Hi Ian,
I fitted an action electronics p100 noisy thing with the cat diesel sound programmed into my mates 1/12 scale speedline Severn class lifeboat and it sounds awesome. If you use this unit you will have the following start up, engine idle, engine speeding up, slowing down and if you leave the model at a standstill ticking over without operating the handset for approx 90 secs it will shut down.
I've used these sound modules in all of my model lifeboats, With either the MAN or CAT sounds running.
Hope this helps you
Cheers
Dave Edgell.
Chairman Barry model boat club.