blueeighties

Very nice my friend!

Morning Jon Yes someone else pointed the generator grilles out, doesn't really bother me to be honest, I think I would probably make them look worse by trying to correct. You ever tried?

Cheers. Sadly she's not mine, just visiting

An update of a few projects on the go. 47706. Distressed, filthy black, streaking paintwork, it's been quite a challenge! Trying to get the details right...such as the replacement unpainted high visibility headlight surround. This is going to be large logo 47603, 'County Of Somerset'. Undecided as to what to do this as yet, possibly 47403, 'The Geordie'. To be 58050, 'Toton Traction Depot'. A stranger to Annitsford's shores! A rare cop!! The joys of RTC stock. And finally a rake of Dogfish that have been loaded and weathered. I think I need a little lie down after that lot

Yep, I forgot about the tube bit. DOH! I'm happy with the sound of it as a large sealed enclosure :-)

I have always had an interest in high quality sound. You know this from my thread on av systems.Maybe that's why I enjoy dcc sound? But I digress. Bass reflex speakers are about a tenner a shot, and I fit quite a few now, so thanks to a suggestion from Pete Harvey from PH Designs, I decided to have a go myself. The basic principle of a loudspeaker is shifting air....the larger the enclosure, the better the bass response. so..... This was my 1st attempt with one of the class 40's I am currently upgrading. I added a port to it to try and further increase bass output, but it didn't work. Ports need to be calculated with complicated formulas to work properly, I used a 6mm drill A quick bodge with blu tack to plug the hole, and it was sounding pretty decent. Much louder and fuller sounding than recently purchased bass speakers. Back to my class 27 I started detailing the other week. Space inside these little Sulzers is ridiculously tight, so I normally just squeeze the small circular speaker on top of the end of the circuit board, and seal the rear of it with blu tack. Not ideal, so I decided to take the circuit board out, and hardwire everything. The additional space allowed me to make a proper circular enclosure, using 1mm plasticard, and securely attach it to the chassis. A much better job. Enclosed speaker on the left, normal on the right. The biggest surprise of the experiment was the increase in volume and bass from the small circular speaker...the little 27 now sounds absolutely fantastic. I'm not sure if you will pick the improvment up from the videos, but I will be making all of my own enclosures from now on.

Thanks for that

That's an idea Pete. Don't suppose you have tried one yourself? I wouldn't expect speaker enclosure dimensions and port frequency roll off points to be too important in 00 scale......

Back to the grind. Sort of. I love it really Another 40 is in works. Same as the last one, lights, sound, bogie drop, etched roof grille and headcode discs, and new windscreen surrounds and laserglaze. Now then, with the last one, I put speaker in the traditional place, (under the roof fan), and one under chassis in the fuel tanks. After slicing some metal off the chassis block nose ends so the light units will fit, I had an idea for an alternative speaker position. Do we really need this circuit board? Nah! Pump it up! I'll see what this pair sounds like, I'm not sure if a pair of bass enhanced will be better than a single large bass reflex. I'll have a play. A pair of red stripe bones A distressed ex Scotrail 47/7 Finally got one side of lab 12 lined. Only another 5 to go

Looks good to me Sir! Is the Red car a Princess?

Hahahaha Honestly though, at that price, if it's a good un, it will be a no brainer. Sound lights, smoke generator, you know it has to be done......

Cheers guys. Sorry Andy hehe. They really are superb beasties aren't they? I have some coming onto the workbench soon, so maybe I can resist temptation a bit longer, until the Dapol 08 arrives.......

So, using Bachmann's 47710, a start has been made. Scotrail branding, numbers, and nameplates have been removed, and a basic initial 'distressing' has been attempted. Some interesting new techniques are getting tried.

The latest project to be started is trying to create this beastie, quite a distressed finish, rather than the usual pristine. This was during the period when the loco had just been transferred South from Scotland, and rather hastily de-branded, and rather sloppily re-branded with small NSE logos.

Strange, nothing received from you since our communication on the 20th.

Lol, 'forst'. Pete, did you not get my last emails regarding the nose ends?

Hi mate. Yes, I agree, the bonnet on 404 looks very strange and spoils the model a bit. It is the DJH kit, why they slope that much I do not know. 043 is the Heljan vesion, and to my eyes looks the business. I really fancy a JLTRT 40.......

I have just spent a fantastic weekend at the North East Railex show. One of the highlights was being able to handle and photograph these O gauge beasties. I'll let the pictures do the talking. Right. I am most definitely not off to drool over the JLTRT website

Hi. I didn't add 'Frank', but I think He is from the Bachmann stable!

Thank you. I'll persevere!

Hi Mick. Could I ask you how you go about getting coach lining to 'sit' properly in between all the nooks and crannies, door edges etc. I am cutting them into small pieces, and using Microsol, but they are still not settling as well as I would like. This is a picture of my 1st attempt, hope you don't mind me posting, Cheers, Lee.

Good evening. I have finally got around to working on my class 27 I bought ages ago. Sound fitted, etched fan and roof grille, and bufferbeam detail. Also painted the cab handrails yellow. I might actually keep this ex works, fresh from Eastfield. I don't know what Heljan were on when they worked out the distance between the dominoes.... All of the following have been weathered, just matt varnish and final detailing to finish. And this is my first attempt at lining an RTC coach....

With all of the recent dcc work, and light fiddling, I thought it was time to sort something a little bit more organised than bits of wire precariously wrapped around loose bits of track. So, here is the new test track, with all mod cons! DCC programming, and now fuly running with decoder pro. also standard 12v dc in both 00 and n, fed from the Gaugemaster unit you can see in the background. I have put in 12v feeds as well, for testing accessories and lights. The kitchen sink goes in tomorrow

A few loco projects I have been working on, that are all now at the weathering stage. Hornby 56....has been renumbered as 56034, Ogwr Castle. Another one, this time kept as the original 56037 Richard Trevethick. Hornby somehow manage to print the nameplates on everything slightly oversize, so I had to remove them on both of these as the plates wouldn't cover them. This one has been fitted with a Legoman soundchip, and Shawplan roof grilles and fans. 56037 by rothburyuk, on Flickr Loving this...the transfers are custom ones courtesy of Brian at Shawplan. Need to fit a set of lights to this too. This was the Railfreight red stripe duff, re done as Gatesheads 'Aycliffe' with it's one off livery. And finally the RTC 31 is nearing completion. Something a little bit different. I still haven't got the lining onto the RTC coach I'm doing, watch this space!

It does indeed my friend, with each loco come more improvements!