Weekend Update 3-9-08

[Sokramiketes]

I made 75 or so aspen trees yesterday.  Over the last week I "planted" about 350 more trees.  The 3 1/2 foot section of scenery I'm nearly finished with has 550 trees on it, about 475 conifers and 75 aspens.  I should have this section of scenery done some time this week.  I'll have some photos next weekend.

Erik

Pics or it didn't happen!   

[Erik W]

Pics or it didn't happen!   

Yeah, yeah, I should have a plethora of photos for next week.

Erik

[chuck geiger]

Does Ed have man boobs or am I just loosing it because I have them. I was in the Sierra foothills with strainers, plastic bags, the family and mines along California 49 in the "gold rush area". Homemade ballast project is coming along nice. Found some light black rock and red dirt and mixed it together. I have a test area and if you mix the WS N ballast (this was dark grey) it does look decent. Ed I found one of the (close to N) excavators at Wal-Mart for 1.97 and will mail it to you. The brand is one of the companies that are doing Cat products.

[wm3798]

Ed was recently diagnosed with Furniture Disease...  His chest fell into his drawers...

Dr. Kildare

[SAH]

I attended the Atlanta area NMRA Division annual train show on Sunday.  Going late I did not expect to find any deals but snagged 2 FineNscale B&O wagon top kits and two IM kits, tank and box car, for cheap!  It's a good thing no one builds kits anymore.   ;D

One thing I found surprising:  N scale dealers out numbered all other scales.  It's a small show and I don't have hard data to support this claim but considering all the RR artwork, Thomas detritus, artifacts and books I saw, there had to be more N scale stuff than any other scale.  Interesting.

Steve

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Ok, so I've got some moobs, but the A cups are somehow looking like Cs at LEAST in that photo.

Damn...

[tom mann]

Ok, so I've got some moobs, but the A cups are somehow looking like Cs at LEAST in that photo.

Damn...

Push ups!

edit: no, I don't mean it is due to a push up, I mean do push ups!

[dclyde]

Eric,

I didn't go the MRC route.  Perhaps it was my own ignorance buy I checked out the MRC decoders and didn't see a sound decoder for the E8.  They did have a decoder for the P42 and E8 without sound but the decoder with sound was strictly for the P42 and didn't look like it would fit in the E8.

Anyway, my thought was to put a SoundTrax sound only decoder in a "B" unit and call it a day.

Dave

[bsoplinger]

Perhaps it was my own ignorance buy I checked out the MRC decoders and didn't see a sound decoder for the E8.

MRC does offer a sound decoder that is (basically) a drop in fit for the P42 and E8 (same decoder).

The facts behind that decoder:
there are 2 types of diesel sounds (prime mover) in the decoder that you can pick:
1-sd45-2 sound
2-mp-15 sound

Now I don't know about you, but I wouldn't find either acceptable for the sound coming from either a P42 or an E8. If you contact MRC about it, they'll tell you it is a sound decoder and it has the form factor to fit into the P42 or the E8 and that they never ever said anything about the decoder having sounds for a P42 or E8.

OTOH, installation is easier with the MRC decoder than using anyone else's non board replacement sound decoders. Of course with those, you can actually get ones that have the right type (or close) prime mover sounds.

My suggestion if you really, really want sound in an E8 is to look for a cheap (factory direct trains perhaps, not sure what they offer anymore) PCM E8 in any livery and force fit the E8 shell of your choice on it.

[seusscaboose]

interesting concept...
i have put lifelike's on kato's before...

however never considered dropping a Kato (or anything else) over a PCM....

i have one of the pcm's and like it alot.... no worries with it whatsoever (other than a slight hiccup with the soundboard that was fixed with a factory default reboot)....

so i guess it brings us once again to dollars and sense rivets when it comes to sound... SD sounds coming out of an E8 (acceptable as "diesel sound" from an n scale engine) or an alternative route (which admittingly is 100% correct) of E8 sound from an E8 engine...

i think it is a case of rich man/poor man and how many rivets do you count.

i have my own opinions on it...it any event.....and will keep them to myself... as i am looking for information... not casting stones.

excellent feedback...

thank you!