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Accurascale Class 37


mick
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There's barely a month goes by without the announcement of a new or upgraded model from one or other manufacturer and this week has been the turn of Accurascale to reveal its plans to produce "the definitive model of the English Electric Type 3 / Class 37" in OO gauge.

Initial release focuses on the first five original EE Type 3 loco's built at the Vulcan foundry in 1960/61 and the class 37/6 loco's.

The models will feature the very latest in manufacturing technology and purpose designed twin speaker DCC sound installation.

https://accurascale.co.uk/blogs/news/new-announcement-37-6-and-as-built-type-3

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I'm delighted to hear the news of a new class 37 loco, especially one that is to be produced to the high specifications set out on the Accurascale website. I can in many ways overlook the shortcomings of the current Bachmann model but I really do begrudge having to pay an additional £120 or even much more in order to add higher quality DCC sound. I think 'ripped off' might be a little harsh to describe how I've felt when facing the challenge of adding DCC sound to a model loco but I've spent a lot of money on, to be honest, some quite disappointing sound recordings, made to sound worse due to the lack of provision for installation of any decent speakers. Do we really need or even want to start milling our brand new loco chassis in order to make space for suitable speakers which adds even further to the cost? 

I've worked out that to purchase a new basic model Bachmann class 37, a decent sound recording, have the chassis milled to facilitate installation of an appropriate speaker that will get the best out of the sound chip and add the speaker itself will cost you just under £350 so the announcement of a new Accurascale class 37 complete with twin speaker DCC sound for the price of £260 is an absolute no brainer and makes me want to fully reconsider the beginning of my third sentence above.

 

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They will also include as standard a "stay alive" capacitor which could be especially useful on a garden layout. Something else "big" in OO is to be announced by them tomorrow morning. I have several of their 24ton hoppers and have a Deltic on order. Really must build a layout!🤔

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1 hour ago, Riddles said:

They will also include as standard a "stay alive" capacitor which could be especially useful on a garden layout. Something else "big" in OO is to be announced by them tomorrow morning. I have several of their 24ton hoppers and have a Deltic on order. Really must build a layout!🤔

The 'stay-alive' is of course another major plus for the Accurascale model and another additional cost for the 'enhanced Bachmann' example that needs to be considered when comparing the prices as in my previous post.

I've been working away up in the attic and keep thinking about this.... The DCC ready Accurascale class 37's are priced at £169.99 whereas the DCC sound-fitted are £259.99. That's an additional cost of only £90 for the addition of sound. Now it states that they will be using Loksound v5 decoders and twin speakers, one of which is a large 'EM2 style' bass speaker. An EM2 speaker is currently in the region of £25 upwards and specialised sound recordings on a Loksound v5 decoder cost anything from £110 upwards.  It just doesn't seem right or fair to me that currently we are asked to pay such a high price for our sound decoders and suitable speakers. How can the soundchip cost almost as much as the locomotive itself and in some cases even more? It's a ridiculous situation especially when some of the available sound recordings are of less than high quality - but that's just my personal opinion. 

Looking forward to tomorrow's announcement but hoping it's not something I will want.

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