Gary H

Haven't they just. Ive always been of the opinion that when it comes to weathering models, paint 'what you see', NOT what you think you see!

No problem! Would like to hear the sound on the GP15 sometime too.

That's a shame about the bulbs, although the Athearn bulbs are always lambasted by everyone, its a shame you blew them! Wish you had of asked as I'd could have given you a heads up here!! Mind you, Athearn bulbs being what they are, they seldom last more than a few weeks anycase. If you want to replace them, ive a fair few that Ive removed for LED's myself. All Il ask if you want them is the cost of postage for half a dozen of them. For an ESU newbi like myself, that was an informative video! Its interesting about the 'bridgeable' pads for 12V bulbs or LED's as NCE boards use the same thing on some of their DCC decoders! Its certainly a useful feature! You may need to check the output voltage on those light pads as with the resistors in use for 1.5 volt bulbs, I don't think that will be enough for a LED??!! Ive ended up bridging the pads (like you already done) and used my own 750 OHM resistor for each LED.

150 quid!!!!!!!!!

Looks like the item in question was a 'layout' . My guess is he made a serious miss judgement when he listed it or failed to notice he didn't enter a start price. Either way its poor!

So in this instance, would the seller automaticly be billed 10% of the selling price straight from his Paypal account, even if it was his bid, Tony? Im guessing that could be said he's not just shot himself in the foot, but blown it clean off!

Just a heads up, Jon. Have you looked into using Parcel Force to ship this? I only ask as my Mrs uses it to post Equine Saddles occasionally. Due to the value of these, some in the region of 6 to 800 pounds each and the weight of them, she can get them shipped with full insurance and proper tracking for about £25. A saddle must 5 times the weight of that HST set!

It would suggest that this would be an issue with the decoder rather than the actual physics and constraints of a speaker assuming that the speaker is properly baffled to start with! Air horns by their very nature are more in the way of midrange and treble frequency's and so are more easily re-produced by our tiny speakers compared with the deep rumble of a diesel engine! (AKA bass!) Ive noticed that on especially Soundtraxx Tsunami decoders in particular that the horn sounds are always below par compared with say a QSI with the same horn. Its especially noticeable with a K5LA on an SD70ace. Personally, I live this shortcoming in the Soundtraxx as I think the diesel engine sound is more accurate than a QSI. On a slightly different note, I listened to the horn sound on a ESU V4 fitted SD40-2 earlier and again, the horn sound atleast totally eclipsed the Tsunami version, but the owner of the model noticed that the diesel engine sound was louder on the Tsunami even though both models in the test used the same speaker set-up! All very surprising I thought. Horses for courses and all that.

The problem is that to have any appreciable bass, you need to move air and to move air you need a big bass cone! There's no problem with high treble frequency's but those lows are a whole different ball game in a model locomotive.

Yeah, that's the one. I couldn't find the email I had at one time but a couple of minutes detective work found this thread with some good sized pictures of the damage. DAMAGE!- http://talk.newagtalk.com/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=165984&mid=1190655#M1190655 To be fair to GE (which will be a first for me ) Legend has it that particular failure was because the fitters didn't torque down the hold down bolts when they replaced the liner and piston assembly! That FDL7 16 is 183 Litre incase anyone wondered.

Through turbo failure which is normally the cause on these big GE's, the engine basicly runs off its own lube oil being pumped in through the knackered and seized turbo bearrings. A diesel being a compression ignition engine will run on nearly anything like oil etc. If it runs away, there aint a lot you can do about it unless you want to try and plug the inlet with something which is very risky on a 140 ish Litre diesel engine running flat out! I had an email from a guy a couple of years back that showed some pictures of a GE power unit that had ejected a complete cylinder and piston assembly clean through the roof of the loco. It travelled through the air, down through the roof of a house. Part of the piston ended up in the owners plaster board wall inside the house whilst the 'power assembly' ended up in the garden!

I'd put money on the EMD SD40-2 and its sub classes (for want of a better term) as possibly the most successful diesel locomotive of all time. Don't think there's been anything to match it for longevity and durability save perhaps a GP9 maybe, which funnily enough is another EMD! They still have GP9's and SD9's and their similar later models running around in America that are getting close to 60 years old.

Ha! Yep, typical "Trash 9" GE junk right there! If I had a quid for every time Ive seen or heard about this happening with GE stuff, I'd have enough for a Loksound sound decoder for one of my SD70's by now!

That is spot on! the best GE sound Ive heard to date, certainly streets ahead of the QSI version.

Looks like he found it washed up on the beach!!

Crikey! Check out some of those alignments on the curved sections that incorporate straight switch's!! The 5th and 6th along from the left. Makes you question what the rest of its like!

Its great these old stalwarts are popping up again. Back in the day I used to loath them but I'd really like to travel behind one again now! Only problem being its nigh-on a day to get to any starting point from this end of the country. How time and "progress" changes your point of view!

That's a shame! Having spent 10 years of my bashing days in the Thames Valley area during the 80's, its like an old friend. 500 was ofcourse one of the 4 chosen for the GW150 event. 628 was scrapped back in 06. Just looking around Class47.co.uk, the other being 079 was converted to a 57. Now 484 is the only one of the GW150 class 47's to survive.

Well if that is indeed the case, its a shame. They have some nice 1:87 scale vehicles on there.

Is is just me or is the postage cost on this a little on the high side?? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mini-Van-Royal-Mail-GB-1-87-Brekina-/181233699772?pt=UK_ToysGames_DiecastVehicles_DiecastVehicles_JN&hash=item2a325ecbbc

Just to reiterate the above, Model Junction was selling off Titans a while back at nearly half price! It has to be said, I think they were having trouble shifting them, they do tend to reduce prices on stragglers that are slow to shift and they need room for new stock. I wish that Tsunami had the finesse in motor control that Loksound does but where the actual prime mover sound is concerned, the Soundtraxx product is hard to beat and just pips Loksound to the post. Ive also dabbled in Tsunami with the Alco sound, I custom installed sound in an Atlas C420 a couple of years ago. Atlas mechanism's what they are (excellent), I also had no problems in good slow speed control. Ive had the following video on my hard drive for a couple of years but I just uploaded it, this is one of my SD40-2's. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4A-KnKR-fuY&feature=youtu.be Thought I had one of the Alco C420 but I cant find it at the mo.

I have many U.S sound loco's now and based on my own findings, here's what I think! Without a doubt Tsunami has the most accurate prime mover sound, especially where the EMD 567, 645 and 710 engines are concerned. I must have listened to thousands of youtube video's over the last few years and I know what an EMD should sound like, weather that be inside an SD40-2 or an F7 A and B set! I don't doubt for a minute that Loksound has better motor control but ive fine tuned my CV's on the Tsunami's and have no trouble at all with very slow speed switching performance on any of my loco's. I also find them easy to set up multiple locomotive consists now that I have a digital speedometer to help me match them. QSI I find use generic sounds on all their decoders, like the highly irritating air release sound on start (which just doesn't happen!) and the Revolution version I have in an SD35 is so nasty and 'shrill' like Ive disabled the sound altogether. The only thing I like about QSI is the horn sounds have more punch than a Tsunami. To give QSI the benefit of the doubt, I had a listen to a new Titan, but even these just don't sound like the real thing to me! Going back to my Revolution fitted SD35, even on a 'boosted' programing track, the dam thing will still not program! I will shortly be ripping out the Revolution for a Tsunami. Moving onto MRC, I can only echo the comments above! The last one that I can't recommend is anything fitted with MTH's Proto Sound 3. I have one of their SD70ace's. The sound to me sounds like a continuous loop and the as the loco notches up, it sounds much to like one sound finishing and another starting rather than a smooth transition of increasing throttle. PS3 is also designed to work with MTH's DCS system making it not ver compatible with NMRA DCC systems, advanced consists are a no-no with PS3 loco's unless that is you have the latest but even then, you cannot alter all the CV's!

Some rather atmospheric if not depressing photo's taken from inside the closed Thornaby depot. Not mine I hasten to add, just a page I found whilst trawling a while back. Scroll down abit for the stored 56's. http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/industrial-sites/47520-thornaby-rail-maintenance-depot-feb-2010-a.html

Indeed there is, all explained here aswell- http://www.diynot.com/wiki/electrics:earthing_supply_types_and_bonding:earthing_arrangements

I just had a look at this page- http://homepage.ntlworld.com/russelliott/3rd-4th.html#Historical-overview and copied and pasted the following- """"recommended the adoption of a d.c. system using 3rd and 4th conductor rails, working at a nominal potential difference of 630V.""" I would take that as the 4 th rail being a neutral??? From a brief period during the late 90's I worked on the 3rd rail system in the Eastleigh area and I found out that the breakers in the sub stations will trip at about 8'000 amps.