Wright writes.....

[Nickey Line]

59 minutes ago, MJI said:

Toddington

 

 Bedfordshire? 😄

[Michael Edge]

When the Deltics were runnng on the ECML I lived at Upton, nearly two miles away from the West Riding & Grimsby Joint, there was a down Deltic turn at about 3am which regularly woke me up. I could hear it from somewhere near Hampole until the driver shut off at the top of the hill at Nostell, I never saw this but the noise was magnificent. Later I moved much nearer the line (finally in Hemsworth it was at the bottom of my garden) but the Deltics had been replaced by HSTs then. At Hemsworth I had class 56 on very heavy trains in the night - they shook the whole house but the noise wasn't as nice.

[Mark Saunders]

46 minutes ago, Michael Edge said:

When the Deltics were runnng on the ECML I lived at Upton, nearly two miles away from the West Riding & Grimsby Joint, there was a down Deltic turn at about 3am which regularly woke me up. I could hear it from somewhere near Hampole until the driver shut off at the top of the hill at Nostell, I never saw this but the noise was magnificent. Later I moved much nearer the line (finally in Hemsworth it was at the bottom of my garden) but the Deltics had been replaced by HSTs then. At Hemsworth I had class 56 on very heavy trains in the night - they shook the whole house but the noise wasn't as nice.

Try the Scarborough residents and 68’s they make Deltics sound timid!

[MJI]

When I was young and living near Gloucester at night I could hear EE (most likely 37) hauled freights for about 20 minutes. Nearest line was 2 miles.

[wasabi]

Some years ago I lived in a house in Bow backing onto the GE main line to Norwich.  We soon got used to the regular rains but not when there were track machines out, which luckily was not very often.  The other noise problem was at Christmas when there were no trains and we would wake up in the middle of the night wondering what was wrong.

[Tony Wright]

1 hour ago, Michael Edge said:

When the Deltics were runnng on the ECML I lived at Upton, nearly two miles away from the West Riding & Grimsby Joint, there was a down Deltic turn at about 3am which regularly woke me up. I could hear it from somewhere near Hampole until the driver shut off at the top of the hill at Nostell, I never saw this but the noise was magnificent. Later I moved much nearer the line (finally in Hemsworth it was at the bottom of my garden) but the Deltics had been replaced by HSTs then. At Hemsworth I had class 56 on very heavy trains in the night - they shook the whole house but the noise wasn't as nice.

Good afternoon Mike,

 

A few Deltics have gone past in the years we've lived next to the ECML, but it's during the time when I was photographing them ascending Stoke Bank in BR front-line service where I remember their wonderful cacophony the most (though I never found their sound 'ill'). Standing on the bridge at Careby, one could hear them (though out of sight) as they accelerated through Essendine. Or, while standing on top of the tall bridge at Westby, near to Stoke Summit, their 'voices' could be heard well before they came into view at Corby Glen. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony.  

[Bernard Lamb]

My first sight of the prototype Deltic was around 1955 or 1956. I was cycling home from school in Berko to Hemel and when I got to Hall Park I heard a train coming so looked across to the nearbye WCML. It was a freight train and near the front was the Deltic and I think behind it several 08 diesel shunters. Of course it was running dead and I presume that the shunters were also dead and the gearing isolated. I wish I had a picture or a better description. It can't have been brand new and being delivered, as I new of the beast, so I assume it must have been returning to London from a works visit.

Bernard

[Coach bogie]

I have just come back to the UK for Christmas where the UK freight are almost silent compared to Aus. I have a freight only line a quarter of a mile from my renter and you can hear the coal trains (remember them?) for a good ten minutes from first sound to fading out, not helped by two severe inclines and the narrow gauge 3ft 6" track. They are all double headed and not much of a silencer on them. The Aussy built HST are definitely noisier.

 

Mike Wiltshire

[Willie Whizz]

7 hours ago, thegreenhowards said:

…

 

I also regard diesel (or steam) depots as rather overdone in the modelling world. I like to see my engines working rather than sitting around.

 

 

Have to agree with that. However well done the individual layout (and I don’t deny some are done very well) they have become a cliché - the modern-day equivalent of the Great Western branch line terminus cliché of a generation ago. 

[APOLLO]

Nothing beats a Deltic setting off (even if they smell)  !!!!

 

 

Living at the side of the WCML just north of Wigan on the 1 in 105 climb to Boars Head the noisiest trains are usually the two Daventry / Southampton to Mossend container trains, usually diesel hauled by those new quite noisy whatever they are's. There are two,  4S49 & 4S55 that pass northbound a couple of minutes apart just before 10pm, usually either on time or early, quite long and heavy trains and they seem to run flat out.  When they thunder past it's time for my nightcap beer !!

 

Brit15

[Northmoor]

5 hours ago, MJI said:

When I was young and living near Gloucester at night I could hear EE (most likely 37) hauled freights for about 20 minutes. Nearest line was 2 miles.

Growing up in Pembrokeshire, on calm (but not necessarily completely still) nights you could hear the trains; we could tell the trains apart (DMU, HST or oil train) when the nearest the railway came was nearly four miles away.

[Tony Wright]

With all the mentions of the mighty Deltics (my favourite locomotive, bar none, by the way), perhaps a few images of Bytham's wonderful Type 5s? These will surely have been seen before, but scores (hundreds, even thousands?) of pages back! 

 

Strictly-speaking, only the prototype Deltic is 'correct' for Little Bytham, since the production ones didn't appear until at least 18 months after the station was demolished, but, heh-ho, it's my trainset and Rule.1 applies...............

 

I built this using a Kitmaster body on top of a much-modified Lima chassis, well over 40 years ago. Unfortunately, I was taking it to be serviced in my workshop and dropped its box - on to rough gravel! It popped out of its box and exploded! Poly Bear has it now, and I hope he can resurrect it, because I fear it's beyond my capabilities. 

 

 

Thus, I took the coward's way out and bought an NRM/Bachmann example. 

 

Far too clean from my memory......... So.....

 

 

 

Geoff Haynes then weathered it for me. It doesn't half go! It's used mainly on the Down 'White Rose'. 

 

I have double figures in terms of Bachmann production Deltics. Including...........

 

 

D9003.

 

 

D9010.

 

 

And D9021.

 

All detailed/weathered by elder son, Tom. 

 

Then, along came Acurrascale's magnificent Deltic..........

 

 

A bit too clean?

 

 

Not after Geoff Haynes weathered it to perfection. 

 

Despite the incorrect 'history', I'll happily use any of these during Bytham's sequence, at least from time to time. 

 

Though I have very few RTR steam-outline locos (diminishing even further as I sell them off), there is no way I could build a diesel-outline loco to the standards above! 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 7, 2022 by Tony Wright
typo error

[kandc_au]

7 hours ago, Coach bogie said:

I have just come back to the UK for Christmas where the UK freight are almost silent compared to Aus. I have a freight only line a quarter of a mile from my renter and you can hear the coal trains (remember them?) for a good ten minutes from first sound to fading out, not helped by two severe inclines and the narrow gauge 3ft 6" track. They are all double headed and not much of a silencer on them. The Aussy built HST are definitely noisier.

 

Mike Wiltshire

Mike,

You reckon they are noisy!
Try living in Vic or NSW.....it's not the loco's making the racket......it is all the flat wheels!
That is the one thing I have noticed up here, it is that the wheels are kept in good nick!

Khris

[St Enodoc]

7 hours ago, Coach bogie said:

you can hear the coal trains (remember them?) for a good ten minutes from first sound to fading out

And there, for me, is the rub (or part of it).

 

Sound-fitted models, per se, have improved greatly in recent years, although I still think that in general diesel sounds are better than steam.

 

However, I have yet to hear on a model the crescendo and diminuendo as a train approaches from afar and then recedes into the distance; or the Doppler effect as a fast train passes by.

 

Conversely, I don't want to hear the sound of a train at a station that in theory is about 20 miles away but in practice about four feet on the other side of a gangway.

 

As a result, I don't use sound - and yet, when shunting, the sound of the whistle communicating from the driver to the signalman would be useful...

[Bucoops]

1 hour ago, kandc_au said:

Mike,

You reckon they are noisy!
Try living in Vic or NSW.....it's not the loco's making the racket......it is all the flat wheels!
That is the one thing I have noticed up here, it is that the wheels are kept in good nick!

Khris

 

They just haven't had time to get a-round to fixing them.

 

We're about half a mile from the GE mainline. Used to be able to hear the characteristic whistle and growl of turbocharged diesels openning up, but very rare now :(

[t-b-g]

4 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

And there, for me, is the rub (or part of it).

 

Sound-fitted models, per se, have improved greatly in recent years, although I still think that in general diesel sounds are better than steam.

 

However, I have yet to hear on a model the crescendo and diminuendo as a train approaches from afar and then recedes into the distance; or the Doppler effect as a fast train passes by.

 

Conversely, I don't want to hear the sound of a train at a station that in theory is about 20 miles away but in practice about four feet on the other side of a gangway.

 

As a result, I don't use sound - and yet, when shunting, the sound of the whistle communicating from the driver to the signalman would be useful...

 

That "hits the spot" as far as my views go.

 

The sound of the real railways is a visceral, emotional and atmospheric part of the enjoyment of them. On a model, to get close to that impact, you have to have the sound so load that it becomes overbearing.

 

Sound too load is just intrusive. Sound too quiet just doesn't give that "kick" that the real sounds do. Sound somewhere inbetween fails on both counts. To my ears at least. I don't expect anybody else to feel the same way. So I prefer to imagine the loco and train sounds. The ones in my head or playing in the background as I mentioned previously are far superior to any DCC sound I have heard.

 

Yet a whistle, either from a loco or from a guard giving "right away" isn't just a noise, it is an intrinsic part of the operation if a railway. I have considered fitting a sound system under a station or a loco shed and just having a couple of buttons to press to give a guard or perhaps a selection of loco whistles. I am just not clever enough with electronics to do it and can't justify spending hundreds of pounds on it by buying existing DCC sound chips.

 

I do know some clever people though, so perhaps I may enlist some help one day.

[polybear]

10 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

I built this using a Kitmaster body on top of a much-modified Lima chassis, well over 40 years ago. Unfortunately, I was taking it to be serviced in my workshop and dropped its box - on to rough gravel! It popped out of its box and exploded! Poly Bear has it now, and I hope he can resurrect it, because I fear it's beyond my capabilities. 

 

 

 

Thanks Tony - I'll give it a good go; one question if I may?  Whilst probably pretty academic after all these years, do you happen to recall whose/what paint you used for the body colour(s) please?  Thanks

Brian

[landscapes]

11 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

With all the mentions of the mighty Deltics (my favourite locomotive, bar none, by the way), perhaps a few images of Bytham's wonderful Type 5s? These will surely have been seen before, but scores (hundreds, even thousands?) of pages back! 

 

Strictly-speaking, only the prototype Deltic is 'correct' for Little Bytham, since the production ones didn't appear until at least 18 months after the station was demolished, but, heh-ho, it's my trainset and Rule.1 applies...............

 

I built this using a Kitmaster body on top of a much-modified Lima chassis, well over 40 years ago. Unfortunately, I was taking it to be serviced in my workshop and dropped its box - on to rough gravel! It popped out of its box and exploded! Poly Bear has it now, and I hope he can resurrect it, because I fear it's beyond my capabilities. 

 

 

Thus, I took the coward's way out and bought an NRM/Bachmann example. 

 

Far too clean from my memory......... So.....

 

 

 

Geoff Haynes then weathered it for me. It doesn't half go! It's used mainly on the Down 'White Rose'. 

 

I have double figures in terms of Bachmann production Deltics. Including...........

 

 

D9003.

 

 

D9010.

 

 

And D9021.

 

All detailed/weathered by elder son, Tom. 

 

Then, along came Acurrascale's magnificent Deltic..........

 

 

A bit too clean?

 

 

Not after Geoff Haynes weathered it to perfection. 

 

Despite the incorrect 'history', I'll happily use any of these during Bytham's sequence, at least from time to time. 

 

Though I have very few RTR steam-outline locos (diminishing even further as I sell them off), there is no way I could build a diesel-outline loco to the standards above! 

 

 

 

 

Hi Tony

 

Great photos of exceptional models.

 

I totally agree with your comments they are Fabulous models, some time ago I purchased the NRM prototype Deltic when a run on the model was available and I also purchased a second hand Bachmann D9003 Meld.

 

Neither relevant to Haymarket circa 1958/9 but both too good to pass over.

 

I never saw the prototype Deltic in service as I started trainspotting in 1962 but saw plenty of the Deltic’s that followed we use to look at them as intruders to the remaining LNER Pacific’s that were still running at that time.

 

Regards

 

David

[Dunsignalling]

If you think Deltics are loud on the outside, try being inside.

 

I had Gordon Highlander through Honiton a couple of times on railtours and associated light engine workings. I had to hold one of the latter for quite a while awaiting a path over the single line and was invited aboard.

 

The levels of sound, heat, and vibration came as quite a shock, and this with it on tickover. The loco only needed to drag itself around and, had I been driving, I'd have had just the engine at the other end running! 

 

I dread to think what the conditions in the cab must be like at full power.

 

John

Edited December 8, 2022 by Dunsignalling

[TrevorP1]

Many, many years ago I was taken through the engine compartment of a  Crompton (class 33) when it was under power working a train. Pre health and safety and with no ear defenders, it was quite an experience.

 

All very ‘illegal’, the railwaymen involved have long since retired and possibly been transferred to the depot in the sky. Different times…

[Chamby]

1 hour ago, t-b-g said:

 

...Yet a whistle, either from a loco or from a guard giving "right away" isn't just a noise, it is an intrinsic part of the operation if a railway. I have considered fitting a sound system under a station or a loco shed and just having a couple of buttons to press to give a guard or perhaps a selection of loco whistles. I am just not clever enough with electronics to do it and can't justify spending hundreds of pounds on it by buying existing DCC sound chips.

 

I do know some clever people though, so perhaps I may enlist some help one day.

 

If you are already using DCC, you can achieve this with a single sound chip.  Sound chips don’t have to be fitted into locomotives, they can be wired permanently across the track circuit and the speaker sited at a static location, with different whistle and horn sounds installed.  

 

In theory, multiple speakers could be located around the layout and a simple rotary switch used to select which location you want the sound to emanate from.  Under the track adjacent to a signal, or within a tunnel, for example.

 

Also, with static mounted chips, there are no issues re: speaker dimensions...

[Farang]

An unwanted video is breaking into this thread when I view it, other threads, too.

[Chris M]

2 hours ago, t-b-g said:

 

That "hits the spot" as far as my views go.

 

The sound of the real railways is a visceral, emotional and atmospheric part of the enjoyment of them. On a model, to get close to that impact, you have to have the sound so load that it becomes overbearing.

 

Sound too load is just intrusive. Sound too quiet just doesn't give that "kick" that the real sounds do. Sound somewhere inbetween fails on both counts. To my ears at least. I don't expect anybody else to feel the same way. So I prefer to imagine the loco and train sounds. The ones in my head or playing in the background as I mentioned previously are far superior to any DCC sound I have heard.

 

Yet a whistle, either from a loco or from a guard giving "right away" isn't just a noise, it is an intrinsic part of the operation if a railway. I have considered fitting a sound system under a station or a loco shed and just having a couple of buttons to press to give a guard or perhaps a selection of loco whistles. I am just not clever enough with electronics to do it and can't justify spending hundreds of pounds on it by buying existing DCC sound chips.

 

I do know some clever people though, so perhaps I may enlist some help one day.

This can be achieved with very little technical knowledge and potentially no cost. I have “soundboard studio” on my phone which is free. You can record sounds to mp3 using free pc software, download them to your phone and then link those sounds to various buttons on the app. If the phone is connected to a Bluetooth speaker under the layout you can play whatever sounds you like whenever you want.

I have a somewhat eclectic collection of sounds on my phone and it didn’t cost me a penny. Luckily I already had a decent Bluetooth speaker.

Edited December 8, 2022 by Chris M

[FarrMan]

19 hours ago, wasabi said:

soon got used to the regular rains

Try living on Skye for regular rains!

 

Lloyd

[St Enodoc]

1 hour ago, Dunsignalling said:

I'd have had just the engine at the other end running! 

 

I dread to think what the conditions in the cab must be like at full power.

That was often done on the East Coast sleepers, where the trains were limited to 80mph and the timings were generous so half-power wass quite sufficient.

 

Yes, the cabs were very noisy with engine noise, wind noise, occasionally horns and an AWS bell ringing a couple of times every minute!