Main Line Thurnby

Lights, Signals, Smoke and Sound

LIGHTS AND SIGNALS.
It is the considered opinion that a railway without lights falls a bit flat. Overhead gantries need to look live, as do track-end stops, and station platforms are better for lamp-posts that glow.
All this requires an auxiliary power supply, which also serves the interlocked turnouts and not least the main control circuit board.
Look under any urban road or pavement and the chances are that they are networked with pipes and cables. Thurnby has an optimum track height of four feet. Check underneath for the secondary feed power and follow this to it's source. It then links to the Crest controller, which conveniently provides additional output terminals for just such an application.
SMOKE AND SOUND
It is remarkable how much of both is created with using Analog. Many 'off the shelf' locomotives, albeit the more expensive ones, now come with a good range of sound and virtually all will give you smoke. LGB and several US suppliers offer separate ranges of superb sound systems. These come at a price of course, and then they have to be fitted, but from my own experience at Thurnby a good 70% of visitors bring engines with sound.
On the negative side, there is a general feeling that too much repetition of bells and whistles etc could bring your neighbours head up over the hedge. This together with the possibility that some of your visitors have parked on his front lawn, you then realise that perhaps we should have invited him to the meeting after all!

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