big jim

i think tornado does the draincock thingy too, will have to check on the rolling road later!!

basically if you have the throttle open (as an example speed step 25 on a lenz 100) so its chuffing then shut it back to just rod clank (say speed step 22) and then open it back up by a couple of notches (speed step 23-24) it will give the draincock hiss, if you then open it up futher the draincock sounds shut and the exhaust it will give a deeper "bark" (eg back up to 28) its not a function its built into the program, most howes steam chips do it now or if not bryan is slowly updating his progrmas to include it

continuing with mine and 250BOBs layout chase video range here are the latest offernings from howes, steam, diesel and electric sounds first up the class 45: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GU2Z4hQ8T0I next the 4CEP (shortened to a 2CEP!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZQFOPgVfb0&feature=channel Finally the Robinson O4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5ewYDA0Mwo&feature=channel

here are 3 new chips from HOWES, i've posted them in the product section but thought i'd put them in this thread too as all my other vids are here too: first up is a Robinson 04: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iq7DPvmGJbk functions are as follows: F0 Lights on/off. not applicable on this model F1 Sound on off F2 Long whistle , continues sounding until F2 is pressed again. F3 Short whistle F4 Buffer up F5 Coupling up F6 Injectors F7 Draincocks F8 Safety valves F9 Carriage Door slam F10 Guards Whistle F11 Buffer clashing on wagons. 8 seconds F12 Wheel/sleeper groan F13 Shunt Mode, Half speed F14 Accel Decel override F15 Aux1 The random fireman sound has been mapped to activate Aux 2 within the soundfile, so if a firebox LED is fitted by the user it will flicker when the fireman sound is on Aux 1 is left free for operator use. next up is a 4cep: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avoxSSJwAv4 F0 Lights on off F1 Sound on off F2 Double horn, high low F3 Double horn, low high F4 Single Horn F5 Compressor F6 Guards whistle F7 Flange squeal F8 Carriage door slam 1 F9 Carriage door slam 2 F10 3rd Rail flashover linked to Aux 1 F11 Driver / Guard Buzzer from 3CIG F12 Rail joint noise F13 Running on CWR F14 Aux 2 F15 and here is the PEAK, the rolling road and you tube dont do this justice again once i can get it on "chase cam" it will be much better: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFihQmAXvs0 functions are as follows: F0 Lights on off F1 Sound on off F2 Double horn, high low F3 Double horn, low high F4 Single Horn F5 Low speed Fan F6 High speed fan F7 Carriage door slam F8 Guards whistle F9 Flange squeal F10 Wheel /sleeper groan F11 Notch up F12 Notch down F13 Shunt mode/Half speed F14 Accel decel override F15 Aux 1 Quick notes on use Pressing the Function 2, 3 and 4 keys once allow the operator to extend the length of the initial horn pitch, when pressed again F2 and 3 changes pitch to complete the 2 tone horn sequence, F4 being just a single tone of variable length. By controlling the length of the initial tone you can generate a different horn sound every time to suit your driving conditions this makes horn operation a bit more like the real thing . The F8 Guards whistle on a single press gives a long warning blow and, when pressed again gives a short right away one thus maximizing the use of just one function key, again you control the time delay between the warning and the off

a few new vids from me, just updates of existing chips i have... bryan at howes has reblown my tornado so that the sound can be turned on and off as normal (my test bed loco had the simmer on all the time but it was too much for me!) also he has added a custom shovling sound for me as a separate function basically when tornado was visiting the crewe heritage centre a few months back i recorded it and was lucky enough to be able to put a bit of coal in her too as i knew the driver on the day, anyway i reocrded the footplate sounds as i fired it, however i missed the firebox hole on my first attempt, the driver took the mickey out of me and my son dominic thought it was really funny and "cool" as you will hear in the clip below, he absolutly loves playing with tornado and hitting "his" function button!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agKc-MKTxu4 next up the same loco with a tender mount camera (pre reblow) on the crewe heritage centres layout http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwZKPEvn7Fc i have put a couple more vids up on youtube, a pendolino in crewe and the ffestiniog railway gala back in may, have a look, link below in signature

ah happy days......last one i had was 37261 road learning liverpool docks in 2008, i suspect my days of driving 37s are over now though i never managed to get an ETH 37 recorded for howes, left DRS before they got theirs up and running but i got some sounds off 37087 on gresty last year as well as a few 47's and 57's starting up and shutting down etc but nothing spectacular

the recordings i did for howes for the class 56 and 66 were all under load, in fact some of the best 66 recordings i got were with 2500 tons behind me!! the difference in note between that and a light engine 66 is immense

i spoke to peco about the ohle a couple of weeks back and they said it should be out in the autumn, im after some for warmington when its released, my sound chipped 92 looks a bit lost on there at the moment

have a look at my youtube site my sound chipped super D, britannia, royal scot, tornado and 4mt are all on there link is below in the signature

another couple from me.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdUKxoKFYxE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEI804f4WgM

it is actually 3 different announcements on 3 different functions, (F13, 14, 15) so i can play them individually or in any order!! got a few more vids to upload to youtube, 2 done already... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pD-xfER39W4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0Ysa6DNQxI

call me vain but the recordings are of myself!! quite simply all i did was record myself speaking them onto a portable minidisc player (the same one i use to record locos for bryan), plug it into the pc and transfer the sounds to it using audacity software which in turn can convert it to mp3 or wav format. all i did then was send the sounds via email to bryan you put them into a sound project for me, then onto the chip, he added echo and the "bing bong" to the station announcement clip for a bit of fun!! i think its fantastic, wouldn't like to be sat inside the train when the announcement went off if it was that loud in real life though!

here a couple more from me: howes as usual, the 150 vids are in another thread too but the class 20 vid is a new one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHhcQdHEVE8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgaLPtfAhJw&feature=related

yeah works fine for me

ive got no problem with my vids being used as long as the are all acknowledged as being howes sounds

ive just resprayed a triang 77 in all over black with red bufferbeams for bryan at howes, he's managed to remotor one with dcc, sound to follow. does anyone have any colour pics of one in its original black livery, particularly the roof area?

here are a few more Howes video's, the same locos as the post above but actually on a layout this time, courtesy of 250BOB as usual, i've tried to show how the notching can be used effectivly but to be honest i'm still experimenting with it myself http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMGwZVRVMFw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMDIfGP-YrU and finally a couple more of tornado, this time at speed and showing its functions http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlXPcXELBEA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5pSLvW6Mvk

well the chip is ??115 plus the price of the loco so around the ??220 mark, howes will fit it up if you want him to but that costs extra, he did mine for me as i didn't fancy soing it myself, mine was the first and he has done another 4 to date so its a popular chip, probably more so now i've put the vid up... hopefully i'll get it video'd at speed with a train tomorrow if i can get upto 250BOB's layout on my way into work

here is a quick vid of howes tornado: howes tornado

right, managed to get a couple of quick vids earlier thanks to richard at trident trains near nantwich who let me use his test track first up howes tornado: tornado sleeper crunch: tornado sleeper crunch class 60 with notching: class 60 and class 66 with low emission claxon, different horns, actual buffer clank from 66301, and crows!! class 66

gonna try and get some videos done over the weekend featuring some of HOWES new offerings, some of which have new features which bryan would like your opinions on before deciding whether to incorporate them into future chips tornado: A few new features on this one, the sound is perminently on so once its on the track you hear it simmer away to itself, this is to enable the user to fully exploit one of the new features which is "sleeper creak and groan" basically you can run the loco with F1 ON which will give you the chuff noise, you can then turn off F1 to lose the chuff then press F9 to activate the "sleeper groan" as if you have shut off the regulator entering a yard and all that can be heard it the simmer and groan, trust me it sounds fantastic, the sleeper groan can be left latched so it loops or if pushed momenterily will give 9 secs of groan, of course F9 can still be used with F1 activated too, it sounds complicated but once the video is up you will see what i mean and all should become clear!! tornado also features the safety valve blowing off on a function key as well as drain cocks, A1 whistle, chime whistle, guards whistle, doors slamming and more Class 60: new revision featuring notching, bryan is not a fan of notching but admits that its a useful tool on the 60 as his own garden layout of peak forest has a section where he needs to propel wagons up a hill and the notch feature makes it more believable/controlable!! he has also added the sleeper groans to the 60 too which sound really good under the loco sound Class 66: this is one bryan has done for me, to my own specification as such, however some features may be carried over to the proper release depending on opinion. as i have fitted it into a low emission 66 he has changed the start up claxon sound to the one off the real 66301 as the pitch is totally different to a non low emission version (trust me on that one!!) the "sander" air whoosh sound is actually the sound of the "sonar speedo cleaner" has been set to only operate when the loco is in motion as per the real thing you can however operate it on a function button too the buffer clash has been changed to one i recorded in derby last year with a 66/3, it actually gives more of a "ding" than a "clash" but it sounds right!! bryan has added notching to the 66 too, if you push F5 and leave it latched it will go up through the notches right up to full thrash, if you push it momenterily (on then off) it will go up to notch 1, push it again (on/off) it will go up to 2 and so on, F6 does the same but notching down the notching is a nice feature as anyone who has heard a 66 after start up may well notice that it tends to go into a "high idle" state while the compressors build up the various reservoirs so on the model you can start it up and go into "notch 1 high idle" then drop it back to idle, the real things do quite randomly go into high idle while moving i've got rid of the coupling sounds off mine and bryan has added a random crow sound in its place!! anyway thats the run down of what i've got, now to try and get them video'd

i have in my posession the howes sound chipped tornado but unfortunatly i dont have a controller to hand to get a video of it, hopefully might be able to get a quick vid tomorrow in a local shop then possibly one of it at speed on bobs layout on sunday The howes chip has a new feature on it added by bryan after reading comments in another thread about different sounds, he has added "sleeper creaking" on one of the functions so when its creeping round a yard over points the track appears to creak and groan under the weight of the loco, it can be latched on or pushed momentarily to give 9 seconds of creaks which fade out the loco itself always has the sound running, so once you put it on the track it simmers away quietly, this enables you to switch function 1 off to get rid of the "chuff" when moving and put either the flange squeal or sleeper creaks on etc cant remember the functions off hand but it has stuff like A1 whistle, chime whistle, drain cocks, safety valve, flange squeal, sleeper creak, guards whistle, doors slamming etc as i say i'll try and get some videos over the weekend

sounds good, naughty boy having a spad though!! my howes one is all fitted up and waiting for me to collect from bryan, just got the 250 mile round trip to collect to think about, hoping to get down there early new year, when i do i'll get a video up too

mmmmm, very nice, had mine out of the box on friday to check out the tender in readyness for its sound chip and i recon that you could get one of those big ported bass speakers in it, oddles of room and i recon all you would need to do is put the holes for the sound to escape above the wheels (in the recessed bit) and possibly move the weight to the top of the tender (if it doesn't become too top heavy!!) unfortunatly i've put the pictures somewhere on my computer and can't currently find them my loco is currently with bryan having the sound chip fitted and with any luck i may be able to get it back between christmas and new year and get a video up

a few more videos uploaded to you tube chase sequences again, this time classes 30, 33, 37, 47, 57, 60 and 86 http://www.youtube.com/user/fastlinegrid