Nah I figured it out. Deekus got up and left the room from where she was sleeping. Three minutes later she returned with the others in tow to look.
The basic ocean wave sound is easy and fairly cheap at like $20. Wave sounds are one of the settings available on any one of a variety of sound machines to help you sleep. I found mine at the local drug/variety store. It's also got a rain storm sound, running water and tweeting birds, etc. but no combinations are possible (buy two, then?). The digital sound loop is seamless. The machine takes batteries but does have a receptacle for an appropriate wall wart. It's lasted years with the only problem being the volume control getting finicky; a blast of contact cleaner fixed that. I would keep this at a pretty low level, just for effect and not dominating the room. Other sounds will cost you something more for each sound added, I think. Those are ones that you can always add later or never. So they could each have dedicated small speaker with sound low enough that you would have to lean in to hear the sound (even the stamp mill -- we don't have to be real-world for this IMO). The tunnel is still a resonating tube of sorts; been there, done that. You might try some fake velvet or plush fabric (remnants/smaller pieces are cheap), lining the roof and sides of the middle section of the tunnel. I'd still want that sound (and warning) of a train exiting and entering the tunnel. Actually, I've found enough people worrying about hearing nothing when a train's in any kind of tunnel and wanting to turn the speed up to run 8 ...
Considering that a future section of the layout will be the harbor area and you are basically standing on the dock and near the breakwater, and near the fish cannery and fishing fleet, plus across the inner harbor are the piers with freighters docked for loading or unloading the sounds of that area would be quite evident. So there would be some small wave action evident not to mention the sounds of the Gulls and other marine birds. My thought though is to have very low volume sound that would cover that area that stretches for about 1/3rd of the layout front when it is all eventually done. Essentially one will be standing right in front of about 10 to 12 feet of waterfront stretching from the inner harbor area to the Coast Guard station, the marine research facility, seaplane base, ferry dock and other facilities. The sawmill and rail yards are behind that along with the rest of the community. My thought would be to go to YouTube and download a marine sounds segment without any background music, and they are there, record it to a small digital player that would be mounted under that area of the layout. A simple small transformer plug into an outlet powering that without having to resort to batteries.
This AM I permanently mounted the left side backdrop and added a brace to bring in the corners tightly. Have one little blemish, my fault that I can get out the paint brush and paints and cover with a cloud. At the joint line I may add a thin smoke column to hide the joint slightly, although it is fairly tight, and maybe suggest that something is there in the distance behind those trees. Since the side piece has been added there have been no forays along the upper main but too early yet to declare a major victory in the war of the Felines. 100_4585=1 by John Moore posted Jul 29, 2015 at 11:10 AM Tried Windows 10 this AM and just as quickly restored the puter back to Windows 7. Windows 7 is much easier to use. Had to go round Robin Hood's proverbial barn to just get here on the 10 version.
John, this overall view finally lets us see Hog Waller Junction in full. You showed us one or two scenes at a time as it was being built. Now by expanding the big picture, we see how each scene flows seamlessly into the next. You have an impressive creation, well done.
I did just this with sound under my yard tower and dispatch center... Left channel is dispatch and the right channel is the yard tower. Volume is set low and more for background sounds. I recorded my yard sounds off http://www.railroadradio.net/ using 'Audacity' and burned it all to a CD and play it on 'repeat' mode on an old CD player
In the grand scheme of things this little module will replace the area seen to the upper left on the track plan. The track will swing in upon leaving this area inroute to the log camp and the bypass and lower trestle goes away. The area that is opened up will have the track swing in and have a shallow bay with a few charter fishing boats and the rest of the resort area and the track shirts the edge of the bay. That is why the small beacon light is on the right lower corner of this module. The quarry gets moved to the end of the upper level on the lower left. That glacier talked about earlier would go in the upper left corner with the remaining trestle in front of it. Evolving for the future as I go. Another revision of the point to point by John Moore posted Sep 25, 2014 at 11:33 AM In short order I went back to the rolled cotton and created a smoke plume rising out of the background. Tapered at the bottom and flared at the top. Once the glue dries I will adjust some. And the cloud covered the blemish in the backdrop right in front of that fine. Hides that joint line again. And who knows what is back there in the distance. A sawmill, another stamp mill, small forest fire, or George's cousin Bubba and his still. Forest fire could be an excuse to stage a fire train on the layout getting ready to head to the upper main and the fire. 100_4586-2 by John Moore posted Jul 29, 2015 at 1:05 PM
What I was thinking. Low tech. nothing really fancy and I have a couple of portable CD players one which has the continuous play feature. Also have some mini speakers that work with them that would allow me to have about a four foot spread on the speakers. Could do the same for the sawmill and stamp mill but then I think I might just get into sound overload.
Not without a struggle and having to step back and remind myself that enough is enough and less is more. I am still tweaking scenic effects and in my own humble opinion not that overly impressive. The effect when seen at ground level is what I was trying to achieve, that of separation of areas and impression of distance. Keeping the structures minimal and small and hiding the areas and track between them with scenery plus having the 5 levels masked somewhat by more scenery has helped give the impression that this is bigger than what it is. Getting up on a ladder and taking an aerial photo shows its small size and reveals track that is semi hidden. Eventually when this gets incorporated into the larger layout the incline goes away along with the tunnel. Only the part of the track from the upper main will connect to the mine. The lower outer track becomes the mainline and the track in front of the station becomes the passing track and yard lead. When the other sections of the layout come into being the same semi hidden trackage concept, winding through the layout under and through trees and into short tunnels will be used. Only the port area, log camp, and quarry will be open space as a train navigates about 30 feet of main. Aerial view. 100_4589-5 by John Moore posted Jul 29, 2015 at 8:28 PM
Looking great! And a malor war victory is a step in the direction them Felines won't like, but we are the 'boss,' right? It is good to see the entirre concept plan, I don't recollect it from older posts. Building in this modular fashion is an idea that makes a lot of sense.Dang!
Really not that much in that space. There are 12 structures of various types on the lower right and most of them don't have a footprint much over 1.5 X 2.o inches with a few being 1X1 inches. The far upper left only has 9 structures with the lodge/post office/train station being the largest at about 1.75X 2.25 inches and the very small cabins basically are blende with the scenery. The mine is the largest structure on the layout and it has been selectively compressed. I would have normally been about 2 inches wider. With the layout having five levels only three have structures and keeping those structures smaller gives more open space, plus restricting the amount of structures also keeps crowding down. The main resort building besides serving as the upper level train station/post office. and hotel has a grocery and a restaurant. That aerial view was at great risk to my old life and limbs as I had my shaky stroke affected body on the top of a step ladder. Had the Missus caught me up there She would have commenced with a hissy fit and conniptions. So far I am at about three days since the last forays and strolls down the mains. Callie hasn't napped in my closet since I sprayed her with water to get her down and out when I closed up the room. Deekus is sound asleep in a comfy basket under the layout and will follow me out when I leave the room. In fact the Big Guy was in complaining to me about Deekus being in his basket. Both of them will follow me where ever I am in the house during the day so I stay under constant supervision. I think they have a secret contract with the Wife to keep an eye on me. It is the younger bunch that I have to worry about. It is good to see the entirre concept plan, I don't recollect it from older posts. Building in this modular fashion is an idea that makes a lot of sense.Dang![/QUOTE] Using the concept of a HC door is what is making this happen. First they are easy to get in various widths and a simple saw and some glue can make them shorter where needed. I am using a .75 inch foam overlay on the door which allows me to easily create shallow streams and bays with out getting into the door structure. Elmer's all purpose white glue is my go to adhesive for almost everything and it is working well. The HC door comes out much cheaper in the long run when you figure the costs of plywood and decent wood for framework. And the options are plenty as far as mounting the doors ranging from cheap sawhorses to old recycled kitchen counter base units. Eventually this will go on the counter base units which have the plus factor of drawers or cabinet shelves for storage. I have been doing modules for years with some being up to 2X3 feet so going a bit larger was easy and the size of this section makes it easy to fit into my van of Wife's truck for a move. To me it is the way to build since I can work on them from all sides until ready to be set into permanent position. Also it is very easy to set prebuilt small modules into a layout. I have a number already built and packed away for use in the future sections. The ranch modules and Acme Marine being that most recent ones I covered in build threads here. When I get to the port area in the future I will most likely build most of it at my workbench and then just simply set it in and landscape where needed.
