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realistic, rich-sounding loco and train sounds without the complexi-
ties of "follow the train" circuitry around the layout.
Lance Mindheim has developed a working prototype for a this very
thing. See Lance's blog:
... Lance
has three blog posts on his wireless headphones experiment.
Lance's focus is the sound as heard in the cab of the locomotive,
so adding other train sounds in the headphone feed is not a big
requirement. If you're sitting in the cab of a locomotive, sounds
from the engine will completely overpower any other noises.
Lance found the result was quite satisfying and the technology
requirements aren't that complex.
So why not take this to the next level? Use a multi-channel head-
phones-with-microphone arrangement to allow switching back
and forth between train sounds and talking with the dispatcher.
For two person crews, give a headset to the engineer and the
conductor/switchman.
For the engineer, having the loco and train sounds blasting in your
ears makes hand signals with the conductor/switchman more nec-
essary – how's that for realism?
Now, if you can add in the train sounds decoder I mentioned earlier
with the loco sounds and a multi-channel headset with a micro-
phone, then we could be really on to something! Without search-
ing too hard, the MRH staff was able to find an 8-channel system
that included a headset with a microphone.
So here is the challenge – is anyone willing to explore these ideas
and push us to the next level in model train sound realism?
Publisher’s editorial - 3
MRH-May 2013
