big jim

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

finally saw one today in the distance sat in basford hall yard (i was in my car on the A500 shavington bypass) a quick call to the guy in our control, who did a search of tops and found out it was 70002!!

been told mine SHOULD be with haslington models this coming week, looking forward to getting it. now my question is does it have an 8 pin or 21 pin dcc socket? i've got a howes sound chip reblow destined for it so need to know what type of chip to send to bryan, hopefully if all goes well and the loco arrives wednesday it should be sound chipped by the weekend!!

ive just uploaded 9 videos to youtube taken last night on bobs layout again, this time we blacktacked my nokia to a well wagon and added a stanley knife to counter balance it before sending the it off behind a loco in front of the sound chipped loco! Some good results and a chance to see and hear the locos in some close up action A link to my youtube site is in my signature below

right here we go: all this lot are HOWES sounds running on 250bob's layout in uttoxeter class 50 class 60 britannia, super d and standard 5 passing each other class 25 class 20's wth dual start up class 31 class 33 unrefurbished class 37 class 121 class 40 warship class 30 (mirlees engined 31) britannia super D class 58 class 56 class 47 class 86 standard 5 western class 66 class 08 class 153 royal scot class 57 class 92 britannia and royal scot double header standard 5 being banked by the class 25 britannia being banked by the super D there are another load of videos on you tube too, taken on my layout, see the link in my signature below