Impact of the Dollar Drop

[ebtnut]

Did you see the MSRP for the new 4-4-0's with sound--$400.00 .  That is one manisfestation of what happens when the value of the dollar drops like it has over the past year or so.

[Woody Elmore]

The Chinese government is being pressured to let the Yuan float, like other currencies, since the value is now set by the government. If that happens your $400 engine will be a bargain.

And with Indian Tata company pumping out tiny four wheel cars, no bigger than golf carts, the  world demand for gasoline will increase even more. They plan to make 12.5 million of the miniscule cars to sell in India, Bangladesh, China and Indonesia.

Time to find the automobile that will run on water or maybe an atomic car. Anybody got some spare plutonium hanging around? (I know, I can get it from Walther's!)

[rogertra]

Did you see the MSRP for the new 4-4-0's with sound--$400.00 .  That is one manisfestation of what happens when the value of the dollar drops like it has over the past year or so.

Why this facination with sound?

Every sound equipped loco I've heard sounds like a tinney 1960s transistor radio.  No exceptions.

I'm 100% convinced that people who go gaga over sound equippped locos have convinced themselves that what they are hearing is far better sound than what is actually there.

So go ahead, spend the money and in a year or so you'll be running most of your sound equipped locos with the sound turned off.

And Bachmann, NO SOUND should always be an option for those of us with ears that don't lie.

[Atlantic Central]

Thank you Roger!

You and I have said this over and over, but the masses continue to hear what they want to hear.

After a list of other modeling goals are completed, I may tinker with layout based sound that could be played through speakers actually up to the job.

But, I actually do like the quiet!

As for the dollar, well the founders warned against this too, but what did they know?

Sheldon

[grumpy]

The impact of the dollar drop is that the US banks have to send me some money back when I purchase stuff for my layout. Thanks George.
Don

[TonyD]

Sounds like grumpy got too much of that technicolor stuff with the queen on it, so this is where he can spend some of it---British Railway Modelers of North America5124-33St. NW,Calgery,Ab.T2L 1V4.....or go to trains and Lattes in Jasper.....

[rogertra]

Sheldon.

As I think I've mentioned here before, I work in theatre and sometimes need to mix live sound, therefore I have to hear what is really there, not what I think is there nor what I'd like to think I hear.

That's probably why, to me, all loco sound systems sound terrible.  After all, what else can you possibly expect from an HO loco with a 1" max. diameter speaker?  Tinney sound!

[japasha]

I agree with Roger on the quality of the sound. My 1:20.3 sound systems have enough bass to make my neighbors run when I turn the sound upp outside. A lot of sound is based on wattage and these small HO sized systems just can't deliver and the speaker size would never handle it if the power was available.

PFM and later PBL offered a noise system that could be set up on the layout and it actually delivered a lot od nice steam and diesel sound. I buy without sound or DCC as I build my own power supplies and have excellent controllers.  Many of my locomotives do have DCC so I can play at other homes when I like, but no sound.

Real trains really transmit sound, I live 1/2 mile from the NS main line and I hear it all. That's the sound system I want.

[SteamGene]

Well, I know my ears are shot.  I had a hearing problem BEFORE I went into the artillery.  Twenty-seven years around guns didn't help.  But I like the sound of chuff and whistle and pumps.
Gene

[rogertra]

Well, I know my ears are shot.  I had a hearing problem BEFORE I went into the artillery.  Twenty-seven years around guns didn't help.  But I like the sound of chuff and whistle and pumps.
Gene

W H A T?

[Jim Banner]

If this is the "Sounds of Silence Club," let me join in.

Like japasha, I love the sounds from my large scale trains.  Unlike japasha, my neighbours just shrug and mutter something about 'crazy Jim at it again.'

For me the ultimate is still blowing the whistles and ringing the bells on real locomotives.  loud, loud,  LOUD.

I don't like using unkind words, so I will say nothing about tinny, tiny sound except that I don't use it.

__________________________________

The US dollar drop has been mostly good for us Canadians.  Most of us are tired of paying a premium on American magazines, cards, cars, you name it.  All too often the premium has had little to do with the differences in our currencies.  Today, many of us are refusing to pay a Canadian price any higher than the American price.

[Yampa Bob]

This is off topic, but about a year ago, I mentioned that I didn't like the tinny sound, or the fact that the sound emanating from under the tender insulted my sense of hearing and perspective, I caught hell from some people on this board, including unwanted lectures about the law of physics.  Seems others are realizing silence is better than crappy sound, hmmm??   Though my eyes are shot, I am lucky at 69 to have perfect hearing.  However I can certainly understand  Gene's situation and viewpoint. 

I bought some railroad sounds CDs from Historic Rail and play them through my little 50 watt stereo, they sound great.  I copied tracks  on separate CDR to match what  I'm running.  With a compact player and  good headphones I have  theater sound in stereo.   Now if Tsunami can incorporate a tiny transmitter to send the  sound to my headphones, or transmit the sound back through the digital signal to a stereo amp, that might be awesome. 

Anyway, I noticed Bachmann products are about 10% higher this year, I'm glad I ordered all my locos before the increase.  Real problem is the feds dropping the prime rate just cost me about $5,000 lost income from my bonds, and money market dropped from 4.6% to 3.2%.  We paid hundreds of thousands over the years in taxes, now they want to take away our retirement.  Seems that veterans and retirees are second class citizens.  I really sympathize with young people starting out in their careers, they have a tough row to hoe. 

My college cost me about $5000, today that wouldn't even buy the books, I think they are now estimating $50,000 a year.  Imagine starting a career with a quarter million dollars in debt.

I have a friend who constantly complains about his $2500 a month house payment, and that is only the first mortgage.  I built what I could afford and glad to say it's paid for. 

Complaining aside, I love our Country, our Flag and our Freedom.   

Bob

[r.cprmier]

Bob;
Too many people today live way beyond their means-electively.  I know-as surely do you-that a lot of this manure storm with the sub-prime business could have been avoided not so much by the cessation of the rapacious business practices of lenders, but by the option of people out there to just use common sense and say "NO" to something out of their reach.  Also, much could be side-stepped by people building up their credit rating instead of their credit card debt, "feeding the pig", and simply living within their means instead of trying to mimic TV families and other non-realities.

As an example of TV mentality:
Many years ago as a lad, I used to watch (listen to) Amos n' Andy on both Tv and Radio.  I used to laugh because I thought it was funny.  That was TV.  And Radio.  The first time I saw the realities of Jim Crow, especially the violence and the injustice of it all, I stopped thinking it was funny.  It wasn't after all; especially that so many people assumed the inferrences of the sitcom as the nature of things, and in their mind it was reality.

At the Prototype Meet in Canton, Ct a couple of years ago, I overheard a modeller exclaim of a particularly pricey model "...Yeah; I need one of those.  I think I will buy it!"  He couldn't afford it.  Petty, yes, but it is a peek under the curtain at what showtime is really all about.  he "needed" it like a fish needs a bicycle!!  I'm with you on paying what you can afford.  Thirty five years ago, Steve Wynwood wrote a song called "The Low Spark of high heeled boys".  Abstraction?  yep.  Reality?  Ditto.  The words are a parallel of what people have done to themselves financially, both in this country and abroad today.  Think about it..."On the money he's made from your dreams..."

Canadians have groused about the disparity between their currency and that of The States for years, but who is really to blame here?  The States?   Canada?  The Mideast?  Many years ago, my father had a theory that a small group of people control everything financial in this world; a group who hides behind no flag, nor  respects any group; political, racial, etc.  I more and more tend to revisit his theory as time goes by; and every tmie I think of Jamaica, it becomes more and more visible and tangible.

Not meaning to toot my own horn, I bought two K-27 mikes this winter.  I am buying rail this year, and setting up my own "amusement park".  Am I in debt over it?  Nope.  Will I be?  Over my dead body!!  Those, as well as this hobby in general, is/was financed with proceeds especially earmarked for their purchase.  Maybe that is the way America should start looking at things and quit the general jackassery of charging themselves into starvation; because, my friend, it can happen.  And it will.

Rich

[Beatthe9ers]

"The percentage you're paying is too high-priced
While you're living beyond all your means
And the man in the suit has just bought a new car
From the profit he's made on your dreams"

-Traffic
Low Spark of High Heeled Boys

If you had told me this morning that I was going to run into a Traffic reference on this board today, I would have called you crazy.

I've of two minds on the sub-prime mess.  On one hand, I can sympathize with a young person that has been indoctrinated into a society that at virtually every turn preaches immediate gratification and an inflated sense of self worth and entitlement.  A man pushes a $300,000 loan across the table at you and tells you, 'you're worth it, why wait, who says you can't have this?' and it's consistent with what you've been hearing your whole life.

On the other hand, people need to get a grip.  10 years ago when my wife and I bought our first home we went looking for things in the 120 to 130 range, because that's what we thought we could afford.  When we went to the lender to get preapproved, he gave us a figure of 260.  We actually laughed at him.  (Well, not him, but his number.)

I have no point, so I will stop typing now.

[Johnson Bar Jeff]

Why this facination with sound?

Every sound equipped loco I've heard sounds like a tinney 1960s transistor radio.  No exceptions.

I'm 100% convinced that people who go gaga over sound equippped locos have convinced themselves that what they are hearing is far better sound than what is actually there.

So go ahead, spend the money and in a year or so you'll be running most of your sound equipped locos with the sound turned off.

And Bachmann, NO SOUND should always be an option for those of us with ears that don't lie.

When I run my trains, the sound is always perfect.

Because it's all in my imagination.