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 <strong>Scale</strong> 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 <strong>Scale</strong> Modeling”. I don’t mean the fact that O <strong>Scale</strong> 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 <strong>Scale</strong>, 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 <strong>Scale</strong> 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 <strong>Scale</strong>) 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 <strong>Scale</strong> 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 <strong>Scale</strong>. u 34 • O <strong>Scale</strong> <strong>Trains</strong> - July/Aug ’06
Denver, Pa. Saturday, August 5, 2006 Held at the Denver Fire Hall, 4th and Locust Sts. in Denver, Pa. July/Aug ’06 - O <strong>Scale</strong> <strong>Trains</strong> • 35
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