tlm2505

What a brilliant description, and marvellous memories that brings to mind of those halcyon days before the wires appeared into the Cross. I used travel regularly between King's Cross and Potters Bar in the 1970s. Interestingly the high-density units that were drafted in came mainly from the North Tyneside line prior to it closing for construction of the Tyne and Wear Metro. I am sad enough and old enough to remember very well while we were living in the north-east in the late 1960s and DMU's were drafted in to replace the Gresley designed North Tyneside electrics unnecessarily scrapped, and for several years it was not at all unusual to have something of an unhealthy mix of these, with 101s, 105s, and 108 (and other oddments that just happened to be lying around South Gosforth car sheds at the time) in the same train, particularly at peak times. Getting an unobscured front view, with a driver kind enough not to pull down the blinds was always a joy, and I certainly have a very clear memory of driver operation including the time it took normally to change gear, particularly from 1st to 2nd, as you entirely correctly say after hanging on to maximum revs in first gear to squeeze out the last ounce of speed, particularly on a climb, of which there were several on the North Tyneside line after station stops, with the power car(s) rattling every rivet and everyone on board. Reducing speed could also be a problem, as the braking on some units was somewhat lacking, and I witnessed several emergency brake applications on station overshoots in the opposite direction during that period, followed by the driver leaving the cab to make the embarrassing phone call from the nearest signal phone. The high revving while stationary before departure, particularly after the engines been left running on tick over for several hours, was also a common occurrence, and inevitably resulted in a vast cloud of blue grey clag from the exhaust pipes. Happy days ! This really explains the reason behind my initial post, to anyone not familiar with the early years of the heritage DMUs - there is simply nothing, as far as I have been able locate so far, that even comes close to the correct sound for these particular units. Reasonable sound files are available that would suit ccertain heritage units, for example the class 127 Bedpan units, but these had an entirely different hydraulic automatic transmission system and in any event were very limited in their sphere of operation.

There was a similar topic some years ago following the flurry of DMU products hitting the market, but in the intervening period I have still not found a sound decoder that sounds anything like the real thing. For those of us of a certain age who experienced them from their inception on a regular basis, the biggest point of contention for me personally with the available decoders, is the first gear move away from rest, and the initial gear change. Taking 101s for example, the revs in first gear would be quite high just prior to the gear change, and might be held there for a couple of seconds, at what seems to me to be about 10 to 15 miles an hour, and the 1st to 2nd gear change would often take several seconds to complete. I have several of my own recordings of this, and nothing I have experienced with anything currently available frankly comes anywhere near. Does anyone have any better experiences with what might be available on the market now ? On a slightly different issue, for anyone who has the DCC sound equipped Kernow (Bachmann) 205 DEMU, I discovered that the sound files on these are from Legomanbiffo. These have been updated and a re-blow is available via DC Kits which completely transforms notching and acceleration to what it should be - highly recommended.

Discovered this forum quite by accident and thought I would add my tuppence worth. I have a photo of a Q1 on shed at Templecombe with one of the 7fs. Frustratingly you can't tell if they are coupled together. My grandfather (born in 1891) worked on the Southern (and later BR(s)), and he gave me the photo. I will dig it out, post it on to this forum, and check the date it was taken, as it is written on the back. Memory (always a dangerous thing) suggests that both logos have the early BR emblem on the tenders. For those who might argue that it could well have appeared on shed at Templecombe perhaps having arrived from the Salisbury direction on a freight, I do recall him telling me that it was trialled on the line, presumably I suppose with a view to introducing a more powerful 0-6-0. He remembered however that the trial was short lived, as the braking on these was apparently pretty hopeless and they were too light for effective adhesion on the grades. I have not seen reference anywhere else to a Q1 on the S&D but there must be records of this trial somewhere. I would love to know if one possibility considered was use on local passenger services which were eventually taken over by the 4MT 2-6-4 tanks. After all, there is plenty of evidence of the Southern using them for precisely that purpose.