O Scale Trains Magazine Online

After spending several issues of OST discussing power supplies,
I would like to return to the “PoweringUp” column and
something simple. Of course, by simple I mean profound.
But first, I want to pass along one piece of information. Those
of you who read the smaller scale magazines are familiar with
QSI, who builds DCC controllers and sound systems. QSI has
appointed American Hobby Distributors (AHD) for exclusive
distribution and support of their Quantum locomotive sound
system. The word is that they are going to enter the O Scale
market in the fall. They won’t say any more at this time (at least
to me) but there should be more information in a few months.
Now, on to my main topic for this month. I would like to
consider the “Illusions of O Scale Modeling”. I don’t mean the
fact that O Scale is 1/48 of life size. That is purely mechanical.
We have to go beyond that and play tricks on our senses.
For example, I model the DL&W Railroad, and one of their
major achievements was the set of four concrete arch bridges
completed in the early 1900s. I have to use selective compression
to model their Tunkhannock Creek viaduct because it was
2375 feet long. In O Scale, it would be about 50’ long, longer
than my house. But I’m not here to talk about bridges; in this
magazine, I usually go on about electrical/electronic aspects of
modeling, and that is what I want to do now.
Light Illusions
When I was at O Scale West, I visited Tom Towner’s layout
in San Jose. Like in many model layouts, he uses spotlights in
the ceiling. Tom mentioned that he had to replace some burned
out bulbs and, by mistake, bought the daylight-style fluorescent
bulbs that screw into ordinary outlets. The difference was just
dramatic; his scenery looked completely different. He emphasized
this, because he had a branch that went into an adjacent
room and it still had normal (yellow) incandescent lights. Your
eyes could do an A-B test by just walking back and forth. These
bulbs are made by Sylvania (and probably others), and a 23-watt
bulb gives as much light as a 100-watt incandescent bulb. They
repay you by saving energy and, with summer coming up, they
save air conditioning. Be sure to look for daylight bulbs; all fluorescent
bulbs are not daylight.
By the way, there is a well-known principle in architecture
that you cannot have light unless you have dark. That’s obvious
once you think about it; the dark area creates the bounds
for the lighted area. You might want to try experimenting with
this on your layout by turning off some spotlights and see how
it emphasizes the places that are still lit up. Tom went a step
further by using one incandescent spot to take the place of the
sun. You can see the two kinds of light. He says he would have
done his scenery differently if he had known about this at the
beginning.
Sound Illusions
Brian Scace, our editor, tends to make comments that keep
me honest. Recently he complained (Me? Complain? –ed) about
locomotive sounds. Now I am a convert to locomotive sounds,
so of course I try to convert everyone. But actually he is correct.
You can have, and many do have, too much sound. If I can hear
the train at the other end of the layout, then the sound is unrealistic
because that is supposed to be miles away. And if I can
hear the engineer and fireman talking, it is unrealistic because I
cannot hear them in real life.
Part of the track on my layout goes into, along, and out of a
bookcase (Don’t ask; it’s a complicated story.) From the railroad
side, the bookcase is a tunnel and it allowed me to experiment
with sound. It was dramatic as the train came out of the tunnel.
The sound appeared as the train appeared just as it would with
a real train. Just as above, where you cannot have light with
having dark, you cannot have sound without having quiet. Anyone
can perform this same experiment by creating a temporary
tunnel. This can be just a large cardboard box with track openings
in each end, set over the track (in my case two tracks). You
can glue pieces of paper towel on the inside to make it absorb
sound better. Then your train will announce itself as it comes
into town. Even better, it would be nice for the trains to go
through a rock cut before entering a town, in order to provide a
separated sound zone.
I can’t avoid mentioning the idea of cutting notches in your rail
every 9-3/4 inches (the length of 39’ rails in O Scale) at the places
where visitors stand. They will be startled and amazed as they hear
the “clickety-clack” of old time railroads as the train passes them. Of
course you’ll need to use steel wheels to make this work.
The real point is that you’ll have to design the light and the
sound on your layout to create the illusion of reality, the same
as you design any other aspect of the layout. These are so profound
because the average person doesn’t know that they are
being influenced by what you have done.
Reality Illusions
My final point is not electrical, and I didn’t create it. At O Scale
West, I purchased two of the show cars (I never buy just one of anything.
That’s not realism, it’s the “L” word; real trains have groups of
like cars.) They are 40’ outside braced boxcars made by Atlas, with
weighted and detailed undercarriages and steel wheels. Each car
weighs about 18 oz. I brought them home and set them on a siding.
As I walk by I nudge them, and they roll a few feet so realistically
that they give a dramatic feeling of reality. They act like they have
the mass of real boxcars, not toys. They are not twice as realistic as
HO. It is more like the eight times difference that the volume would
suggest. Have you noticed this? To me this is an instance of the
Unique Mystique of O Scale.
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34 • O Scale Trains - July/Aug ’06