Re: BARGAINS!

[mkrob]

Yes Mountain,I like the 66 sound too. They regularly pass by a couple of hundred yards from my house on the WCML.
Unfortunately the price of diesel locomotives is on average about £150+ as you say, but secondhand on ebay they on average about £100. A lot on ebay at that price have mechanical problems or cosmetic faults.
Some of the models on ebay are silly prices. For example a class 66 with sound secondhand for £179 :-

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/155007518963 ... ition=3000

Looking at the box,it looks a few years old,with the old style box! For a couple of pounds more, you could get a new 66.It may not be the colour or livery you prefer.Because the price of new locomotives is going up,obviously the second hand market price is increasing. Also,the sound chip is v3.5 which is very old, bearing in mind ESU on to V5.0 now so the sound will be a lot better on the newer model!
Accurascale Deltics with sound are £250. A price decided 3.5 year ago when it was announced. It will probably increase a lot when the next batch are produced, due to the cost of living.

[centenary]

The sound of class 66's are impressive in real life. I wonder if the models capture the character of the sound well?

What sort of price are they usually? (Not buying one. Just for interest as I am a bit out of date as I gave up looking after diesel locos hit the £150+ price range in 00 gauge).

The real bargains these days though are secondhand. Not saying that to dissapoint dealers selling new. Just saying that the new prices are out of peoples reach yet on the secondhand market one can pick up things are very reasonable prices.

Absolute bargain from Hattons! £263 for their own model 66, pre owned, a non runner with sound fitted, missing parts and 'sold as seen'! https://www.hattons.co.uk/893447/hatton ... tockdetail

I jest, of course. That sounds an absolute rip off to me. I find this disappointing because Ive bought a number of pre owned OO scale diesel locos from them ranging from £94 for a Bachmann 66 to £120 for a Bachman two tone green class 55 Deltic. Recently picked up a Regional Railway class 37 for £110. All non DCC so I have to buy sound chips but all consistent runners,no body damage or parts missing.

I find EBay is not so good bargain wise.

[Mountain]

Used to have a sound fitted Bachmann 37 when they first came out. They were not cheap. Bought it to see what sound was like. Curiosity! Certainly raises the bar a bit but then one wants to equip everything with sound to match and the cost of that in those days (Even today it is way beyond my budget)!

I do personally find though that the more detail some locos get (Or rolling stock etc), the more detail one needs to add to the rest of ones layout to make it all blend in, and I kinda discovered the hard way in the past that I am not one who has the patience for that.. Mainly because I keep changing things and wanting something else as I get bored!

Actually it is a bit of a miracle I have not done this with my current little layout that is sitting waiting foe me to do something more with it... But there again I may! I have another board and.... Uhmm. Temptation!

[Bigmet]

... Hattons! £263 for their own model 66, pre owned, a non runner with sound fitted, missing parts and 'sold as seen'! ...

Unfortunately the sound craze has badly contaminated the s/h diesel model market these last couple of years, roughly doubling prices compared to non-sound models. Do I suspect the s/h merchants of fitting sound decoders themselves to up the price of the better / less easily found diesel models?

Once in a while you get payback though. My last diesel purchase had a lot of easily reattached detail parts knocked off and came with a decoder installed; which was probably how the detail had been knocked off, it's a swine to get the body off without doing this damage, and the asking price was appealing as a result. Haha, when received it proved to have a sound decoder installed, but one speaker lead disconnected so no noises. One dab with the soldering iron and the usual awful sound quality occurred, and the drive wasn't too special either. But the sound decoder sold on for more than I had paid.

Freebie! (Or it cost me £10, as it only covered half the cost of the smooth and silent Zimo MX600 decoder it now runs with...) What makes this special fun is that was my last diesel traction purchase. I now have the 'full set' for KX operations in the diesel to steam transition, (15, 16, 20, 21, 23, 24, 26/0, 30, 37, 40, 46, 47, DP1, 55, 105; and most acquired cheaply, and this last was the best of the lot.

[centenary]

Used to have a sound fitted Bachmann 37 when they first came out. They were not cheap. Bought it to see what sound was like. Curiosity! Certainly raises the bar a bit but then one wants to equip everything with sound to match and the cost of that in those days (Even today it is way beyond my budget)!

I do personally find though that the more detail some locos get (Or rolling stock etc), the more detail one needs to add to the rest of ones layout to make it all blend in, and I kinda discovered the hard way in the past that I am not one who has the patience for that.. Mainly because I keep changing things and wanting something else as I get bored!

Actually it is a bit of a miracle I have not done this with my current little layout that is sitting waiting foe me to do something more with it... But there again I may! I have another board and.... Uhmm. Temptation!

To be fair or at least in my experience, factory fitted sound is nearly always let down by the poor speakers fitted, particularly Hornby's TTS. After market sound decoders flashed with various indie produced sound files and better megabase, double i phone speakers etc, not only sound far better but frequently come with better loco warning and start up etc.

I do think though that £100+ for, say, a loksound chip, double i phone speaker and 'sound files' is really overpriced by a factor of at least a third. Someone is making massive profits on these things.

[Mountain]

Used to have a sound fitted Bachmann 37 when they first came out. They were not cheap. Bought it to see what sound was like. Curiosity! Certainly raises the bar a bit but then one wants to equip everything with sound to match and the cost of that in those days (Even today it is way beyond my budget)!

I do personally find though that the more detail some locos get (Or rolling stock etc), the more detail one needs to add to the rest of ones layout to make it all blend in, and I kinda discovered the hard way in the past that I am not one who has the patience for that.. Mainly because I keep changing things and wanting something else as I get bored!

Actually it is a bit of a miracle I have not done this with my current little layout that is sitting waiting foe me to do something more with it... But there again I may! I have another board and.... Uhmm. Temptation!

To be fair or at least in my experience, factory fitted sound is nearly always let down by the poor speakers fitted, particularly Hornby's TTS. After market sound decoders flashed with various indie produced sound files and better megabase, double i phone speakers etc, not only sound far better but frequently come with better loco warning and start up etc.

I do think though that £100+ for, say, a loksound chip, double i phone speaker and 'sound files' is really overpriced by a factor of at least a third. Someone is making massive profits on these things.

I found the sound itself to be excellent and the only thing that frustrated me a little was the way that there was not a precise enough adjustment when it came to the point where the sound was first introduced as soon as the loco moved. It was a case that if one adjusted it one single setting more and the loco sound came on before I had motion and one single setting less and the loco moved before the sound came on. Though there was a scale of setting for this, the scale needed more inbetween adjustments to get this just right. The actual sound itself sounded just right to me. It was perfect and that was not a cube speaker as they had not come out when the loco I had was manufactured.

[End2end]

Just came across these on ebay.
Linka moulds only £5.99 each.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/144580565624 ... SwCXpilisb

No affiliation but might be a chance for you to grab that missing mould for your collection.
Thanks
End2end

[End2end]

I just had an email from Hattons for an, up to 25% off pre-owned sale.
I'm not after anything myself but thought I'd share it for those that are.
https://www.hattons.co.uk/newsdetail?id=1244
Thanks
End2end

[Bigmet]

I just had an email from Hattons for an, up to 25% off pre-owned sale....

There's a useful selection on offer. I hoovered up a couple of quite recent releases earlier today, with simple body damage and in replacement packaging, for what would be bargain prices for the mechanisms alone, which are the pieces I want.

[Richard08]

The O gauge section is, er, 'interesting' (that that isn't cars anyway)

[Byegad]

Sound is particularly a matter of taste. While an exhibition layout with sound fitted locos impresses me, the idea of using it on my home layout doesn't. I play trains while listening to radio plays and serials, so noisy locos would be a distraction.

[Richard08]

Sound is particularly a matter of taste. While an exhibition layout with sound fitted locos impresses me, the idea of using it on my home layout doesn't. I play trains while listening to radio plays and serials, so noisy locos would be a distraction.

I went DCC sound, mostly out of curiosity, sort of because I could. My massive fleet of three engines (one with no sound) is fun, in bits, but in actuality I rarely use the option - as you, I listen to music, audio books (loads on YouTube) and so on while playing trains. It's been a long time since I went to an exhibition - that last one had several sound equipped layouts and while the steam layouts were ok (I don't do steam) when they left the flaming whistles alone the diesel layouts were just a horrendous din (particularly class 20s!). In all innocence I inquired whether it was possible to turn the volume down. Apparently I'm a luddite who shouldn't be allowed in exhibitions, an instruction I have willingly taken fully on board. Just me being grumpy.

[Bigmet]

Sound is particularly a matter of taste...

Yes, it needs an artist with an appreciation of subtlety. Unfortunately railway modelling seems to be dominated by folk with the aural sensibility of Johnny Rotten, when what is required is Ralph Vaughan-Williams. One of the most annoying aspects of what are 'introduced sound effects' are that these mask the real sounds of wheels on rails on the layout; which can convey a lot of information and enjoyment during layout operation.

[centenary]

I suspect some of the issues people have with DCC loco sound is, many people dont turn the volume down via the cv's and just leave it as factory default.

The factory volume is set to draw your attention to the one loco, pretty much as tv's in store are set on demonstration picture mode. You need to change it when you get the thing home. Same with loco sound, turn it down so you hear it when it comes in range not all over the layout competing with your other sound locos.

On topic of bargains, I see Hattons are selling a pre owned Heljan OO scale BOC Liquid Oxygen 100 ton tanker for £100, this morning reduced to £71. I mean why wouldnt you snap it up when they are also selling brand new BOC Liquid Oxygen 100 ton tankers for just £45?!

[Richard08]

I suspect some of the issues people have with DCC loco sound is, many people dont turn the volume down via the cv's and just leave it as factory default.

Ah! Which CV's control volume? The CV lists with both my sound equipped engines don't have them listed, thought Western one has "Fade Out" (which, apparently, "reduces sound Doppler effect by 25%". i.e. makes it rather less loud). I did google around for volume setting when I first went DCC, a couple of years back, but maybe wasn't keen enough. Or went down some other rabbit hole instead...