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Bachmann 32-80DS '47 404' 'Hadrian'

Well, I've just got my Bachmann 47 with sound, and I have to say from initial impressions it looks like a 47. The rivets are still on the window surrounds, but as it's a pristine finish they aren't clearly visible. I think with a bit of light weathering they'll probably be more noticeable, so there'll be a need to clean them off before doing that. The windscreen wipers are much finer than other pics I've seen, so they don't look in anyway obtrusive.

The only other comment I have right now (as my test layout is currently 'offline' due to house room re-arranging I can't run it to have an opinion on running and sound qualitites) is regarding the cab windows - while they seem to be about the right size, they seem to be missing the slight 'sad-eye' appearance of the prototype. It's not a serious error, and certainly wouldn't stop me buying more 47s from Bachmann when the right ones are released (Large Logo 47/4s, InterCity 47/8s and ScotRail 47/7s).

I suppose if I had a request for improvements, it would be to remove those window rivets, and slightly rotate the cab windows outwards to get the character just spot on

Score: 9/10 (based on appearance only)

Reply to
Ian J.
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OK, I've been able to run the locomotive now, and it is very smooth running, so nuff said about that.

OK, sound. The sound is quieter than the Class 20 I have, though it still has a quite discernable amount of hiss, no doubt from boosting the audio from the original recording (methinks new recordings using digital recording equipment should be being used, so I'm not quite sure where all the hiss is coming from - could it be the speaker itself?). Like the Class 20, some of the transitions between sounds are quite pronounced, and the running sound feels a little like a synthsized music sample being looped repeatedly - careful editing has no doubt been done to try and reduce this, but it hasn't quite been eliminated.

One thing I did notice is that at higher speeds, the sound of the model loco mechanism starts to become noticable through the DCC sound. Normally I wouldn't have noticed the mech sound, but it seems more pronounced due to the very fact that it seems to intrude on the loco sound.

I think we are still in the early days of DCC sound on UK outline locomotives, and there are certainly improvements that are yet to be made. With memory costs always coming down and the memory itself packing more into a given size almost month on month, I would hope that higher quality samples could soon be used, and an increased number of samples too - with only two horn sounds, both the 20 and 47 have very limited variations, and as I'm fairly sure most of us know, both steam whistles and diesel/electric loco horns have an almost infinite variation depending on how the driver uses the horn control.

So, due to the mech being audible through the DCC sound, score is now 8/10.

Ian J.

Reply to
Ian J.

"Ian J." wrote

Well, I've just got my Bachmann 47 with sound, and I have to say from

Pristine finish? I think you mean ex-works finish, or at least that's the term the railways always used.

John.

Reply to
John Turner

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