Video clips of various sound locos on my layout

These are videos (hosted on PhotoBucket) taken on my layout by Neil Wood and edited by me, to demonstrate various sound-fitted locomotives. They have been shown on other forums so please forgive me if you have seen them before. The video quality suffered a little from the editing as I tried to concentrate on sound quality. All are on the main line (continuous) circuits of my layout, travelling through the fictional High Cross station.

First up is the Bachmann class 24. This locomotive has subsequently swapped bodies with my green one, so is now not sound-fitted while the green one, D5014, is!




 

Next, the Bachmann class 37s double-headed. They weren't quite behaving properly in the consist and 37 693 stopped rather abruptly in this clip. I fixed it later but too late for Neil to video as he had another appointment to go to.




 

Now we have the Hornby A1A-A1A Brush type 2 D5513, as a class 30 with Mirrlees engine. This one is a Howes of Oxford decoder.




 

After that we have a Howes sound-fitted Heljan class 47.




 

Now a Heljan class 58 with Howes sounds, fitted with a bass reflex speaker. I also fixed up the lighting a bit.




 

This one is a bit more complicated. It is a Bachmann class 37 which has swapped identities - the sound decoder from 37 057 "Viking" was fitted into 37 035 in Dutch livery, then the decoder was reblown with Howes' unrefurbished class 37 sounds. Note the different thrash when I start gently (first circuit) and start at full throttle (second circuit).




 

Next is a Bachmann class 66 reblown with Howes' sounds.




 

This one is a Heljan Hymek fitted with Howes' sounds.




 

A Hornby class 50 "Ark Royal" follows, again with Howes' sounds.




 

Now a Bachmann Standard class 5MT 73082 "Camelot" fitted with Howes's sounds. Bryan, the Howes sound engineer, put the King Arthur style whistle on for me. He can also do the standard whistle of LMS style one fitted to some of the class.




 

Lastly (for the time being, anyway!) my favourite, the Heljan class 33 fitted with Howes' sounds. I liked this one so much I did a second one.







 

Most of these have had a second speaker added, although the steam engine retains only the standard 23mm speake in the tender. The Hornby diesels had their operating fan mechanisms removed to make room for larger rectangular speakers.

 

I hope you enjoyed these clips.They do show some of the less finished parts of the layout rather cruelly.

 

Howes were so pleased with these that they put a link on their web site to one of the forums I placed them on.



Edit: fixed up typos!

I suppose I should have added that some of these clips are fairly large files, so if you have dial-up access you may wish to avoid clicking on the links.

Jeff, do you send loco to UK or just get a decoder with sound already blown  in & you instal it into loco?

 

Jeff

Some really good videos there i have not seen or should i say heard many Howes versions before they mainly seem to be SWD on video normally.

They sound very good indeed to me .

Ron you can just buy the blown chip and speaker they are very easy to fit like Jeff i also tend to fit an extra speaker in the fuel tanks it gives a more bass sound bouncing off the ballasted track

cheers Brian

must say i enjoyed those Jeff,i like the sounds makes it more interesting

:doublethumb:cool:

These all look very familiar.  If you want to redo some of these give me a shout Jeff.  I was thinking of the one with the abrupt stop.

Not in any particular order:

Thanks all - Neil can take credit for the actual videos.

I send the decoders only away for reblowing. Buying them from new Howes send the ESU decoder and speaker for installation by the modeller.

I have added second speakers in the fuel tanks on all of the Heljan ones. In this respect Heljan are easier than the others because they have separately fitted fuel tanks that can easily be detached and modified. They also sell spares (through Howes, as Heljan UK agents) so if one does make a mistake it is easily made right again.

The Bachmann 37s all now have an extra 20mm speaker in one of the noses - I will eventually put them in the tanks but this is a much more difficult job with Bachmann and Hornby designs.

I am generally very happy with the Howes ones but all of them add to the "driving" experience. Sound has rekindled my interest in actually running trains as opposed to modelling activities.

I will take you up on the offer, Neil, whenever you are able to escape from your two "Mini Me's"!! Will see you this weekend anyway for the running session.

[user=321]SRman[/user] wrote:

I will take you up on the offer, Neil, whenever you are able to escape from your two "Mini Me's"!! Will see you this weekend anyway for the running session.

Jeff, do you mean that Neil's two sons look like him - pity his poor wife then

Jeff you're spot-on about sound adding to the driving experience!  It makes you think about what you're doing.

 Mike

A bit off topic but i will ask anyway

Jeff i notice in the videos you have some LT stock are they EFE ones or Radley and are they motorised with Black beatles or something?

cheers Brian

[user=95]Sol[/user] wrote:

[user=321]SRman[/user] wrote:

I will take you up on the offer, Neil, whenever you are able to escape from your two "Mini Me's"!! Will see you this weekend anyway for the running session.

Jeff, do you mean that Neil's two sons look like him - pity his poor wife then

I think she's quite happy with their looks Ron.;-)

Brian, re the LT stock (in my avatar too!): It is a bit of a mixture but all that are motorised have used Black Beetles, except one of the 1938 tube sets I bought already motorised with a Bachmann mechanism in it.

Not in any order, I have:

5 car CO/CP stock made from white metal Harrow Models kits (now in the Radley range).

5 car Q stock made from resin kits from DC Kits/Little Bus Company - 2 x Q23, Q27, Q31 and Q38 in the mix, most painted but awaiting glazing and couplings.

2 car F stock from Harrow Models white metal kits - 1 built the other still in kit form.

2 x EFE 1938 tube stock sets, motorised.

1 x EFE 1959/62 tube stock, unmotorised at this stage.

4 car A60 stock from resin Harrow Models/Radley kits, painted but not yet built or motorised.

4 car C69 stock from Little Bus Company resin kits - unbuilt.

They were running a shuttle on their own lines but I relaid the fiddle yard and have not restored the LT tracks - the sidings they are sitting in are the remnants!

Thats some great LT stock you have there Jeff

I am still toying with the idea of having an underground branch line i still have an option to do it but i  cant make my mind up yet

cheers Brian

Enjoyed those Jeff thanks .liked the last one best.They were all were good though.:doublethumb

Go for it Brian ,if you have the space and the interest why not. :cool wink

Still way behind trying to catch up on all the posts here but this was well worth it!

I love the conductor rail and the signal box a la Clapham Junction?

The Class 33 was the best sound for me as well - excellent.

Do you think the Howes sounds are better than SWD or is it just coincidence that you have gone for Howes?

Coincidence really; I wanted the 33 first and Howes had it and SWD didn't. Simple as that! However, having sampled the Howes ones I was hooked and stayed with a known good product, with the 47 being the next purchase. I'm tempted to try the SWD "Thumper" sounds for my 206 "Tadpole" unit.

I also want to try a West Country with sound and Howes offer one of those.

The Clapham-style signal box is the only structure I have had no hand in designing or building. It was scratchbuilt by a friend who regularly visits us from Sydney and decided he wanted to contribute something to my layout. The signal box was the result and I'm very proud to show it off to anyone who's interested.

I think a great deal of this who`s sound chips are better really is down to a personal preferance.

For a long time South west digital basically held the crown in UK engine sounds.

Then Howes began

Then Mr soundguy

Then Olivias trains

From reading forums and listening to various clips the South west digital crown is certainly slipping Howes are as good if not better on some .

Olivias trains do seem to be coming up close to them and seem to be coming more popular

The one that seems to be behind if any is the Mr Soundguy ones which for some reason do not seem to be as popular although myself i heard the Class 50 at a show which sounded fine to me but many quite heavily into sound dont seem to rate the Mr soundguy ones so well.

I think a lot is personal preferance once someone starts buying soundchips they tend to stick with the same supplier untill something out of the ordinary crops up that compels them to try another supplier.

cheers Brian

I think you have summed it up in a nutshell, Brian. :thumbs