Same caveat as before: some of these files are a bit on the large side so may cause you problems on dial-up.
Here are the latest videos of my sound-fitted locomotives, taken by Neil S Wood and edited by me.
Two sound-equipped Bachmann class 37 locomotives, 37 693 and 37 698, double heading. These have been consisted under DCC control but if you observe closely you will see that 37 693 has fallen out of sync, even though I carefully matched them initially. This shows up particularly on stopping where 693 seems to have lost its momentum setting. I have subsequently fixed this but didn't have time when Neil Wood took the video. We may yet redo this one in the future.
37 693 (leading) is as it left the factory, with no modifications to the sound or speaker - it is set at near maximum volume. 37 698 is modified as shown above in an earlier post, with the Bachmann speaker "boxed" in and an additional 20mm speaker and chamber mounted in one of the noses. Volume is set around 40 (out of 64) - the sound quality is better with more bass showing up the exhaust bark better.
Next is the Bachmann 37 reblown with Howes unrefurbished class 37 sounds. This locomotive is the result of swapping chassis and bodies between 37 057 "Viking" and 37 035 in Dutch livery. This also involved swapping bogie frames and buffers. The now non-sound-fitted Viking may be seen in the foreground in some parts of this video. Note the difference in behaviour of 37 035 between the first cicuit and the second: opening the throttle gently means it doesn't "thrash" too much, where the second time round I opened the throttle wide from the standing start and it "thrashes" noticeably more. The sounds make an interesting contrast with the Bachmann (South West Digital-based) sounds. Note also the much better volume from the Bachmann original speaker setup, albeit "boxed" in as per above, suggesting that the volume is as much dependent on the original sound project as on the speaker fitting.
Next is the Hornby Brush Type 2, class 30, with Mirrlees engine sounds from Howes. This one has a large rectangular speaker mounted beneath the radiator fan grille but pointing downwards (the working fan was removed). Bryan, the Howes' sound engineer, took some existing Mirrlees sounds and matched them to some archive footage of original Mirrlees equiped Brush Type 2s, retaining things like horn, buffing and compressor sounds as these would not have changed when the locomotives were re-engined by English Electric to become the later class 31.
The Heljan class 47 was fitted with Howes sound when the earlier videos were done but we ran out of time to take this one. It now has two speakers, both 23mm standard ESU ones, one under the roof at the non-radiator end (the fan grille is solid anyway!), pointing downwards, and one in the fuel tanks.
The Bachmann class 66 as it left the factory has the rather annoying "yinging" noise. This one, 66 522 in Freightliner/Shanks livery, has the standard Bachmann speaker setup but the decoder has been reblown by Howes with their own class 66 sounds. The Howes sounds include rather a nice turbocharger whistle but I'm not sure it can be heard well in the video.
The Bachmann class 24 sounds reasonably good as it comes but seems to lack a little depth. I "boxed" in the original bachmann s[eaker as per the class 37s shown earlier, and also added a 20mm speaker with severely cut down chamber, which just squeezed in under the roof at the other end.
Finally, one that was shown in the earlier clips but I have now fitted a bass-reflex speaker under the roof fan grilles, pointing upwards, together with the second standard speaker in the fuel tanks. In this case I think the bass reflex speaker has added noticeable depth to the sound. I also added a bass reflex speaker to the class 50 featured earlier but I think the difference from before is barely noticeable.
I hope you enjoy these clips. I have tweaked them to get better sound quality at the expense of video quality, since the sound is really what these are about.
