It is very nice when people come up with innovative ideas for their model railroad hobby. Lance has written of industry switch/gate locks, waybills, and other creative kickers that enhance the model railroad hobby. Well, the most eureka-like moment, if you want to call it that, was when he saw a Metra F59 throttling with the surround sound of its 16-cylinder motor. He wrote of installing a headphone jack for his Tsunami sound system to listen to the real sound and not the sub-par whine emanating from the engine itself, which is pretty common in the hobby.
I had not much of an idea that it was possible-- well, yes, electrical properties of physics allow it to be circuited into the loop, but in practice it doesn't happen often. In his case, instead of plugging the decoder into the engine, it's an under table installation, brilliant so far.
But what I vividly remember is when I went to Cocoa Beach, the "Home Away From Home" which I refer to occasionally has a Playstation 3 setup. But not only that, our family friends have a speaker of their own. Not only does it have a rich sound as much as Mr. Mindheim described, it is indeed.... wireless. For about 70+ dollars you can purchase your way to not having to be tethered to anything. Then again, he did indicate that these wired ones were speakers he already had. Yet, what my post is doing is bringing a new idea to take further the use of headphones.
Wired or not, this, believe it or not, could even bring sound to my Atlas GP39-2 which may not be compatible for a sound decoder at all. I really like the added convenience it can bring in that respect. Silver series owners would love this idea too.
I am absolutely for the idea. The 150 ft. (50 m) transmission helps greatly so you can control your train from anywhere, with one plug having the sensor.
The only possible drawback is that two trains cannot sound simultaneously, or will require different headphones. For Lance it is not a problem at all since the Downtown Spur has literally ONE train movement at a time. For me, with the onset of Tri-Rail commuter hauls, it is. Obviously the dominant sound will be CSX's own 16-645 turbocharged engine but I guess I could settle for the lame sound on Tri-Rail. Or if I want to switch it around, circuitry could solve that problem (ie. switching from a 16-645 decoder to a GE AC engine decoder) with a circuit switch. Then again it could work anyway in my case as it is a CSX switching layout after all and Tri-Rail is only there for show.
Though a great liberty of this system may be recording for YouTube. You can probably hook the decoder up wired or not wired (Infrared, radio?) to a camcorder while recording, with the sound source as a microphone. I do have to check on that and prove it before trying it out, but the mics do look for sound and this has sound, so it might work.
Let's see and try out the system and see what can come out of it. When I get to wiring/scenery in my Deerfield Bch layout (which has to get a redesign due to BrickAmerica/Southern Grout BOTH back in receivership), I'll place the orders for these items.
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