Happy Birthday Mike.

An excellent and long-lived band not mentioned often in these pages.......

Congrats and 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY' to our @Nbodger (Mike) 
I hope Mrs N is giving you every freedom deserving of this milestone, and not just giving you a bigger to do list.
Have a wonderful day

Woke up this morning at 04.15 to the insistent 'beep' of the smoke alarm telling me the batteries needed replacing. No consideration for others, these things
Still, better than the alternative, I s'pose

I rather like Comfortably Numb as an album track but am less enamoured with those rather grandiose  live versions I'm afraid.

Asking if you should "go for sound" seems rather like you are abdicating the decision and asking others to make it for you. However, you should make that decision based on your preferences, although by all means ask what others think, their experiences and their recommendations.

But remember it is you who will live will it, pay the additional cost of it (including retrofitting it in any non-sound stock you already have and ensure new acquisitions include it) and will need to operate and maintain it.

@thebrighton is right. You have to grit your teeth and know you are doing the right thing, but they do pull off with a lot more force than you feel comfortable with. I've done it myself and was convinved there would be plastic shards everywhere.

I like sound. Again, depends on what you're looking for. You're never going to get the bass tones of a CL44 hauling an oil train from Fawley, but I like the atmospheric stuff, the station announcements, rail squeal, horns. The EMU's are great with the guard sounds to the driver, on the newer models the sliding doors, all of that.

I've got motive power with factory sound, after-market from John Gymer's YouChoos and Legomanbiffo projects. Sometimes underwhelemed by Legomanbiffo (Recent Class 42 springs to mind)

I've got a CL52 which was fitted by John Gymer as an exhibition model, and probably my favorite.

I do chuckle sometimes at the "Fill in the Function" sounds. I'd never heard of (or heard) a Spirax Valve prior to my Legomanbiffo CL33 project. Now I know what one is, and I assume an approximation of what it sounds like, but there is a little element of "what's the point" on that one!

My 2¢

That is extremely cool. Gonna have @Trainfish wetting himself, for sure.

Agree, by a long shot.