Noel

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

It can be worth trying some of the IP proxy services. You can appear to be either a US or UK based ip address. They cost up to $5 month but many offer a free trial period. Its what some Irish based folk use to watch BBC iPlayer (UK), Netflix (USA) services and other online media services that are geographically content restricted.

Some fabulous videos. Thanks for posting.

Would the 141 chassis fit CIE A or C class kits from Silver fox?

Thanks for the feedback. Forgive, but unfortunately 201s and super train liveried Mk2 are not of interest to me personally. Not a fan of either in their bland early liveries (i.e. the prototypes not the models). Does anybody know what the current or future stock position of mk2 in intercity livery with twin white stripes and orange roof is or might be? Hopefully one day 121 and 001 may emerge as MM models if the marketing numbers stack up. If dreaming add Park Royal and Laminate coaches. For now I will enjoy operating the amazing 141/181 and 071 fleet I have collected. They can operate with a fantastic mix of rolling stock, especially older wagons and coaches.

Thanks BK, very useful. They are superb. Any recommendations for folk who are skilled and experienced enough to take similar 'commission' work? PS: The last question was about wheel pickups in tender as well as loco chassis, but I suspect they are having read Hornby and Bachmann service sheets this evening.

Just been reading up on new Hornby Locos with TTS sound decoders - stunningly good prices for onboard DCC sound. On youtube they seem to sound as good as ESU LokSound. The key functional difference is the decoder has only two concurrent sound channels, so you can play one other sound at the same time as the main loco steam drive or diesel engine noise (e.g. steam/engine plus whistle). The LokSound allow up to 8 concurrent sounds to be played. For the price difference I think I could live with 2 simultanious sound channels with that (i.e. £25 v £120). The Hornby TTS decoders still have up to 16 different sound functions. The Locos seem somewhat less detailed than their premium sound locos, but seem a similar standard to the Hornby steam locos I bought 15-20 years ago. Has anybody else on here any direct experience of Hornby TTS locos? If Hornby and Bachmann both go down the low cost DCC sound route it may give 'sound' the shot in the arm it needs and cause price drops in the coming years.

BK, they look and sound fantastic. Agree the A4 is the biz. A few questions if you don't mind. I'm 15 years out of date with the technical specs of newer Hornby and Bachmann loco chassis. Did you fit the DCC sound + speakers or did the locos come RTR with sound? If the former, where did you put the speaker, and if in the tender did you use a plug-able harness between loco and tender? Did you retro-fit the smoke system? How long does the smoke last before 'topping up' is needed? Do any of these newer model locos have wheel pickups from tender as well as loco chassis? The old Hornby A1/A4s I have are tender drive with pickups on one side of the loco or tender which effectively means two wheels only each side. Thanks in advance, this clips above were exactly what I was looking for.

Hi Guys, thanks for replies so far. I already have DCC sound on an MM 071, could not resist the cost to see what DCC sound was like, and yes it is impressive and adds to the operating ambience in a dramatic way but at a ridiculous cost IMHO given the actual cost of microelectronics these days. I would find it difficult to justify sound chipping many other locos at current prices. Am tempted even at current prices to put sound in one of my tender steam locos. Having one of each sound on the layout until the cost of DCC sound drops to sensible levels will add a provisional novelty to running. I am interested in what experience folks on here have had with DCC sound on steam locos. Ironically retro-fitting DCC sound to large tender locos seems easier, but my preference would be sound on 0-6-0 tank locos which are not ideal candidates space wise. It may be more cost effective to buy a new DCC sound equipped 57xx loco from Bachmann or Hornby than risk butchering one of my existing tank locos. I won't hold my breath waiting for DCC sound decoders to drop to €50! Noel PS: I found the volume way too high on my 071 but managed to reduced it to 35% using a CV. Now there is a nice balance between simulated loco engine noise and real rail noise.

And is it worth it? Does it work? I'm astonished to see Hornby steam locos at insane prices over €300 for DCC sound equipped tender locos. It looks like adding sound to an existing steam loco could cost up to €130 (i.e. sound decoder + speaker + sound file). At these prices I can't see 'sound' becoming the norm despite the fact the the chips cost only a few euro more to manufacture than standard decoders. Sound is one of the key attractions of DCC, but at the moment it seems priced for the 'foolish' (myself included), until market volume kicks in and it becomes the mass market norm years down the road after competitive forces reign. I read that over a year ago Bachmann announced 'economy' sound locos at very reasonable prices. Has anybody heard any of them? http://www.gaugemaster.com/news/New-Economy-OO-DCC-Sound-Locomotives-Announced-By-Bachmann

Makes a lot of sense. It is remarkable that MM seem to have managed to sell over 10k locos in the past six years during the worst economic recession since the 1920s. If I understand it correctly the superb run of 141, 181, 071 and 201 locos only appeared on the market after Lehman brothers had collapsed in 2008 triggering the virtual collapse of most consumer markets. I've no idea how big the market is for Irish stock, but I guess most folk who have always wanted to own top quality RTR loco stock but could not get it before 2008 have probably bought by now. Personally if the production numbers stack up in the future, I would be keen to collect some MM variants of 121 class GMs, especially 001 class MVs, park royals and laminate (stainer like) coaching stock in B&T and Snail green liveries. Some of these locos are available in kit form or as specialist collector items but at a rather high price and don't seem to come with dual bogie all wheel drive and all wheel pickup chassis like the MM GMs which run better over Peco point work than any models I have ever owned. The MM 141/181 locos are master pieces of micro engineering. Produce 001s and 121s of the same standard as the 071s and I'd guess a significant portion of the existing existing customer based would jump at them. But that may be wishful thinking as newer modellers may be more interested in 22000, CAV Mk4, and 2800 type stock. Personally my modelling era interest is primarily the GM era of 60s and 70s. Personally I found the super train 'era' coaching livery rather bland and boring looking and the longer coaches don't fit as well on many model layouts (mk2 & mk3). At least the dual white stripes of the IE era gave coaches a visual lift which scales down better to models. As they say in the movies, the full size 201 class GMs never 'blew my skirt up' (if I had a skirt that is, or was Scottish). My loco interest ceased with the 071s. IMHO, silent DMUs, Darts and Luas aren't real trains! (running for cover now). There is nothing like the sound of GMs.

Thanks WL. I probably should try and source a small dealer service/spares kit for hornby and bachmann (eg bushes, springs, insulating spacers, screws, running gear screws, phosphor bronze, assorted wheels, couplings, loco axils, axil insulators, etc). I resume hornby and bachmann had such spares kits.

Hear hear. Superb layout scenes.

Thanks, hopefully it may save some newbies like myself some time and help a few avoid the same pot holes I did or nearly fell into. Just about to convert two more 0-6-0 tank engines but have decided I will try fitting keep-alive decoders with capacitors into these as I have one diamond crossing on each of the two main line dual tracks that the 0-6-0s sometimes stall or slow briefly at. Also some of my older Hornby tender drive locos will either need extra wheel pickups or keep-alive modules. These older tender drive models effectively only pick up on two wheels each side which is pathetic (i.e. two wheels on port side of tender and two wheels on stbd side of loco chassis). I presume modern Hornby tender locos have pick ups on all wheels including tenders - or do they? I noticed one of my 15yo Bachman 2-6-2 tank locos have additional wired pickups to the bogies as well as main chassis wheel pickups, and runs like a dream at crawl speed of all our points and crossings on DC. The older Hornby tender drives really do need extra pickups, but I'm going to try keep-alive in one before converting any more of them.

Yes the website content is somewhat out of date, but I don't mind at all as long as his incredible model range remain available from the retail/web channel. The web site coverage by store and online retailers of his fabulous products are what is important. From what I understand it's a one man operation which is an awesome achievement to have produced such stunning and precision range of locos. I guess the website is really designed to serve dealers and retailers rather than consumers. I found the technical content useful. He keeps 'delivering the goods' so my mild frustration at the web site currency is not an issue for me personally. Some of the retailers have excellent MM content with detailed photos. Looking forward to whatever new stock is 'coming down the line' in the future - forgive the pun!

Thanks BTB, found it (see below). This is great richrua. What livery were the coaches before you repainted them? I hadn't realised the Mk2a/b's had run in ROI (i.e. with middle door and opening window frames) until Magpie's post. Your success is causing me to rethink what to do with these early BR Mk2s.

How to fix metal gear back on to ring field motor shaft? I bought a Hornby R084 LMS Maroon Princess Elizabeth in 1994. I had never taken it out of the box until this evening. In preparation for DCC conversion I decided to see how she would run 'as new' out of the box on DC in case she needed servicing after laying up in the box for 20 years. She ran perfectly for about 5 mins and seemed to have plenty of grease and lube, however she stopped with high pitched whine as the motor ran but no drive. The metal gear had come off the motor shaft inside the tender. I assume it either had some sort of thin metal sleeve to lock it on the shaft, or some sort of lock tight glue. That whole area of the motor is wheel greased and lubed with oil. Metal gear loose on motor shaft. It's a Ringfield type 6 motor. Any suggestions how I might re-fix the gear tight on the motor shaft? Will I have to completely disassemble the motor to re-fix it? I'm sure this must have happened to folks before. Thanks in anticipation. PS: It was a pity because she looked a quick and easy DCC conversation with space for the decoder inside the tender which I would have finished in less that 1/2 hour.

Thanks Magpie. That is very informative especially the mk2 history which I was not aware of. Now do I re spray them CIE, or keep them in BR livery for childhood nostalgia and run behind a 40yo Hornby CL 37. On balance I think I'll just rewheel and keep the old blue/grey livery. Cheers Noel

Thanks Brian. Might see you there Sunday if I get finished early.