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legomanbiffo

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  1. legomanbiffo
    It's not very often I finish two projects at once but that's what has happened this time. I have a policy of continuous improvement so I don't really consider any project as truly 'finished' but the Class 50 & 303 are both at the stage where I'm happy to release them into the wild. It will be a while before I do videos of either though.
     
    As mentioned before the 50 comes with multistart which in this case means user-controlled priming and both cold and warm starts. It has two different sets of horns, one in each direction, and an automatic cooler group fan which starts when the driver takes power, as per the prototype (this can be turned off if you don't like it though). You will definitely need a bass-reflex for best results, ideally in the underframe, but the effort is worth it.
     
    I was expecting the 303 to be similar in character to the 304 but in fact they sound quite different. One reason for this (I learned at Bo'ness) is that the traction motors on a 303 were cooled by a quiet oil pump rather than noisy blowers. And of course the 303's had sliding doors and beepers rather than slam doors like the 304. As mentioned previously, around 90% of the sounds with this project are genuine 303.
     
    Nothing particularly noteworthy about the Class 303 photo other than the location - platform 5 at Nuneaton! It was taken in April 1983, in the middle of an All-Line ranger which cost me the princely sum of £100. I think there were a handful of them allocated to Longsight at the time though I stand to be corrected?
  2. legomanbiffo
    The arrival of the 85 from Bachmann has accelerated the conversion and upgrade of my v3.5 sound project to v4 standards. One of the more interesting features enabled by the v4 is an on-demand neutral section, triggered by a function key. Whilst running along at anything other than a very slow speed, pressing F11 causes the contactors to drop out and the blower motors to spool down. Pressing F11 again pulls the contactors back in and the blowers fire up again. Also of note is the ability to select forward and start the traction motor blowers without going anywhere, as a driver might do when anticipating the signal clearing. Similarly, you can also, if you choose, bring the loco to a standstill and keep the traction motor blowers running (as if the driver kept the loco in forward). Bringing the loco to a standstill in the normal manner will cause the blowers shut down (as if the driver selected off / idle) This is all achieved under control of the throttle, without any button-pushing. The project is now at the stage where I'm happy to put it on general release.
     
    The photo was taken at Hartshill, just North of Nuneaton on one of those hot, sunny days in the school holidays that we all remember. At that time you could sit and take photos from the foundations of the old station, which have long-since been fenced off. The missed photo opportunity that afternoon was the APT, which was so quiet in comparison that it shot by before anyone was ready.
     
    Good news for O gauge modellers is the arrival of the v4 XL chip from Loksound. I've got a handful in the house and I've yet to fire one up but I suspect it will be worth waiting for.
     
    In other news, my v4 Class 31 is now ready.
  3. legomanbiffo

    A wail of a time

    By legomanbiffo,

    Well that's the trauma of Christmas over for another year. Another chunk of modelling time irretrievably lost, bah humbug!
     
    Progress on the Deltic has been slow as a result but it's going in the right direction. The loco had the opportunity to stretch its legs on my pal's layout this evening and I'm pleased to say that it's shaping up very nicely. The slow wind-up to the highest notch is pure Napier heaven! The session also gave me a good idea how I can enhance the two-engine experience, something I now need to test on the bench.
     
    As a short aside from the Deltic, I did a bit of work on the 86 sound project as my Hornby / Heljan hybrid model is nearing completion. One of the sounds in the project was a nice Mk3 coach 'wail'; the sound you get from the airbag suspension, typically heard when they leave the station. Nice, but fairly basic. Well earlier in the year I heard plenty of these wails on a photting trip to Manningtree, where trainloads of Mk3's arrive and depart every half an hour. At the time I was kicking myself not to have taken my recording gear, but took the opportunity to capture it, purely for reference, using the voice memo app on my phone. Turns out that the recordings were far better than I expected. I have extracted 8 of the best ones and created a flowchart that plays them at random, on demand, and at just the right interval to simulate slow-speed navigation through pointwork or round curves etc. Once I'm happy with the execution I'll roll this feature out to other locos typically used with Mk3 stock (47, 67, 87 etc). I've also added the ability to run the traction motor blowers whilst stationary (already present on my 85, 87 & 90).
     
    The photo of the Mk3 was taken at Crewe Works open day, the same day as the Deltic in the previous blog entry. How long before we get a better model of them?
  4. legomanbiffo
    My Bachmann 20 is largely finished and I had hoped to make a couple of videos over the weekend but unfortunately real life intervened and no progress was made. You wouldn't believe how challenging it is to find 'quiet' time in an urban & family environment - there is always something 'noisy' going on. Not noisy so you would notice necessarily but the mic picks everything up so I like to film in an empty house where possible, and it hasn't been lately. The time hasn't been wasted though, as my double-headed rats have been upgraded from v3.5 / 100 ohm speakers to v4 / 8 ohm. They are seriously loud. There are still a few tweaks I need to make to the project before I'm completely happy but not too many. As things stand the 20 & 25's are likely to make their public debut on Airthey Park at Stafford show at the weekend (thanks guys) instead of You Tube. I'll be there both days and happy to discuss sound with anyone.
  5. legomanbiffo
    It's all gone quiet while I get my Bachmann 20 ready for its video debut. Star of the show will be the disc-fitted 20058, currently on the workbench getting the faded rail blue treatment to depict a loco in the last years of its life. I can't decide whether to team it up with the completed OTA rake or the 3 BDA's I've finished so far. This afternoon was spent hopping between the 20 itself and making steel billets for the BDA's. These are made from lead flashing sprayed first with red oxide primer and then given a dusting of track colour. I'm quite pleased with the just-starting-to-rust look that this produces.
     
    Great track from the Strangler's Black & White album don't you think?
  6. legomanbiffo
    A two-week course in Scotland provided an ideal spring-board for a bit of recording during the middle weekend. Various Scottish modellers have been asking me to record the sliding doors on a 303 and adapt my 304 project accordingly. However, with the help of the hard-working chaps at Bon'ess I've managed to go well beyond that and record almost all the sounds that the 303's made, including horns, driver & passenger doors, hustle alarm, main & auxiliary compressors, guard's right away bell, aws, oil pump (which they had instead of traction motor blowers), brake releases, main contactor & battery charger hum. The only things which couldn't be done on the day were pan up / down (which might be a possibility in the future) and the traction motors themselves (no 25kV!). All this was possible because the majority of things ran off 240V which can be temporarily lashed up from a shore supply.
     
    For good measure I took the last trip of the day on 37175 and recorded the start-up & run from the back cab, then captured all the 'auxiliary' sounds when we got back. Hopefully this will yield some improvements to my existing 37 project (better / bi-directional horns for a start) and perhaps another 37 project altogether with the new engine sounds. If you haven't visited the Bo'ness & Kinniel Railway it is highly recommended. They have a great roster of Scottish region diesels which are all in fine fettle and the line has a long and steep bank on the way up to Kinniel.Thrash-tastic!
  7. legomanbiffo
    ..the 40.
     
    I've found in the past that 7mm models ruthlessly expose any deficiencies in your sound clip editing, ones that you often get away with in 4mm because you're not hearing the full range of sounds (quite why I never noticed through the hi-fi at the editing stage is something of a mystery but there you go). For this reason I took the decision not to try and prototype the Deltic sound project in 4mm. As I haven't yet been able to lay my hands on a 7mm Deltic yet (just a matter of time), that particular project has gone onto the back-burner and the 40 reinstated at the front.
     
    Despite the insatiable demand for chips from Mr Petty I've managed to move forward with it and it's coming along nicely, whistling round the layout like a good 'un. The technique that I developed with the 20 & 37, to make the engine sounds less 'loopy' and more natural is working a treat in this case.
     
    For those interested, the sound editing workbench comprises the output of the PC going to a Sony TAN55-ES 110 watt per channel power amp and a pair of Tannoy 611 floor-standers (basically my old hi-fi, another interest of mine). Plenty of oomph to rattle the window frames and get the missus knocking on the ceiling when Emmerdale's on. Most of my clip editing is done with Cool Edit, an ancient and pretty basic sound editor but nice and easy to use and more than adequate for most things. Occassionally I'll use Sound Forge for some of the more involved jobs and batch conversions. All editing is done with 44kHz / 16-bit mono clips that have been converted from stereo original recordings.
     
    The photo is 40049, coming off the 'Cov line' at Nuneaton on a wintry day circa 1981.
  8. legomanbiffo

    Back to the 60's!

    By legomanbiffo,

    No, not flared trousers, kipper ties or mind-altering drugs, I'm afraid it's bad news for whistler fans; the 40 project has temporarily returned to the back-burner as the weekend threw up another opportunity to attempt the Class 60 engine recordings. I wasn't going to take any chances this time and with Paul Chetter's assistance, three mics were brought to bear; one in the engine room, one against the grille closest to the engine room, and another on the bodyside near the exhaust. The engine room track captured the character of the loco very well and also sounds great through a bass reflex speaker in a test-bed loco so we're now cooking by gas. The auxiliary sounds are all done so as soon as I've edited and programmed the engine sounds and completed final testing it's a runner. I'm guessing two or three weeks.
     
    It's worth highlighting the cost of recording trips such as this. On this occasion the venue was two and a half hours away from me and an early start was called for so I travelled down the day before and stayed in a hotel. Being a Bank Holiday everywhere was booked up and I ended up paying over a hundred quid including breakfast. Add an evening meal and a tank of diesel for the return trip and you're looking at close to £200. This is in addition to the cost of getting the rest of the sounds last time (same venue, cheaper hotel, perhaps £150 in total), and before you count the 40 or so man hours of editing and programming (and any fee paid to loco owners etc in other circumstances). It's tough work but someone's got to do it :-)
     
    In the photo, 60011 breezes up the Lickey on the 28th Feb 2012.
     
    With the loan of Hornby's latest 90 & 92 models from Charlie, the two sound projects have been tweaked to suit the modern mechanisms. Sound fitting is very straightforward on both and even with a standard speaker inside they sound really good.
  9. legomanbiffo
    How long back do you think you would have to go to have seen a 60, followed by a 56, followed by a 37, going up the Lickey in the space of 15 minutes? 5 years, 10 years? Try two days! Many thanks to my pal Mark for alerting me to that one. It's a shame the weather wasn't great for pictures but the trip was worth it just for the listening pleasure.
     
    In the sound lab the 73 is just about finished and about to be 'beta tested'. As with the real thing you can switch between diesel and electric on the hoof. A moment of inspiration led me to full user-control of the two-speed exhauster using a single function key. That will have to be retro-fitted to the 33 project...more work! As usual the project features all the usual v4 goodies including different horns, doors and buffer clash in either direction, variable speed flange squeal etc
     
    Looking ahead I think I've settled on the 67 as the next project for the v4 treatment, in readiness for the upgraded Hornby model. I've been reviewing my source material (recorded at Bounds Green) and there's some good stuff in there including a failed start, compressor speed-up etc, all good v4 fare.
  10. legomanbiffo

    Basil Brush(es)

    By legomanbiffo,

    Ha ha ha ha ha, boom boom! He's not just a puppet, he's a British icon! The Tweed jacket, the refined accent, the toothy grin, the razor-sharp wit. Remember his constant interruptions that would cause 'Mr Roy' to grab him round the snout?! I'm laughing now just thinking about it. Pure TV heaven.
     
    On the subject of brushes the most recent task has been upgrading the 92 project to v4 standards. I've yet to do a full recording session with one so a little artistic license has been used along with the recordings I have got. It's in the final tweaking stages now and I'm very pleased with the results.
     
    Other editing work has seen upgrades to the Leyland DMU project using new material recorded at Llangollen, and work on the Voyager, again to bring it up to v4 standards. I've also come up with a method of shortening the minimum length of playable horns so it is now possible to do realistic short blasts as well as longer ones. This improvment is being rolled out to all projects on an opportunity basis.
     
    The last couple of days have been concentrated on my rake of Inter-City Mk4 coaches. I recently discovered that Keen Systems do resin parts for the underframe skirts and the TSOE coach end piece (the TSOE is the coach next to the loco, which has the corridor connection blanked off). I bought a set of each to try. Being resin the detail is not high-definition but they're both better than scratch building. I'm minded to send some photos to Mr Harvey and get some etches made up to go over the skirts.
     
    Finally, did I mention that I recorded a Class 60 last weekend.....?
  11. legomanbiffo

    Big Mac(rat)

    By legomanbiffo,

    Although it is possible to load a sound project written for a standard (HO/OO) chip into a v4 XL, you tend to find that all of the bassy sounds are too loud when played through the bigger speaker, so relative volume levels have to be revisited. The bigger speaker also ruthlessly exposes any deficiencies in your clip editing. Any slight glitch leaps out at you, having been inaudible through a small speaker. First recipient of the treatment is my 26 project, which sounds great in my Heljan test-bed loco. The 20, 33, 37 & 47 will be next, for the Heljan range.
     
    The photo is from the early 90's. On summer Saturdays there was a train that brought holidaymakers from (I believe) Carlisle to Ayr. In days gone by it used to run to Butlins at Heads of Ayr but Thomas Cook et al put paid to that. Motive power was invariably a 26 or 37 and needless to say there were more bashers on the train than holidaymakers.
     
    My Bachmann 85 is now roaring merrily around the layout, the project having received a number of tweaks and improvements to suit the model. The model itself is absolutely superb, shame we had to wait 30 years for it. I wonder which AC electric Bachmann will use the chassis for next...?
  12. legomanbiffo
    In the olden days, before 50's were called Hoovers we used to refer to them as 'bleeps'. I have no idea where that name came from, or if it was in common usage. Answers on a postcard...
     
    The photo is a vintage scene from Birmingham New Street in the late 70's. I wonder if Jim is planning to have hordes of spotters at the platform ends like this?! Those were the days.
     
    The Class 50 project is shaping up nicely with a full set of auxiliary sounds recorded recently at the ELR. I've ended up using engine sounds recorded from the same loco back in 2008, simply because they provided everything I needed to make a 'multistart' chip including both cold and warm starts. The cold start is great, slow and chuggy but eventually blends seamlessly into the idle. This single clip ate up 81 seconds of the four minutes available on a v4 chip!
     
    Recordings from Bo'ness have already been put to good use in the Class 37 project. I recorded the horns at both ends of their loco and have replicated this in my two projects (37/0 & 37/4). Also, it's now possible to do shorter, more prototypical 'toots' than was possible before.
  13. legomanbiffo
    Late February means it’s time for our annual pilgrimage to the frozen North and Model Rail Scotland. This year’s trip started a day early on the Wednesday, for reasons that will become apparent shortly. First stop was to stoke up at the Little Chef just off Jcn 16 on the M6 (Crewe), our usual breakfast stop for this trip.
    Several en-route photo opportunities had been discussed but in the end we went to a favourite from last year; Docker, on the WCML in Cumbria. Upon arrival, a search on Real Time Trains quickened the pulse as the ‘logs’ to Chirk was due. Almost as I finished reading the words the unmistakable pounding of a 56 drifted into auditory view and we prayed for the sun to stay out. And stay out it did, I still can’t believe how lucky we were. Subsequent shots of an unliveried 350/4 and a Plasser tamper pushing a trolley-thingy were nowhere near as good with the sun in (even after adjusting the white balance).
    From there it was a short hop to Greenholme by which time the rain came on. The intermodal DRS 66 working which normally flies through Atherstone was reduced to a crawl on the climb to Shap and made for interesting listening. A mental note and reference shots were taken of this excellent location and then it was onwards and upwards to a sadly freight-free Carlisle station. The first night stop was at Moffat, staging post for the final thrust in the morning. If you’ve never visited Moffat I can thoroughly recommend it, plenty of good hotels and restaurants in a beautiful setting in the Southern Uplands, and after breakfast only an hour to Glasgow.
    The subject of Thursday’s attention was a 35-year old successor to the famous ‘Blue Trains’; the Class 314. This recording session had had a very long gestation. Following a steer from a DEMU member in early 2013 (thanks Peter), a session had been set up for February last year, but was cancelled at the last minute when the host called in sick – doah! Luck was on our side this year and thanks to First Group and staff at Shields Road this veteran unit has now been captured for posterity. No model yet as far as I’m aware but a set of recordings ‘in the bank’ nevertheless. We never thought we’d see models of Lion / EM1 / Blue Pullman etc so someone will do one eventually.
    Friday and Saturday was a great opportunity to catch up with old friends but sad news was to arrive. My very good friend and ‘chauffuer’ Richard had to drop everything and leave for Manchester where his aged father had taken a turn for the worse. Sadly he died not long afterwards but Richard was fortunate enough to get there in time.
    The rest of the show wasn’t quite the same, and getting myself and all my stuff home was interesting with no transport. Plenty of offers were forthcoming from fellow modellers and traders passing through the Midlands, but everyone was leaving on Monday. As I needed to get back on Sunday the services of Virgin & London Midland were called upon. An offer of £92 First Class was grabbed with both hands. My camera, recording gear and show purchases went to Manchester with Richard. The stock boxes that would fit in Charlie’s already-bursting van went to Leeds, and the rest was kindly taken by Fiona of DCC Supplies back to Worcester and I will be re-united with them all at Leamington show. Oh, and my car was stuck at Richard’s house, half an hour from home.
    Recording sessions for later in the year are shaping up nicely. Nothing I can divulge just now but suffice to say that there are some interesting and innovative things in the pipeline. Finally, with the assistance of Pete Harvey we will shortly be launching a range of 'easy-fit' resin underframe tanks incorporating loudspeaker enclosures, to make high-quality sound much easier to achieve. First examples will be for the Heljan 26, 27 & 33, with a set for the Bachmann 40 currently in development.
  14. legomanbiffo
    I finished creating / extracting the Class 20 engine sound clips this morning. In-between 'real' modelling I spent the rest of the day tweaking the flowchart to get the engine sounds driving how I want them. I'm probably about 90% of the way there with that, and fed up listening to just engine sounds so I added all the previously created 'auxiliary' sounds (horns, air sounds, door slams etc) to see how it all worked as a package. Probably another two or three days tweaking to go and version 1 will be ready. Not sure what to do about a target loco for the video. I've got an early Bachmann (20052) but I don't know if it's the model I want to run with. The speaker certainly won't be as good as the test-bed 26 I'm running the sound in just now.
  15. legomanbiffo
    The Class 20's do a nice little hiss when the reverser is operated, and a slightly longer one when the driver puts his foot on the deadman. We captured these when we did the recordings at the GCR so today's 20 minute task was to add these to the project. Needless to say things didn't go quite to plan. No hiss on reversing and no deadman sound, in fact the loco just sat there idling and refused to move. I'd got this feature working fine on the 118 dmu so I knew it worked. Most of the time if you get something wrong in the flowchart it tells you but not this time. It took about two hours to get to the bottom of it, I guess that's what they call experience. Trouble is, next time it happens I will have forgotten how to fix it...
     
    Anyway, reverser and deadman hiss now working fine.
  16. legomanbiffo
    Ding ding ding ding ding, can I have some order please! Younger viewers should turn over to Dick & Dom now.
     
    XL'ing the Class 33 for v4 has highlighted one or two things about the project that I wasn't happy with. I also noticed that some improvements made to other projects hadn't found their way to the 33 yet so this evening was time to start putting this right. I'm not quite finished yet but the new version will have 'Multi-Start' (prime more than once, extend the cranking, have the loco fail to start after repeated cranking, attempt another start and so on). At slow speeds, slight acceleration will now cause a rise to notch 1 and back down again (previously stayed at idle unless you exceeded the notch 1 threshold). Finally, if you thrash hard from stationary then quickly drop the throttle, the 'escape' back to idle is now much better (previously took too long, loco still thrashing when it should have been back at idle).
     
    Tonight's photo was taken in the pouring rain at Salisbury, mid-way through an All-Line Ranger in April 1983. Of the 6 nights that week, only one was spent in a proper bed. The itinerary had been carefully planned such that we spent each night tucked up in a nice, warm steam-heated compartment on some obscure overnight train (unfortunately without en-suite facilities - I don't recall washing arrangements other than paying 10p for a shower at Glasgow Central. You could do these things when you were young). Everything went well until one train in Scotland turned up with early Mk2 stock which had those fibreglass bucket seats you couldn't lay across. I've had worse night's sleep since then, but not many.
     
    If you are still struggling to remember, Colin Crompton was the flat-capped compere at the Wheeltappers & Shunters Social Club, and one of 'The Comedians'.
  17. legomanbiffo
    One theme of this period in the sound lab has been consolidation; instead of working on new projects I’ve concentrated on rolling out specific improvements across the range, where suitable recordings are available. One example of this is to change F5 from a simplistic brake dump sound to a multi-function brake sound experience! If you press F5 whilst stationary you’ll hear a brake dump sound . If you turn on F5 when moving, nothing is heard initially, but you now have a ‘playable’ brake application function. Dipping the throttle briefly will trigger a gentle brake application sound. Dip it further and it brakes a little harder. It is possible (for example) to approach a signal, repeatedly ‘touching the brakes’ without unduly affecting the speed of the loco.
     
    The theme of consolidation reminded me of the classic Norman Wisdom film ‘The Early Bird’ which documents the struggle of an underdog horse & cart milk firm against the mighty Consolidated Dairies with their new-fangled electric milk floats. The opening 15 minutes or so, in which hardly a word is spoken, is comic genius, with the hero Pitkin (Wisdom) struggling to get up and make the tea for himself, his boss (Mr Grimsdale) and the boss’s ‘fancy woman’. There's a link at the bottom if you’re interested.
     
    Work on 10000 has continued. I am currently prototyping the engine sounds in a Bachmann model and things are progressing, slowly but surely.
    A packed show schedule in May / June will see me with Charlie at Bristol, Derby, LYDCC (where I’ll be assisting Tony Molyneux with his seminar), Railex, DEMU, Wigan, and Perth, and also Nottingham as a visitor.
     
    The first production runs of resin tanks for the Heljan 26, 27 & 33 have been kicked off. These comprise a replacement centre-section for the underframe assembly of each loco, to which the Heljan sideframes are attached. The new sections feature a sound chamber which accepts a 20x40mm speaker in a simple clip-fit aperture, making the fitting of sound much more straightforward.
     
    At Ally Pally I picked up some excellent weathered JNA’s from Lord & Butler which will no doubt feature in a video in the fullness of time. I must get round to doing more videos at some point as there are several new projects that haven’t been captured yet (33, 40, 60 & MPV amongst others).
     
    Finally, a couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of a personal guided tour of some of Paul Woolard’s local photographic haunts to capture some of the Cross-Country workings that were being diverted via Chepstow. Pictured above at Purton is the Daventry-Wentloog working. Paul has taken some beautiful railway photos and one of his taken previously at Purton featured in Rail Express this month. Hopefully some of his skill will rub off on me.
     

  18. legomanbiffo
    I decided that a blog of what I'm up to sound-wise at the moment might be of interest and also provide a useful forum for discussion and feedback. Here's what I've been up to in the last few weeks. Imagine a butterfly flitting from one thing to another and you won't be too far off the mark :-)
     
    Upgraded the 26, 27, 37/0 and 37/4 projects with 'multi-start' (user control of engine priming, cranking and starting (or not starting)). It's my intention to add this to all projects where appropriate and where I have the necessary recordings. 'True' warm and cold starts are another aim but they eat up a lot of memory.
     
    Changed the 37 spirax function from a single loop to set of shorter sounds that are played at random. The original loop was quite long but you could still detect when it was starting again. I plan to develop this further so that if the spirax is left on for ages, the gap between pops will steadily increase just like the real thing.
     
    Made the 37 compressor stop more quickly when the function is turned off. Again, an improvement that'll be made to all v4 projects in due course.
     
    Finally started work editing the engine sounds from the Class 20 that pauliebanger and I recorded at the GCR ages ago (20098). This will be a great project when it's finished as we captured loads of material but I keep getting sidetracked with other stuff (which I suspect will be a common theme in this thread...). The 'auxiliaries' are all done, only the engine sounds are needed to finish the project off.
     
    Had a preliminary play with the Class 73 engine sounds I recorded at the Spa Valley Railway. A completed project is a while away yet but the 73 that arrived from Hattons today might spur me on. I was surprised how deep the engine note is on a 73.
     
    Made a start upgrading the 87 to v4 standards and incorporating some new material recorded at Willesden by a pal of mine. Made changes to the neutral section which will be user-triggerable at any speed.
     
    Finally, got some great sound-related feedback from one of the fitters at the Battlefield Line today (where I'm a volunteer). Most interesting was how the engine rpm on a 33 is affected when the ETH is on. A bit more complex than you might think and definitely something that can be incorporated into the project. I'm envisioning an 'ETH on/off' function key that will invoke the various changes. Again, something that will need to be added to various projects where appropriate.
     
    Bif
  19. legomanbiffo

    Do the European

    By legomanbiffo,

    No doubt someone can tell me what these locos are. Each one had three more pantographs than most electrics in the UK, presumably for multi-voltage operation. We waited 20 minutes to get a better picture without the catenary masts in the way, only to get 'bowled' by a poxy two-storey Dutch bogcart!
     
    Yes, after talking about it for several years my pal and I finally got round to visiting the Eurospoor show in Utrecht, courtesy of Stena Line from Harwich to the Hook of Holland. I was well impressed by the ferry; very clean and modern with excellent food, but less so by the 0600 alarm call (0530 on the way back)! Eurospoor is about the same size as Warley but instead of being crammed into one hall it's in three and as a result is much more spread out and enjoyable. And the food was miles better, NEC take note. There was much less sound on display than I expected, but I was most impressed by the Viessmann working tamper with sound, and a G gauge layout with some of the best smoke / sound fitted steam locos that I've ever seen. I also marvelled at a small OHLE maintenance vehicle, apparently made by Fleischmann, with a working pantograph and an inspection platform that raised up and down and then rotated through 270 degrees. Hornby and Bachmann have still got a lot of catching up to do.
     
    On the way back from Harwich we planned to do some photting but overlooked the fact that it would still be pitch black (and foggy) when we got off the boat. However, it was just getting light by the time we got to Manningtree, and we got some very atmospheric shots as a result. After a couple of hours there it was over to the ECML foot crossing at Offord Cluny (a 'Trainspot', and a truly excellent one at that). Being south of Peterborough it is very busy, with commuter EMU's adding to the usual ECML fare. The level crossing gives plenty of warning of approaching trains, and there are good pictures to be had in both directions from both sides of the track.
     
    Back on the workbench, progress continues on the class 40 project which is about three-quarters done. So far there are just three engine notches (plus idle), but some very long transition sounds which add greatly to the experience. With the v3.5 chip long transitions were a bit of a no-no because they lengthen the throttle response time too much but with v4 it's different story as you can program your way out of them. I suspect there'll be room for a fourth notch (and hence four different ways of departing) before I'm finished.
  20. legomanbiffo

    Electric blue

    By legomanbiffo,

    There's a title to attract the attention of any male over a certain age! Well, here's something else that is electric and blue; 90012, posing for the camera during the recording session at Crown Point. I took the opportunity to grab a full set of underframe shots which I'll post if anyone is interested.
     
    On Saturday I spent a really enjoyable half-hour talking to Phil Tyrer (aka Northendboy) at members day and he commented afterwards about being envious of some of the places I'd been whilst recording. I hadn't really thought about it before but it's true, I have had some fantastic days out that would never have happened otherwise. Having said that, when you're in that cab or at that depot you've generally spent a lot of time & money getting there and you can't just sit back and enjoy it, you have to focus on the job in hand. These days I like to arrive for a recording session bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and in good time and that often involves travelling to site the day before and staying overnight. This was the case here with Norwich being three and a half hours drive away.
     
    In the four years I've been recording seriously the highlights have been; the brake van ride behind the 37 after the session at the Spa Valley, two visits to record Eurostars at Temple Mills, riding all day in the cab of the 20 at the GCR, and having the 40, 50 & Deltic to ourselves for the day at the ELR! Happy days.
     
    The v4 90 is nearing completion. I've just been doing two sets of horns, one for each end.
     
    Bif
  21. legomanbiffo

    Fantastic Voyage

    By legomanbiffo,

    I often find that as a project is nearing completion it pays to step away from it for a while and do something else. You then return to it with a fresh pair of ears, add the finishing touches and iron out any last remaining niggles. As such, I have briefly stepped away from the 40 to the Voyager.
     
    I upgraded one end of my Bachmann Voyager from a v3.5 to a v4 some time ago but never got around to the other. Having now fitted the second chip and ran it, I found that the engine sound editing and programming was a little short of my current standards. Having spent a couple of days on it I'm now much happier. I've also added a handful of new features including; the ability to start the intermediate engines one at a time, two slightly different engine shutdowns, and a more accurate recreation of the 'forward' position on the driver's controller on the prototype.
     
    On a real Voyager, the driver selects forward when getting ready to move off. The engine revs rise but nothing more happens until the controller is advanced further, whereupon the set moves off. Similarly, when coming to a standstill, the set can be left in forward (and hence at slightly higher revs) until the driver puts the controller to idle or moves off again. The principle is exactly the same as my latest electric projects (85, 87, 90 etc), and has now been enabled with the Voyager.
     
    The project has been prototyped as a 'single' chip version, now I need to make the necessary modifications for the two-chip version so that the horns etc change ends when the set reverses, the engine starts and stops are staggered and so on.
     
    Tonight's good news was that Charlie has finally found a Heljan 7mm Deltic down the back of his sofa. This will be passed onto me at Warley so I can prototype the Deltic sound project in it.
     
    The photograph was taken at Milton Keynes, one of my series of 'railwaymen at work'. Try covering the despatcher and guard with your thumb and you'll find the photo much less interesting.
  22. legomanbiffo
    I wasn't planning to go to the Worcester show but the draw of a sunny day and the newly released London Midland 350 proved too much to resist. The show was only in one hall but there was a varied selection of quality layouts, a good cross-section of traders and plenty of second hand stuff. All in all most impressive. Sadly no rail blue Lima 73's (everything but in fact) so I settled for an NSE example to do the forthcoming video.
     
    The 350 is a lovely model but as usual the chip and speaker fit appear to be a complete afterthought. Just out of interest I fitted chip and speaker as Bachmann intended and the sound is truly awful in comparison to my test-bed (which can be seen on You Tube). It would have cost Bachmann virtually nothing to match this had they paid due regard to sound at the outset but no. I was hoping to post a video of the newly-upgraded v4 sound project but I now need to do some work on the speaker fit before that will be possible.
     
    The day was rounded off nicely with a heads up from my pal Mark which produced the snap on the left. Unusually, the pair came around the corner quite slowly and, as if on cue, opened up in front of me. Excellent.
  23. legomanbiffo

    Gauny no dae that

    By legomanbiffo,

    I'm pleased to say that the Glasgow show was better than last year's, which was hopefully just a blip in the year-on-year improvement. Well done to all concerned. As usual it was great to meet up with old friends, and put some faces to new ones. Deviations on the way up included photting at Winwick Junction and Carlisle, and on the way back, Tower Models followed by fish & chips on the front at Blackpool!
     
    Back in the sound lab the 73 diesel / electric transitions have been sorted out after some persistent misbehaviour by the programming (ie it wasn't doing what I told it to do. 'Gauny no dae that' was very apt at the time). Now it's just a case of gilding the lily with a second set of horns etc just to finish off. As with the 20 the video is going to be a little while yet as I really want a banger blue loco to feature, and extensive searches at Glasgow failed to turn one up despite the vast array of second hand stuff on offer.
     
    Thoughts are beginning to turn to which sound project will be the next to benefit from the upgrade to v4. Current favourites are the Voyager (though this will involve swapping out the four 100 ohm speakers for 8 ohm ones) or the Eurostar (into which I could fit the huge 28x40 speakers from Alan Butcher).
  24. legomanbiffo

    Genetically modified

    By legomanbiffo,

    The 2013 recording season has gotten off to a flying start. The text, received with 48 hours notice said words to the effect; 'do you want to come along and do some recording, with three or four different locos to choose from, one of which you haven't recorded before?' Let me think about that for a minute.....
     
    After an hour's drive and a generous helping of lard to set me up for the day, a start was made on the previously unrecorded loco, the 'genetically modified' 57. I must say that when I started out recording this beast it was mainly to fill the gap in the range of chips that I do. I always enjoy the recording process and I knew some users out there would be very happy but at the end of the day I wasn't intending to get a model 57 for myself. Fast-forward two weeks and all that has changed. The damn thing has grown on me to the extent that I bought a sound-fitted one at Doncaster show from those fine chaps at Lord & Butler / Dirty Boy weathering (more on them in my next blog entry). In comparison with the Deltic the editing has been a breeze so far. The project is shaping up nicely with all the ancilliary sounds done, also the multistart functions which were enabled by some skilled choreography by the driver on the day. Many thanks, you know who you are!
     
    It's worth pausing for a moment to say that the driver can make the difference between a good project and a great one. When making recordings the instructions you have to give them to achieve what you want can sometimes appear quite abstract (slam the door 9 or 10 times in different ways....don't open the throttle until after that bridge....sound the horn before moving off, not during, and so on). Once you explain the reason in each case, most will understand and do their best. Some set out to do their best but forget and fall into 'normal driver' mode. Some listen attentively and then do their own thing regardless.
     
    It also helps to have a driver who is knowledgable on the internal workings of the loco. Can he (temporarily) isolate the noisy traction motor blower whilst you record the quieter compressor next to it? Can he cause the start to fail? Does he know how to bring on the cooling fan if the engine isn't hot enough? Happily the driver in this case was exemplary and a full set of great sounds was captured. After the 57 was finished we moved on to a couple of other locos to capture a handful of sounds on each that I was missing. All in all a very sucessful day's recording.
     
    Despite all of the above the Deltic is still moving forward slowly. Every clip of engine sound is in place and there now follows an iterative process of getting them to flow naturally regardless of what you do with the throttle. Once that is done the project would normally be finished but in this case there's the second engine to think about. I'm currently gathering information from various sources that will enable this to be modelled accurately.
     
    A week off work has also enabled progress on other things. I've fitted an XL chip and a Visaton 40x70 speaker (!) to a Heljan 7mm 37 for Charlie. The first attempt with the enclosure was unexpectedly rubbish but the second was far better. This just goes to prove the importance of experimentation when doing your speaker fit. I've also done a chip and speaker fit in the new Heljan 31 for a customer of Charlie's. This was something of an ordeal and the thing nearly got the lump hammer on a number of occasions but it got through unscathed and sounds very good. It's also got independantly switchable tail lights and the fan works slowly enough so that the noisy mechanism doesn't drown out the sampled clips of the real fan.
     
    In the photo, 57012 pauses at Nuneaton on a working from Lawley Street to Southampton (I believe).
  25. legomanbiffo

    Hammer time

    By legomanbiffo,

    Two models that came close to the lump hammer treatment this weekend were a Hornby 50 in 4mm and a Heljan 20 in 7mm, after I expended an inordinate amount of time on both.
     
    The 50 is the Rail Express limited edition 50149, weathered by Grimy Times and destined to become the star in a You Tube video demonstrating my v4 Class 50 sounds. Yesterday I milled off the weight in the underframe and spent most of today building a long speaker enclosure to fit down the middle with cut-down tanks etc glued on the sides. It contains two 20x40mm ESU speakers, wired in phase and completely airtight. I was convinced it would sound great but it's nowhere near as good as I expected. Back to the drawing board with that one.
     
    The Heljan 20 was loaned to me by Charlie to try out my project in 7mm. The casting has space for a chip (fitted vertically) and a speaker (in the tanks), but like a venn diagram, the two spaces overlap so you can't fit both at the same time. Without going into detail, fitting chip and speaker was a complete pain in the butt which I will steer well clear of in the future. In contrast, their 26 was much easier and well thought out.
     
    There can't be that many photos of Class 50's on the drags but here's one; 50023 Howe leaving Arley tunnel on the Nuneaton-Birmingham line dragging what looks like an 86, circa 1980.
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