Getting Real Column - 6
10: Kansas City Iron & Metal, which houses the speaker for
the East throat.
Kansas City Downtown and Trolley Bell:
To provide ambi-
ance to the whole left side of the room and to take advantage
on the original sound track which was recorded in stereo,
there are two speakers for the downtown sound track. The
right one is located in the concrete retaining wall beneath the
Grand Avenue bridge and the left one is located in the retain-
ing wall adjacent to Broadway Avenue and facing the railway
express building.
A Tortoise switch machine throws a switch on the bridge to the
trolley track which leads down into Union Station. The styrene
box that forms the front part of the bridge also serves as a baf-
fle for the two speakers. The black grills are made from leftover
sections of a cooling tower that came with the Heljan brewery
kit. They nicely conceal the speakers when painted and weath-
ered. The front section of the Grand Avenue Bridge actually
10
houses two speakers. One is for the right channel of downtown
Kansas City, and the other is for Trolley Bell sound track.
The speaker for the left downtown speaker is hidden in the
retaining wall at the west end of the Railway Express Building.
It is located in front of the red truck.
Kansas City Union Station:
Since the Union Station itself is
double-walled and made of relatively thick casting sections,
I did not place the speakers for it inside the main building.
Instead I placed them in the basement area. The right speaker
is located in the retaining wall below the Main Street Bridge,
and the left speaker is located in a styrene baffle box inside the
basement of Union Station behind open doors.
Terminal Railway Powerhouse:
I located the speaker for the
Terminal Railway powerhouse beneath the floor at the rear
11: The black grills left are recycled from the Heljan brewery
kit to conceal the speakers
.
11
MRH-Jun 2013
