Take the Engineer's Seat on My HO Scale Layout 

Thank you for your feedback. I hope above all to inspire modelers who don't have space for their dream layout to build something smaller - there is a lot of satisfaction and experience to be gained.

Thanks... and while you're right about fixing up a box car being pretty easy, I'm amazed that I learn something new every time I do one of these rebuilds!

Thanks for subscribing! I'm glad you're finding something of value. That is always my intent.

Thanks!

That's a good comment - I'll see if I can find some gray talus to either replace or cover the brown.

Assuming your layout runs around the perimeter of your room, your layout will have a mainline run of about 100 feet, or 8700 scale feet. Your ten fifty-foot cars are 500 feet long, or 6% of the length of your layout. That seems very reasonable to me. The key is train length compared to layout size. Check out Daryl Cruise's Evanston Sub - HE runs some serious trains in HO scale!

@@rwissbaum9849 my 3 top rules of model railroading are, it has to be fun. If it isn't fun then its work and not fun. The second rule is it has to look real. Even if a prototype doesn't exist, could it. The third rule is keep the cost as low as posible. I buy used or other people's mistakes at a big discount. That's when kit bashing and scratch bashing come into play.

@@paullindell Wow! You have expressed MY views more concisely than I could have!

This is not a topic that is easily addressed in a video. Here is a brief overview: SOUND: You need the following materials: 1. An Audio FX 16MB sound board from Adafruit (www.adafruit.com/product/2341 $19.95). 2. A mono 2.5W amplifier (www.adafruit.com/product/2130 $3.95). 3. A 4 Ohm speaker (www.adafruit.com/product/1314 $1.95). 4. A 5V voltage regulator (www.adafruit.com/product/2164 $0.75). 5. A latching on/off switch (e.g. www.amazon.com/gp/product/B086QWDPVN/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1) In general, you'll connect DC power to the voltage regulator with the on/off switch on the +12V load; You'll connect the voltage regulator output (+5V and GND to the VIN and GND terminals of the Sound FX board. You'll connect the Right output and the GND to the VIN and GND terminals on the amplifier; and you'll connect the two outlet pins on the amplifier to the speaker. Next, you need to find a source of free sound clips online. Try SoundCloud and search for railroad crossing bell. You need a .WAV file - the Adafruit board will not play MP3 files (the MP3 codec requires paying a license fee - Adafruit keeps their price down by avoiding that license fee.). You will copy the .WAV file onto the flash memory of the Sound FX board (the instructions will tell you how to load and name the files. Finally, you will connect the GND terminal of the Sound FX board to one of the trigger pins numbered 0 -7 (the Sound FX board will play up to 8 different sound files - you tell it which file to play by connected the numbered terminal to ground. FLASHING LIGHTS: You'll need the following materials: 1. An Arduino Nano (www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07G99NNXL/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 $23 for 3) 2. Grade crossing flashers. I use these (tomarindustries.com/products/crossing-signals-2-units-per-pkg-h-862b) but they are currently sold out. Check out Azatrax (www.azatrax.com/ho-scale-crossing-gates.html) You will connect DC power to the VIN and GND terminals of the Arduino, with the SAME latching on/off switch on the +12V lead. (That way, the flashers and the bell are operated by the same switch.) Some flashers are wired with common anodes; some are wired with common cathodes. If common anode wiring, connect GND to the common and connect digital pins 2 though 5 to the flasher LEDs. If you have two flashers, you'll connect pins 6 though 9 to the second flasher. If the flashers are wired with common cathode, you'll connect the 5V terminal to the common, and everything else the same. Now you need to program the Arduino to turn the lights on and off in the desire fashion. If you are not familiar with programming an Arduino, there are a lot of books out there to get you started. If all of this hasn't intimidated you, and if you need more detailed help, drop me an email (you should be able to find my email address on the About tab of my channel.)

Ok - thought about it overnight and I have some ideas on how to make a video. Anyone who is interested, read my lengthy reply below, and if you're still interested, flp over to the Community tab - I'll post a poll. If I get just ten votes in favor of such a video, I'll put it on my list. This would be TWO videos: one for lights, and one for sound.

@@rwissbaum9849 The details in the reply are very helpful, i will have no problem following them, thank you for information to get me start on this project.

@@jstockton303 Good luck! Let me know how it goes.

So, the poll I placed on the Community tab already has 10 votes in favor of a video - it will actually be two videos. Just now in the queue I have two more Sheridan Hotel videos, and two freight car project videos. I'll start on the flashers and sound after those four are done.