irishthump

Suggestion for the "Powers that Be"; With all the discussion about DCC sound and DCC control in general, maybe it should have it's own seperate section? Just a thought....

This series has been running for a few weeks on Discovery Shed. They've been showing back to back episodes all day, but the 10pm episode is about Irish railways. Might be worth a look....

Very impressive! Although I've ordered myself a Lokprogrammer, I might be tempted to get one or two of these. Does Mr Soundguy offer a reprogramming service for decoders?

Yes it is sad. Although I was never in the actual shop I had a lot of dealings with Gareth and found him always to be very helpful.

Yeah, it's not really acceptable when I can order a decoder from other suppliers in the UK and have it posted the next day. But like I said I don't think it's down to MSB, Mr Soundguy does'nt seem to be able to keep up with the demand.

They always seem to have a backlog when it comes to these decoders, and to be honest I think it's down to whoever is producing them. The last time I ordered one it took 3 months.

I would'nt thinks so. Marks Models in Dun Laoghaire is the latest in a long line of shops based in the same shopping centre that have closed over the last few years. From what I hear the rates on the units was very high.

Me secrets out!

Damn you all with your nice clean workbenches!

Thanks for that! Well the F7 chassis should fit easily, time to start tinkering...

That would be a last resort. But I think the longer bogies would work, and I have a few spare. So can anyone tell me the dimensions of the resin body?

I'm thinking of using an Athearn F7 chassis and fitting it with 6 wheel bogies from an Athearn SD40. Mind you I have'nt even got a Silverfox kit, that's why I'm asking about the dimensions of the resin body!

Does anyone know offhand what length the chassis has to be to fit the Silverfox kit? I'm sure you could find an Athearn or kato HO chassis that would fit without major surgery...

Yep, I've been meaning to do something with those support beams in the front!

Although I should say the concrete on the refuelling point in the first pic was done slightly differently. I used 5mm MDF covered with the same mixture of paint and plaster but filled between the rails with tile grout. I did'nt come up any higher than the sleepers which meant I did'nt haveto cut channels for the wheels. I think it turned out fine.

Yes I'd seen that video. Although he does get a lovely finish on the hardstanding I did'nt fancy the idea of having to use a Dremel to gouge out the side of the tracks.

Thanks! The shed floor is 5mm foamboard (I cut strips of thinner card to fill between the tracks). For a concrete finish I used grey acrylic paint mixed with a little plaster which gives a nice rough texture. I used a normal bag of plaster from Woodies. As far as I can remember I toned down the finish with a thin dark wash sprayed on with my airbrush as it was a little light and too clean looking!

Long time since I did any work on the layout, but I went mad placing some figures on the diesel shed this evening!

Lovely job, they really look the part!

The current Zimo decoders support the manual notching feature, the soundfile itself has to be modified to allow manual notching to be used.

The actual sound from Mr Soundguy's chips is not the issue, the recordings are top notch and are most likely the best available at the moment. The main issue is how the soundfile is set up on the decoders themselves. Like I said, if he simply made manual notching available on the Zimo decoders then they would be pretty much perfect. To be honest I don't understand why he switched from Loksound to Zimo.

Yes, Noel, That's pretty much all spot on. I simply asked Olivia's Trains to replace the engine sound on the 071 sound file. I did'nt use manual notching at all in the second video, the spooling sounds were the result of the throttle changes. The braking sound is automatic but it's adjustable or can be turned off altogether. The Model Shop Belfast chip just is'nt as responsive, I think part of the reason for this is that the Zimo chips link the throttle changes to the actual speed of the motor rather than to the throttle setting. The 141's and 181's were fitted with different engines and there was a noticable difference between the sound of the two. The 141's were originally fitted with the EMD 567C while the 181's came with the EMD 645E.

Sorry lads, had them set to private! Try now....

Here's a couple of quick videos.... The first one just has the loco standing still while I run up through the engine notches. The second one is 142 shunting some container flats. It was difficult working the throttle while trying to film everything with my phone but hopefully you'll get the effect of the engine sound! [video=youtube;_NTj-YS61WU]

Hi, Noel. That's my loco in the link that Glenderg posted. I have to agree with Dhu Varren that the Loksound decoder has much better response when driving it. The problem with the Zimo decoders from MSB is that the engine sound does not respond quickly enough to throttle changes, which would'nt be so bad if they had manual notching but they don't! As for the engine sound in the Loksound; it is pretty accurate. It's an EMD 567 which is what was originally fitted to the 121 and 141 class locos. Dhu Varren is quite right in pointing out that it's a 16 cyl rather than an 8 cyl engine which was fitted in the 141's but it's pretty close. Like you said it does'nt really get a chance to spool up to hi revs as it's just shunting, but it sounds great when notched right up! With the Loksound decoder you can have the loco stopped and then turn the throttle straight up to say speed step 10 and the engine sound will go straight to a high notch which is very realistic. That just does'nt work with the Zimo decoders where the loco will be up to speed long before the engine sound catches up with it. You literally have to adjust the way you drive the loco to how the decoder behaves. As for installing the speaker, here's a link to my workbench where I describe how I did mine in detail. It's a simple enough job. http://irishrailwaymodeller.com/showthread.php/77-Graham-s-Workbench/page10