I've been puttering again!

I wanted a train horn sound effect I could activate anytime I wanted. I don't have sound equipped locos or run DCC so I came up with this:
Click on the pic for a short video

Absolut awsome I have only a puny push bottom in the fascia...

Thanks! For those of you who might be interested, here is what I did. I purchased a $15.00 battery operated piano keyboard and rigged up some simple mechanics with scrap wood and hardware I already had on hand. Hooking it up to a pull cord and handle allows me to press three keys to create the horn. The cheap speakers sounded tinny so I experimented with several baffles until I discovered that the tomato cans produced the best sound. I duct taped them to the piano.[attachment=12652]

I did some online research and found a couple of articles that described train horn chords. There were several. After some experimentation I found I most liked a three note chime with C,D#, and A as the notes. I rigged up a lever with wooden pegs to correspond with the appropriate keys. [attachment=12651]

Once the assembly was complete I screwed it upside down to the ceiling and added a valance.
[attachment=12650]

I gotta say that it is great fun to pull the chord!
Ralph

Well Done Ralph!!!

I like your creative problem solving skills.

A simple inexpensive means to add to model railroading enjoyment.

Mark

That's Great!!!!!

You never cease to amaze me. Quite an invention. You do know what PC horns sound like don't you.

Charlie

I sure do, thanks to you Charlie!

Don't you have a problem trying to stand on your head when you want to play that keyboard?

Just kidding, innovative and really cool.

In a way, its even better than a sound decoder, not only because you get to pull the chord, but the horn activates more like a real train horn. In DCC, you press the "2" button, and the horn comes on, but thats all it is. In the programming of the decoder, there is a "horn start", "Horn", and "horn finish" sound file, so you can't really activate the horn halfway quite how you can with this device.


If you wanted to get really creative, perhaps you could make an interlocking device with different chords making different train horns!

Incredible idea!

Green_Elite_Cab Wrote:If you wanted to get really creative, perhaps you could make an interlocking device with different chords making different train horns!

Thanks guys!

GEC, I actually considered possibly making some interchangeable wood peg components that would play different horns. If you look at the pics of the keyboard you'll see little colored dots that denote different chords. I finally decided to settle on the one chord for simplicity.

It was a fun project that turned out better than I anticipated. I think anyone visiting the layout will love it as much as I do.

I'll bet your wife just LOVES that!!

Ralph Wrote:

Green_Elite_Cab Wrote:If you wanted to get really creative, perhaps you could make an interlocking device with different chords making different train horns!

Thanks guys!

It was a fun project that turned out better than I anticipated. I think anyone visiting the layout will love it as much as I do.

How about a video?

"I'll bet your wife just LOVES that!!"

Heh-heh. It's in a basement train room and not really loud. She can't hear it upstairs. I talked with her prior to construction about screwing things to the wood furring strips of the acoustic tile ceiling. The screws leave virtually impercepatable holes when the assembly is removed. Besides, once we decide to sell the house and I have to dismantle the layout, I plan to do a lot of home improvement down there prior to sellng. Actually my wife thinks the train horn is clever and she likes pulling the chord.

Charlie B Wrote:How about a video?

Charlie, did you click on the first photo in the thread? It's actually a short video that plays the horn.