersaulted to a very painful appointment with a concrete road. What you could accurately call 'a steep learning curve'

 

That's how development works, I suppose.

 

It doesn't do any harm to investigate former ways of doing things, if only as a measure of progress.

 

 

Kind regards,

 

Paul

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While nostalgia is on the table, I'm surprised that no-one has innovated on the old Tri-ang Synchrosmoke concept. Surely the final frontier is decent quality synchonized chuff on smoke generation... 

 

We already have.

 

All ZIMO sound decoders can sync motion, sound and 'puffs' as standard. The problem is that the necessary fan assisted (to get the 'puffs') smoke generators are difficult to fit in 00 gauge (but not impossible for some models).

 

In 0 gauge it's rather more convenient, and also easier to fit sync detection to ensure absolute sync at any speed.

 

Kind regards,

 

Paul

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Some more than others.

 

For some, the term  'Scratch' couldn't be more apt. Lol.

 

I meant to add to my earlier post that, as a child, I loved it.

 

Then, every boy in the street copied the idea and I needed something better to stand out.

 

The first improvement I came up with was to use two packets, one on each wheel which turned my bike from a Bantam to a 200cc Royal Enfield. Unfortunately, an unanticipated side effect came violently to me one day when the front wheel jammed and I somersaulted to a very painful appointment with a concrete road. What you could accurately call 'a steep learning curve'

 

That's how development works, I suppose.

 

It doesn't do any harm to investigate former ways of doing things, if only as a measure of progress.

 

 

Kind regards,

 

Paul

Do you remember those little coloured pastic tubes that were fitted to the spokes and made a clicking noise as the wheel rotated? I thought they were a bit girlie.

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Nowt wrong with plastic clicky things on your spokes, I had some out of a Rice Krispies packet on my racing bike when I was a kid!

 

Never thought that someone could get so enthusiastic about forty year old Hornby mouldings. As for the noise.... It's things like this that put me off sound in model locos for so long!!

 

Cheers,

Andrew

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I obviously had a more decadent childhood than I realised... playing cards clipped to the front wheel spokes with clothes pegs- not sure how many "cylinders" we got up to! I had an Albert Hall too (still do, somewhere, although it's not my original one!), no coconuts though (and no sister either, when it comes to it).

 

As I recall, the Albert Hall "chuff" was somewhat underwhelming even then.

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Fisher Price had the drop on Hornby.  Let me introduce you to Snoopy.

 

Snoopy predates the Triang B12 by some years, being introduced in 1940.  Sound is effected by a simple spring leaf operating against a wooden ratchet cam on the front axle.

Snoopy is missing his spring tail - must get him into the shop for a General.

 

post-17823-0-55404200-1423164813.jpg

 

post-17823-0-87983800-1423164819.jpg

 

Not much in this world is new!

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Do you remember those little coloured pastic tubes that were fitted to the spokes and made a clicking noise as the wheel rotated? I thought they were a bit girlie.

 

Spokey Dokey's!!

 

Yes, they were naff...

 

As for the B12, one story I heard was Hornby sent one to China and said 'copy that', so they did, right down to the 60s sound effect.

 

And the video? oh dear...

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