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"Hornby Live Sound"

3K views 24 replies 11 participants last post by  Gwent rail 
#1 ·
I've spotted that Hornby are now offering product in their continental range with sound. It can't be too long before sound appears in their British outline range. Hornby are in favour of sound that you can download from their website. The continental locos use dedicated sound decoders so the principles in this range are different.

What chance the new superdetailed Hornby Class 56 Loco, likely to be on sale at the Warley Show in December, to be the first to be "Hornby Live Sound" enabled?

This could well be the BIG Hornby announcement for 2008!

Happy modelling
Gary
 
#6 · (Edited by Moderator)
I'd love to see Hornby doing DCC sound. I've been hanging out for this for some time. Simon said that Hornby would only do it if it was an additional 20 quid though. I don't know how feasible that is. What I don't want is them to make the same error they did with their digital stuff and "have a go". They would be well advised to buy it off the shelf from ESU like everyone else.
 
#7 ·
Athearn and Roundhouse/MDC locos have had built-in sound for some 35 years or more.

May not be exactly the sort of 'sound' one might be looking for....but they certainly made lots of mechanical noises!

way back in the...eighties or early nineties I wrote to Chris Leigh's Scalemodel Trains mag suggesting the fitment of smoke units to diesels as well.

For all the fancy dijjitle stuff found in today's splendidly-fragile offerings.....lights, sounds, magical control...someone seems to have forgotten the other senses.....smoke and smell, for example?

especially smells.....

as a one-time career bus driver of the old school [read, studied grumpiness]...I loved the 'smell' of old buses....a smell which radically altered with the arrival of moden plastic fantastic buses.
Railway coaches are the same....the old Mk1's smelt very different inside, to the latest plastic cocoons without opening windows?
 
#8 · (Edited by Moderator)
QUOTE For all the fancy dijjitle stuff found in today's splendidly-fragile offerings.....lights, sounds, magical control...someone seems to have forgotten the other senses.....smoke and smell, for example?

You definitely need a Hornby or Mamod Live Steam loco! There is currently remarkable value out there...

Happy modelling
Gary
 
#9 ·
Sound the big thing for 2008


I don't think so. Not when I've got to throw away all my DC equipment, listen to a dozen different opinions on which is the best manufacturer, spend a fortune on a DCC system, convert all my stock to DCC and then find that I'll need to spend around £80 on a decent sound chip which will only give me American sounds!

Can you imagine 999 locos all running around steaming, hooting and tooting. Puffing, chuffing and hissing ... BEDLAM

Give me a break Hornby, stop trying to con me into believing that I can't run a railway without your cheap plastic digital boxes.

 
#10 · (Edited by Moderator)
Give me a break Hornby, stop trying to con me into believing that I can't run a railway without your cheap plastic digital boxes
strangely enough...I don't think it's either Hornby or Bachmann who are trying to force the influence, so to speak...

looks to me the pressure is actually coming from vociferous sections of the model railway tinternet.

hornmann simply respond to market pressures?

I am amazed on ''returning'' to the world of US model railroading, after being isolated for several years, how the RTR market has changed.
Now, I see from their forums, that consumers consider it a 'given', any steam or diesel loco WILL come with chips AND sound....

[I also suspect, US modellers are amazed we in the YuK are happy with kits that don't even supply WHEELS?]
 
#13 ·
Gary, you may have let the cat out of the bag, regarding a sound equipped class 56 being the first from Hornby?

Sceptics might say, following the Hornby DCC debacle, it'll just be a recording of Simon Kohler making engine noises into a recorder.

Grrrrrrrrr Hummmmmmm Tissssshhhh "BAARPP ! BAARPP !"
Chuff Chuff Chuff Chuff "TOOT! TOOT!"

 
#15 ·
QUOTE (alastairq @ 15 Jul 2007, 08:23) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>strangely enough...I don't think it's either Hornby or Bachmann who are trying to force the influence, so to speak...
looks to me the pressure is actually coming from vociferous sections of the model railway tinternet.
hornmann simply respond to market pressures?

Another case of the noisy minority foisting their wishes on the majority who were happy with the status quo then


 
#18 ·
QUOTE (Gwent rail @ 16 Jul 2007, 09:30) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Why not
They were a fantastic group




As far as the status quo is concerned, if you are talking about loco control, then we were managing perfectly well as we were before some idiot wanted to control everything by pushing buttons and tapping yet another keyboard



They were up until the mid seveties. Then went into a terminal decline.

There's nothing wrong with tapping on a keyboard. It's the future, embrace it!
 
#19 ·
i thought mr kohler had stated he wouldnt do sound in the uk unless it could be had for less than £20?

while i like to see new developements i do think hornby has taken their eye off the ball a little. I dont know weather they are doing more of the "stuff" this year or weather we are noticeing it more because of the lack of propper models, but i wish they would just go back to doing what they are best at- making model trains!

I am bored with yet another "year of consolidation". i just want some new stock. i want some stock that inspires me and captures my imagination. sorry but a 56 aint going to do that-even with sound.

I am looking forward to the railroad range far more than i am the new 56 or anything DCC or sound. i will get an almost unlimited supply of donor locomotives to play with and a whole bunch of cheap chassis.

Peter
 
#20 ·
QUOTE (Gwent rail @ 16 Jul 2007, 00:30) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>if you are talking about loco control, then we were managing perfectly well as we were before some idiot wanted to control everything by pushing buttons and tapping yet another keyboard

I would not exactly call Behnt Lenz an idiot.

Stick to analogue if you wish - regarding motor control DCC (using a quality decoder, correctly set up) will make a excellent runner even better.

Yes, I use DCC & am very enthusiastic about it but I do not think it's the "be all & end all". There will always be a place for analogue, just as there is still a place for clockwork.

At the end of the day its really only a matter of achieving more or less the same outcome using different methods. There are many things DCC can do effectively that analogue cannot, such as working lights that stay on when locomotives/units stop (yes, you can use high frequency but that would probably upset Gary's precious EU standards), remote uncoupling & of course sound.
 
#21 · (Edited by Moderator)
QUOTE (dbclass50 @ 16 Jul 2007, 07:00) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>I would not exactly call Behnt Lenz an idiot.

Stick to analogue if you wish - regarding motor control DCC (using a quality decoder, correctly set up) will make a excellent runner even better.

Yes, I use DCC & am very enthusiastic about it but I do not think it's the "be all & end all". There will always be a place for analogue, just as there is still a place for clockwork.

At the end of the day its really only a matter of achieving more or less the same outcome using different methods. There are many things DCC can do effectively that analogue cannot, such as working lights that stay on when locomotives/units stop (yes, you can use high frequency but that would probably upset Gary's precious EU standards), remote uncoupling & of course sound.

Behnt Lenz an idiot
Most certainly not, but then he didn't thump the desk (metaphorically) and insist that everyone should convert to his system!

Your invitation for me to stick to analogue is refreshing, as is your concession that DCC is not the "be all & end all". In turn I will also concede that there will always be a place for DCC (and clockwork).
As for better running, I would advise anyone with problems in that area to build better track, run with modern motors and regularly do cleaning maintainance on stock and track, as if all these are right, DCC will not make a vast improvement.

Finally, it is misleading, especially to any inexperienced modeller, to suggest that "there are many things that DCC can do that analogue cannot". Sound (of the American variety and at considerable cost) is certainly one, lighting is marginally another, but I can exclusively reveal to you that I have been doing such things as remote uncoupling and other automated movements for over 35 years now and never needed any more than a low voltage power supply, some wire and a few bits and pieces.
Certainly not a command module, decoder and such other expensive gear.

Let's be clear, I have no problem with anyone who wishes to use DCC for whatever reason. I am, however, sick and tired of a vociferous minority trying to ram it down our throats and influencing the market in a manner that is out of all proportion to their numbers (analogue is still more popular than DCC despite all the trumpet blowing of the more rabid DCC nuts)
Worse still is the opinionated superiority that a very few DCC advocates portray in all their utterances, as if I'm somewhat less of a modeller for using an analogue system. Well it suits me gentlemen, so back off!



PS It is a refreshing fact that there's very little of the "DCC snobery" attitude evident on MRF, so don't all spend time posting a defence of the forum's DCC advocates, there's no need.
 
#22 ·
Sorry Neil, in my defence of my analogue position, I neglected to reply to your post.

Just suffice it to say that as an ex electronics engineer, I've done many hours of tapping on a keyboard and I would like to think that I have totally embraced "the future". That doesn't mean I have to throw away all the good things of the 20th century though, especially my Hammant & Morgan Duette(s)!!


 
#23 ·
QUOTE (Gwent rail)PS It is a refreshing fact that there's very little of the "DCC snobery" attitude evident on MRF, so don't all spend time posting a defence of the forum's DCC advocates, there's no need.


Just suffice it to say that as an ex electronics engineer, I've done many hours of tapping on a keyboard and I would like to think that I have totally embraced "the future". That doesn't mean I have to throw away all the good things of the 20th century though, especially my Hammant & Morgan Duette(s)!!


here here. While i dont use DCC i respect the people who do. but what does get on my nerves are people who are constantly banging on about it and seem to have lost the modelling and the rail aspect of the hobby. This forum is refreshing in that there are very few people like that on here.

If i drop my H&M duette then there is a pretty good chance that the floor is going to come off worse. show me a DCC system built like that.

Perhaps as electronic engineers we have a sligltly different way of thinking. i like to think that i have my own way of embracing the future without fixing things that arnt really broken.

Peter
 
#24 ·
QUOTE (pedromorgan @ 16 Jul 2007, 09:39) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>If i drop my H&M duette then there is a pretty good chance that the floor is going to come off worse. show me a DCC system built like that.

Peter

That would be the ZTC 505 and 511. Very much from the H&M school of construction. But, despite loving my 505, I would never part with my Duette either. Too many old Triangs that I would never dream of trying to chip. More than happy with them as they are.


Ashley
 
#25 ·
QUOTE (pedromorgan @ 16 Jul 2007, 09:39) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>here here. While i dont use DCC i respect the people who do. but what does get on my nerves are people who are constantly banging on about it and seem to have lost the modelling and the rail aspect of the hobby. This forum is refreshing in that there are very few people like that on here.
Perhaps as electronic engineers we have a sligltly different way of thinking. i like to think that i have my own way of embracing the future without fixing things that arnt really broken.
Peter

And that Peter, is the crux of the matter.

I am constantly amused by the computer "anoraks" that have a hard drive with zillions of bites that they will never use and more graphics capacity than a fighter plane "heads down" display, but find the need to spend a fortune on upgrading to the newest, fastest model.

For me, changing to DCC is like that ... unnecessary.
All I want is to stop the DCC anorak characters from preaching to me with "John the Baptist" zeal. There is a danger that by continuing down that road, we will end up throwing the baby out with the bath water.


 
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