Let me know what you think. I recently attended the National Train Show and saw a few layouts that employed onboard sound. Of course the show floor was rather noisy so the effect was somewhat distorted, but the sound just didn't seem to be effective. I am modeling in N scale and the size of speakers one could put onboard are drastically limited. Would it be better to leave out the sound altogether and just concentrate on making the scenery and operation as realistic as possible? Or can the sound provide a worthwhile experience? Steve
Hi Steve, In my railroad room, I have a sound system I devised around 40 years ago, it uses a casstte player and speakers around the room. My room size is 14' by 11' and uses 8 speakers as described below. Here's how it works. An easy D.I.Y SYSTEM, and relatively cheap Okay, what do we need apart from the cassette to add sound effects. I would say, about six/eight small speakers are required, these speakers will be placed at various intervals around the layout and underneath the base boards, and wired in such a way that you can switch on or off any, or all of the speakers, if you don’t want the sound on. Why so many speakers?, well lets say for argument sake, that your layout is 8’ by 4’ and the tracks simply go around the edge of the baseboards. If you were to place a speaker in each corner, and one in the middle of each straight, and wired so when the train travels around the tracks, the speakers can be switched on and off to follow the movement of the train, it would appear to anyone watching, that the loco had in fact some sort of sound effects built into the train. In actual fact only a cassette player is being used plus the eight speakers and switches. (Only an illusion, but it works well.) The same applies to any size layout, large or small. You may need more than eight speakers for your layout if it is a club layout. The principal for wiring the layout for more speakers is the same. For my room size of 14’ by 11’, eight speakers are ample. I tend to use 3" speakers, bought from a TANDY shop. Most little speakers will be 8 ohm, and I would suspect that the cassette/ radio has one 8 ohm speaker in it also, if it has not, it does not really matter, we are not talking of HI-FI quality, only a means to an end. Any kind of on/off switches can be used. I use the small miniature switches for the speakers so as not to be confused with the track and power switches used for block switching. (Fig 1) If you look at the diagram you will notice that all the speakers have been daisy chained with a wire on the right side only, (this is what I call my common return wire) and a wire on the left hanging free. So the next step is to wire two different coloured 3’ lengths of wire to each speaker so you can get at these when all speakers are in place, and underneath the layout. Place the speakers face down on a table and solder a RED wire to the right side and BLACK to the left. Keep all speakers wired this way. Now place the speakers underneath the baseboards and under the track. When all speakers are secured pick up all the red wires and solder them together, and run a red wire back to the cassette. Now, take out the internal speaker from the cassette, and connect the red wire to one of the two wires you took the speaker from. (It does not matter which side) The other loose wire you will not need for a while. You will need some sort of panel making to house the small switches if you do not already have a control panel. If you have a control panel now is a good time to drill and insert the small switches approximately in the same position on the control panel where your speakers are housed underneath, and solder a wire to one side only, long enough to reach it's chosen speaker. (The BLACK 3’ pieces hanging down) When all switches have been so wired, run these wires to the corresponding speakers underneath. Now all that remains is to wire the other side of the switches, again, in a daisy chain manner and connect this wire to the other loose lead inside the cassette, and you are ready to go. ( Fig 2) If you have not got any sound effects on cassette then nip along to your local library, and borrow some sound effects tapes or records/CD, Once you have the desired effects on cassette, place it into the cassette and switch it on. Flip the switch that corresponds to where your loco is standing on the track and start to run your train. As the train advances towards another speaker, flip this speaker on, when the train has reach the second speaker, flip the first one off, and get ready for the third speaker and switch. Carry on doing this all around the room, it’s amazing the effect it will have, plus it has also added a new dimension to running trains. You could also buy from a model shop one of those cheap sound boxes that give out a train whistle and diesel sound, and use that. All you need to do is remove the internal small speaker, and connect these speaker wires directly to the red and black wires on the cassette. Whilst the cassette is playing it’s sounds, just press any of the buttons, and the sound will appear at which ever speaker is switched on at the time. Have fun.
Steven I have been around only one engine that had on-board sound, a Texas & Pacific 2-10-4 HO model a lady was demonstrating at a Train Club. She had the bell ringing, airpumps running, and steam hissing while it sat at a station. There was no more noise than you would have at your home layout, so the effect was pretty good. What got me was when she was ready to go with about a 40 car string. She gave a couple of blasts on the whistle at a higher volumn, then you could hear the chuffs as it started out. She had two chuffs per revolution which I didn't even notice at the time because such a thing was too new. She later changed it to four chuffs and it is really realistic sounding, but only worked (on hers) going foreward. She had mounted a transducer to one side of the tender, so the whole tender was a speaker. She said if you pressed a transducer against the plate glass window of a store front, the whole glass would become a speaker. I saw that demonstrated, and it was fastenating as well as loud!
Wayne .. years ago when I lived in Santa Barbara, California, I joined a small club that operated in a private residence / garage. The owner of the layout had a PFM Mark I onboard sound system that I found totally remarkable in its realistic realtime sound. Same thing as you witnessed: Compresser pumping, steam dynamo, blowdown, hissing, bell(s), brake application / release, chauffing (both for drifting and for heavy pulling and a couple of different whistles that really sounded good. He had his speaker(s) mounted inside the tenders. The unit was very spendy at that time but to this day I would still love to have one. I don't think that PFM still makes them, but there's another company that makes a similar unit. One of these days ~sigh~
They sound is great. I've seen several in the past few weeks and they sound way better in a layout room than on a show floor or a hobbyshop. But I'm not sold on the price tags just yet.
Steven: I've had a couple of Soundtrax DSD & DSX units in my HO F-7's for about a year now, and I really like them. I'm able to use 1" speakers in the F-7's (the bigger the speaker, the better the sound) I also have a Plug-N-Play unit in an RS-3 with a 3/4" speaker. Not near as loud or good a quality sound from this one. N gauge is a little harder to fit a sound unit into. A lot of people put the sound unit in a dummy unit because of the space needed. The units are getting less expensive all the time. Hopefully, everyone will be able to afford them soon Larry Mowery
I use Soundtrax DSDs and DSXs in my steam locos, it adds a tremendous sense of animation to the layout, as well as exclaimations of awe from visitors, especially the folks that used to have Lionel trains. The critical element is speaker choice and placement. Small [ie 1"] speakers tend to lose bass, so correct placement and experimentation is essential.
