Noel

Thank DV When you say press F1 do you mean function 1 button. I tried that but it switches the loco sound on (i.e. engine startup). Also tried setting CV 54 to 0 and then speed step 1. Thanks Noel

I have one 071 but a number of 141/181s and have noticed a marked difference in speed range on DCC. The 071 has a higher top speed, but the 141/181s I have are far superior at ultra slow start and crawl speeds. They are also silent whereas the 071 starts at a higher speed with some motor hum. Has anybody else noticed this or could this just be the 071 sample I have. It is quite noisy at startup compared to the totally silent 141/181s. The 071 has LokSound v4 decoder, and the 141/181 have a mix of Lenz Silver and Bachmann 36-557 decoders. All set to 28 step speed. I've tried a few different CV settings on the LokSound including setting CV2 to zero and one, but I cannot seem to get it to start anywhere near as slow as the 141/181s. It could be different gearing. Has anybody noticed similar difference between their 141/181 and 071 locos, or any words of wisdom? Thanks. Noel

That is fantastic. Thanks for digging that thread out. I might try this with the other end of the loco and put the standard coupling back in. As the 141/181s are so short having the coupling fixed to the body rather than the bogie should be fine. Many thanks all for replies. Running in 183 as I type. UPDATE: Skirt fitted ok after shaving 1/2mm off the front of the coupling socket.

Thanks, I have the coupler removed, it is the NEM coupler socket that seems just a shade too long Thanks, that is what I thought but wanted to check before taking out the scalpel.

Hi Guys. I've been fitting decoders to some of my Murphy 141/181s and decided to detail the front end of each loco by removing the coupling and adding the optional additional detailing. How should the front skirt be fitted? Does it just push on, and do I need to cut away any of the NEM coupling socket which seems to protrude a little far forward? Thanks in advance Noel PS: Thanks to whoever advised me a few weeks ago not to bother removing the walkway hand rails when prizing the body top off a 141/181, just disconnect the two cab ends. Saved me a lot of fiddling. Used two wooden ice cream sticks to squeeze the body sides at the lugs and then micro flat head to push body sides up 1mm.

Thanks for posting those pics. The Enterprise livery looks superb.

Thanks for posting those pics. The Enterprise livery looks superb.

They should be of great interest to NIR and Enterprise fans. Personally prototype 201's never interested me, but I may buy one of the Intercity grey/green liveried Irish rail 201s (i.e. Mk4/CAF livery). Its a nice livery, but the early orange, yellow and black 201s must have been the ugliest loco liveries ever run in Ireland, second only to the silver of the 1950s C class. There is just something boring about the look of 201s compared to the earlier GMs that had such character. Each on to their own taste. Post 071 class Irish railways and vanilla DMUs hold no interest for this 1960/70s era fan. Mind you I never liked the 'super train' coach livery of the early 70s Mk2's either. It was much improved with the two white bands either side of the black in the IR/IE era, but personally I thought the original black against orange looked awful. My personal wish list for possible MM future stock: 001 Class - Black CIE, B&T CIE Livery (i.e. black roof small orange band under black) 121 CIE/IR livery Park Royal mainline coaches (B&T IE/IR and snail green) Bredin/laminate mainline coaches (B&T CIE and snail green) Stanier lookalikes Open wagons corrigated panels - non braked Mk1 generator van + Dutch Van PS: What a fantastic thread btw. It should be renamed 'History of Irish Model Railways'

They should be of great interest to NIR and Enterprise fans. Personally prototype 201's never interested me, but I may buy one of the Intercity grey/green liveried Irish rail 201s (i.e. Mk4/CAF livery). Its a nice livery, but the early orange, yellow and black 201s must have been the ugliest loco liveries ever run in Ireland, second only to the silver of the 1950s C class. There is just something boring about the look of 201s compared to the earlier GMs that had such character. Each on to their own taste. Post 071 class Irish railways and vanilla DMUs hold no interest for this 1960/70s era fan. Mind you I never liked the 'super train' coach livery of the early 70s Mk2's either. It was much improved with the two white bands either side of the black in the IR/IE era, but personally I thought the original black against orange looked awful. My personal wish list for possible MM future stock: 001 Class - Black CIE, B&T CIE Livery (i.e. black roof small orange band under black) 121 CIE/IR livery Park Royal mainline coaches (B&T IE/IR and snail green) Bredin/laminate mainline coaches (B&T CIE and snail green) Stanier lookalikes Open wagons corrigated panels - non braked Mk1 generator van + Dutch Van PS: What a fantastic thread btw. It should be renamed 'History of Irish Model Railways'

Thanks. I find the iPhone app handles this quite well much better than any cab as you have instant access to any sound function without needing shift keys, and the function buttons are labelled with the sounds. Personally notching is not a sound function that has particularly interested me so far. The automatic sounds out of the MM 071 are good enough for me. It would make sense to standardise on ones own functions and remap all decoders so that the same buttons perform the same functions on all locos, especially as you recommend with the 10 most common functions on the 1st the buttons.

Thanks guys. I will re-read the NCE documentation to see if I can set some of the FN buttons to 'momentary' mode. I presume this is done with either the controller or cab settings, but with the decoders I may be able reassign sound functions to lower FN numbers to avoid use of the shift key on cabs. Is this correct?

I find these two functions (F18 notching up and F19 notching down) very awkward to control. They seem to have a life of their own. You have to turn F18 on and then wait until the delivered revs are attained but then quickly turn it off to stop the upward progression. Then to turns revs down you have to engage F19 and wait as it steps down until idle is reached. When the loco is in motion it steps down to idle rather than the correct rpm for the current loco speed. It might have been nicer if F18/F19 could be used to step up and down one rpm range per press of the FN key rather than switching on a function that had to work its way through the motions of staged rpm climbing until stopped. It is probably a restriction imposed by NMRA DCC standards for controlling functions that was drawn up long before sound became popular. But as a user I find it too clunky to bother using and find it unrealistic. Or perhaps I have misunderstood how it is meant to be used.

The seating colours in those looks much better. I might try that tone of blue and add the washable white head rest covers that were a feature of CIE coaches when I was a child. Like the coach lighting. How much current per coach do they use?

Thanks for the feedback. I have a 071 LokSound 4.0 and found the manual notching awkward to use once the loco is moving. Its fine stationary other than the delay waiting to bring the loco back to idle. It's seems to need to complete a cycle and cannot be stepped right down on demand, or am I missing something? Having said that I find it very impressive and reminiscent on my early memories of CIE GMs.

Sounds a great idea for a layout. CBSCR existence was way off my radar. I know that part of the coast from the water side, and surprised to learn so many of the towns were connected by a railway in the past. It is amazing how many lost treasures of disused railway buildings still exist around the country either as ruins or in new use. Can you imagine the passenger traffic these popular holiday spots might attract nowadays had the railway still been in existance. Best of luck with the project.

Hi BK, Well yes somebody had to record them but that's a once off cost, I meant material reproduction cost per decoder is zero. Digitrains charge 1 penny per sound file only because their online store software doesn't allow a price of 0.00. Once the sound file exists, it exists forever, no physical component cost beyond the decoder. Chatting to somebody recently they expressed a preference for the Zimo sound files of Irish GMs rather than the LokSound 4.0 compatible recordings. Does anybody who has had or listened to both have a view on this?

Hi Leslie, yes I appreciate the different economies of scale, but the raw electronic components on a decoder are fairly vanilla produced by the gazillions for other purposes. It's fairly inexpensive now days to sub out tiny productions runs of pcb assemblies to Chinese companies (ie 5-10k units). While the market for decoders is small it must be at least 50,000 units per annum in the UK alone, not to mention Germany, Austria, Scandinavia and US markets. The uniquely 'Irish' bit is just a zero cost sound file. Hornby seem to be targeting the 'toy' market with their £25 extra for a decoder, sound and speaker, on basic detail loco bodies. I appreciate 'cottage' industry manufacturers in developed countries are not at the races in terms of unit costs compared to Far East, but its inevitable that as DCC becomes more mainstream that production shifts east. Cheers Noel.

There you go right way up

Portable internet devices have let 'out of the bag' how cheap micro electronic components really are. The raw materials in decoders cost decoder manufacturers mere cents, their margin is absolutely staggering. In the future sound and DCC may well become standard specs on all locos, as may lighting in coaches, and weathering as standard. In 2014 why don't coach doors open? 25 years ago locos had no lights and no cab detail, just empty mouldings. It has come a long way and will probably continue to 'raise the bar' for what is accepted as 'norm' rather than expensive novelty features aimed at early adopters.

Feel the same way. Hornby are selling a new range of locos with their 'TTS sound' chip and speaker for only £25 more than non sound loco. Hopefully we will all look back in a few years time when the market standard has become DCC sound ready locos (ie speaker and DCC socket installed), and sound decoders costing max €30-40 from all the key players. Hornby are leading the pack on sound for now. 2 channel sound seems adequate. I know many feel LokSound v4 and Zimo are the current high spec sound benchmarks, but do we really need 8 concurrent sound channels if a 2 sound channel decoder can still deliver 16 different sounds? Especially if a TTS type decoder is as affordable as £25.

A few more from today - Killarney 22315 Mallow-Tralee departing Killarney 22315 reversing towards the shunt before heading up hill to Tralee. The driver has to walk the length of the train to change cab. What a steep incline but the 22000 effortlessly pulled up the steep hill IMHO, the modern DMU trains are rather boring looking, so unindustrial, hardly machines, more like vanilla appliances. Killarney Station - One of my favourites

What a fabulous old photo.

I have acquired a rake of cravens and to say I am pleased with them would be an understatement. Superb bodies. However, one minor niggle and I presume it's just me, but I find the interior blue seating is a bit gareish. Don't know if its the wrong colour or the old issue of true colours not scaling down without modification. It is annoying me so much I'm going to repaint the interiors to try and loose the cold blue refrigerated look. It just seems to clash with the exterior so much and not what I remember travelling on cravens years ago. I think I will go for a warmer neutral colour that is less stark.

An Irish train doing 100mph!!!

Were on board right now. These Mk4s do not ride was well as the 22000 or old mk3s 224 Cab train management display DVT Kaydee eat your heart out