SRman

A pussy cat greets a potential hotel guest. The hotel staff really need to sweep those steps!

The model is absolutely stunning. Your attention to detail is second to none. It is nice to see that you are human, too, seeing as your under-board wiring is almost as messy as mine! 😉

It can be too quiet!! I recorded this one at Doncaster in 1999. I have yet to find a sound project that includes this racket. 🤣🤣

That's great information and very informative. The middle one (37 609) does have a function to bypass the cold start (F15), but I rather like this one. Yes, it was probably recorded on a very cold day, but then I really should have dense clouds of exhaust smoke and the odd flash coming from the exhaust ports. 🤣 A lot of model timings have to be shortened. I was almost going to edit the video to skip some of the cold start, because too much of it would be boring for those watching the video.

Many of these Heljan diesels have drooping coupling mounts, even though they appear to be set at only slightly above the correct height to start with (ignoring the droop). This means that even without the droop, they didn't need the stepped couplings. I always replace the couplings with Bachmann straight versions (Hornby would do as well, but I prefer the Bachmann ones). The one class 33/1 that I have that doesn't have drooped couplings was the one I wanted for push-pull work with a Kernow 4 TC set. I had to bend the coupling mount down a bit to allow the Kadee couplings I fitted to meet up properly. That was the one instance where the droop would have been useful.

This video on YouTube was posted 6 hours ago (as at the time of posting this).

I decided to take some video footage comparing three of the sound and speaker combinations I have in Accurascale class 37s. Personally, I would rate the Jamie Goodman one as my favourite, but the others are good. All have their own different features and characteristics. I edited out the bit where I didn't have 37 608 on the track properly so it derailed as soon as it hit the points. I posted this link in my own layout thread and in the Accurascale Class 37 topic, so please pass on by if you've seen this already.

I decided to take some video footage comparing three of the sound and speaker combinations I have in Accurascale class 37s. Personally, I would rate the Jamie Goodman one as my favourite, but the others are good. All have their own different features and characteristics. I edited out the bit where I didn't have 37 608 on the track properly so it derailed as soon as it hit the points. I posted this link in my own layout thread as well, and will post it in the DCC sound video topic I started years ago, if I can find it again.

I decided to take some video footage comparing three of the sound and speaker combinations I have in Accurascale class 37s. Personally, I would rate the Jamie Goodman one as my favourite, but the others are good. All have their own different features and characteristics. I edited out the bit where I didn't have 37 608 on the track properly so it derailed as soon as it hit the points. This also means I edited out the swearing! 😁🤪

He's just big-boned!! 😉😉 😅

A couple of things from my workbench that are complete, or very nearly so. These Parkside wagons were started some time ago, and sat on the layout awaiting transfers. I added transfers last night, although I haven't put the tare weights on, matt varnished them today, and they now await some weathering. Eagle-eyed people might notice the missing buffer, which can be seen on the cutting mat nearby: I dropped it while varnishing it! Fortunately, the varnish dried very quickly, and nothing from the carpet stuck to it. Also on the workbench, but fairly quick job, are some 3D printed cats from West Hill Wagon Works. One lost most of its tail in transit, so I drilled a hole in its backside and stuck some brass wire into that. Suitable shaped, once painted you'd never know. I have done a black cat with a little white, a black and grey tabby cat, a ginger cat, and my favourite, a tortoiseshell and white female (or calico, as the Americans call it). Anyway, these are now ready to be cut from the trellis supports and planted on the layout. The reason 98% of torties and torty & white cats are female is the gene for black or ginger is on the X chromosome, so females can get both colours, males (XY) can only get one or the other. We own a tri-coloured male, so in theory he can't exist, but in reality, it means he's probably XXY. Additional info on tortie males: they occur as 1 in 3000, according to one source. I also found that with the tabby-like markings, cats like Sykes can be referred to as tortie-tabbies.

Perhaps I should have said, he bought the original steam sound decoders pre-loaded. He has reblown those, but now only buys blank ones, which is also mostly what I do now, then buy the sound projects locked to the serial number and delivered to me by email. That way I have the original sounds to fall back on if I experiment a bit. Perhaps the OP can clarify when he gets back to us. Steam projects have improved over the years, including more load-sensing facilities.

I have been messing around with ESU files as well. Many of the diesel files are quite decent, but the only decent British files are the Bulleid pacifics. The Britannia file is woeful, using electronic synthesised chuffs which, quite frankly, sound terrible. I used one of the Bulleid files to put sound onto a Bachmann C class 0-6-0. I know the Bulleids are three cylinder, and the C is two, but by slowing the chuffs down and synchronising with the wheel revolutions (using the LokProgrammer and a rolling road), I think I got a reasonable sound. I used a German whistle from an electric locomotive to replace the Bulleid whistle, and eliminated the turbine whine from the generator. It's still a work in progress, but it's almost acceptable now, I think. This is only a very short clip of it.

I believe the OP was saying he bought the decoders pre-loaded with the files. In that case, he won't have the original project to reload onto the decoder.

I have done a couple of Bulleids (MN and BoB) that were pre-DCC-ready versions. I directly hard-wired them with no socket at all. The live return goes through the chassis, but I had no problems with that. The red and black wires went to the separate pickup and to the chassis ground screw (I can't remember which went to which at this time), and the orange and grey to the brushes, which are entirely insulated from the chassis anyway - the original wiring had a wire going from the chassis using the gearbox top screw, so that's what I used when putting the decoder track wire.

As the saying goes, if it ain't broke, don't fix it! I have a whole heap of v3.5 LokSounds still in use. If one stops working, I'll replace it (and its speaker) with a v5, but there's no point in spending money to replace a perfectly serviceable decoder. That's my thoughts on the subject, anyway. 🙂 Edit: further ideas: if the loco with the v3.5 decoder is playing up and stalling, replace that decoder with a v5 with stay-alive, then reblow and reuse the v3.5 elsewhere. There are still v3.5 sound projects available from major sound suppliers.

I found this too, and also found a spot of teflon powder/grease helped.

Mechanically there's not a lot to choose between any of the Hornby 08/09s, Bachmann 08/09s, and Heljan 07s, as all have decent motors with heavy flywheels and low gearing. The Heljan 07 suffers from poor electrical pickups and a short, rigid (vertically) wheelbase reducing the pickup area over potential dead spots. While there is no vertical travel allowed in any of the axles, there is a lot of side-play, which contributes to the pickup problems because the short and fairly soft pickup strips cannot maintain contact with all of the wheel backs at their extremes of side travel. I did a fix for this on the leading axle, which seems to have the most problems with the excessive side-play, by soldering extra phosphor-bronze strips leading back from the front edges of the existing pickups, bearing on the trailing edges of the driving wheels, and giving a lot more side-play allowance. Earlier Bachmann 08/09s had poor pickups too, with the pickup strips bearing on the tops of the wheel treads: later releases were much improved. Their 08/09 allows some vertical movement on the centre axle. The Hornby 08/09 has more delicate detailing (better detail in my opinion), and also lacks any vertical play on any of its axles. Fitting sound in the Hornby and Bachmann models is relatively easy, the Heljan 07 is much more difficult due to lack of free space (I haven't done one, and I note that a couple of other contributors have had theirs done professionally).

I used SR green on one I did years ago. I can't vouch that it was correct, but more importantly, it looks right. This is it on my old layout, so an old photo from a long gone camera. The loo now sits on my current layout, but I don't seem to have taken any photos of it, there.

Most likely, Rick. Mine weren't riding high but certain points caused problems, either at the blade end or at the frog. It behaves better now, but I am inclined to take it down to the more usual 14.2 - 14.3, if I can move the wheels with sufficient delicacy to suit.

I used a small flat-bladed screwdriver, but in hindsight it might have been better to use something like a curved pair of forceps/tweezers to push them out from inside the body. That, of course, would mean removing the body first. 😉

I had read some of the comments on the other thread, so the first thing I looked for was the bogies being out of square, but mine seems to be OK, with all wheels sitting flat on the track, or table ,or anything else I chose to sit it on. What I did spot straight away was that the wheels on one bogie were able to move laterally further than the pickups could reach at their extremes, but that was easily fixed. The other bogie was fine in that respect. But yes, the back to backs were set a bit too wide.

The befores were anywhere between 14.3 and 14.5 mm (they varied from axle to axle). The afters are currently 14.30 to 14.39, but I think I might take that down a fraction further, to around 14.25 to 14.30. When I said they were set identically, that was within the limitations of the delicate amount of movement I could achieve on each wheel set.

My EFE 'Booster' arrived today from Rails, so I immediately set about testing it on DC. While it ran smoothly, it felt a little stiff, so I set it up on the rolling road for a bit over an hour, still on analogue. Anyway, it freed up nicely, so I then fitted a Zimo MX634C - it was set as a 634D but the cab lights didn't work on that setting, so I tried the 'C' trigger (programme CV8=3) - then tried again with the functions and they worked exactly as the EFE blurb said they should, with directional marker lights on F0 and cab lights on F3 and F4. Running on the layout showed a few minor hiccups with points, where something was snagging in one direction only (that turned out to be a sharp bit on one of the dumb irons), and it didn't like the Peco code 75 3-way points. While the wheel back to backs were within the normal tolerances, I found it was acting like they were a fraction over-gauge, so set about removing the bogie base plates and tweaking the back to backs inwards slightly, using a micrometer to set them all identically. While I had the base plates off, I also fine-tuned a couple of the pick up strips, which have to deal with a lot of side play in the wheels and axles. On reassembly, it was back onto the layout where it behaved perfectly. There was one derailment which I put down to my not having put all the wheels on the track correctly in the first place (that'll do it, every time!),then drove it into the engine shed area with the finer scale points, and it negotiated those properly too. Happy with that, I decided to add the detailing - a coupling hook and steam pipe at each end, then trimmed to clear the tension lock couplings, plus I wanted to change it from having all lights illuminated at each end (directionally). That was a right royal pain to do because the existing lit headcodes are very tight fitting items and took a lot of persuasion to get out of their sockets. There's no danger of losing any of them in normal service, but I did damage a couple getting them out, and lost one in the carpet somewhere, but it is unlikely I'll ever want to put all the illuminated ones back in. It now has just two illuminated discs at each end and the rest are the blanked ones. I may change the painted white marker dots to a glossy grey to resemble lights that are off at some time in the future. And that's it, really. The model does look good, and runs well, in spite of a few niggles. I took a couple of photos of it parked in the loco yard, but realised I'd left grubby fingerprint marks on the sides, so had to give it a quick clean and snap another photo, which didn't turn out quite as nicely as the first ones.

Ahhhh, blessed relief! When my niece was visiting Melbourne many years ago, I took her to the Melbourne Zoo on a 43 degree day. When we went into the Butterfly House, that was a relief for both of us because they keep that at a cool 36 degrees! 🤣