wcrpaul

Another dimension to this is differences in visitor expectations. Whilst there's an overlap in the middle, hard-core enthusiasts want a different experience to family visitors with children (who, for example, lack patience with prototypical operation). I have to admit my layouts tend to attract a crowd of the latter, with the former just walking past.😄

On the slightly off-topic question of visible fiddle/storage, my visitors definitely like to see trains in waiting...

I have had various "audience participation" features on my 16mm scale NG exhibit. Visitors are able to work four signals and the turntable, and make smoke plume from the railway workers' cottage chimney. Great fun for the kids when the trains had to obey the signals, although some of them became obsessed with pressing buttons/pulling levers. Didn't really grab the adults though, save perhaps the cottage smoking chimney which fascinated some of the lady visitors who were dolls house enthusiasts. "Expert" visitors were singularly unimpressed. Paul.

.....Which all demonstrates the exhibition managers' huge task in inviting a wide variety of layouts to cater for the full spectrum of interests within our hobby. It's a given that not all exhibits will interest all visitors. Our recent show had G1 live steam to Z gauge and kids' Playmobil on the floor..... but hey, we're a tolerant bunch. Just to illustrate, I do find that many visitors like to watch from the "wrong side" as trains come and go in the fiddle yard, and there may even be some "modern image" examples that you might not encounter on your commute....

Meant also to mention... and with apologies if already noted in this thread... when considering alternative smoke generating solutions there might be need to consider increased likelihood of there being asthmatics in your audience.

Smoke units: I find scenery contamination happens mostly when the unit "pops" due to being over-filled, ejecting a small amount of distillate. My approach to my 16mm NG exhibit railway worker's cottage was to use the ubiquitous Seuthe unit, working at 15v AC draughted by a silent PC fan in a partially enclosed box right at the very base of the chimney stack (as distinct from installing the unit in the pot). The smoke exits up an approx 5 inch long tube within the chimney to the pot. The theory being that at least some of the distillate condensing on its way up the tube has a chance to drip back down to the base rather than being ejected from the top. I use a syringe with a 5 inch brass tube needle extension to make sure each refill goes right into the Seuthe unit. I operate out at the front of the layout (radio control) and always like to have some audience participation. The Seuthe unit is not left generating smoke all the time, although the PC fan does run constantly. Instead, there is a momentary button on the front on the layout that visitors can press to apply the 15v AC to the unit. That way, you are only producing smoke for visitors who want to see it. 5 secs press of the button ejects an impressive smoke display draughted though the chimney pot as if the cottage fire has just been lit (...by the pixies.....well the kids love it anyway.)

This very simple public facing panel built for my 16mm Narrow Gauge line at our Padiham exhibition this Saturday 1st Nov allows visitors to “be the signalman” – yes, this is something you CAN touch ;-) 4 electrified lower quadrant signals are powered by vertically mounted SEEP PM4s which also provide feedback to the panel indicator LEDs. My (normally out of sight) CDU uses a 24 volt transformer. Charged output peaks above 30volts offload, pushing the SEEP motors to the max! The black pulse box repeats the charge/discharge cycle at 1 sec intervals whenever a panel button is held down. The drilled out signal post lamps are illuminated by 5 volt GofW filament bulbs which IMHO look more realistic than LEDs. These lamps serve a dual purpose in confirming the 8 way connector is fully attached and the signal is "on-line". The yellow buttons operate the 2 sets of points. The point switching feature won’t be enabled on Saturday although the panel also supports a wired remote for the operator to override points settings whenever necessary. All locos on the line are radio controlled.

Gosh as a newbie I hope this posts OK! I built this portable, detachable panel for my Japanese "N" Tohoku City high level station, (which is also served by city trams at ground level). The panel handes platform line select/isolation, station approach point control, and signalling. You can see on the schematic that the (upper) Shinkansen bullet train tracks are separate from the (lower) local commuter lines. The right hand portion of the panel shows the storage sidings which are separated from the exhibition section by tunnels. The panel front is clear 4mm perspex/acrylic painted white on the reverse side which gives a nice flawless finish to the front. The lines are 6mm black self adhesive vinyl tape supplied for car customising. The panel box is mdf base & hardboard sides covered with self-adhesive black leather-effect vinyl. Inside, the left hand veroboard handles station track isolation/activation, the middle board accommodates eight latching changeover relays driving the panel LEDs and layout colour light signals. The Kato point motors have no auxilliary switching and rely on single pair polarity changes unlike the usual 3-wire common return method, The latching relays "remember" the last momentary button press for each point or slip. And the right hand board has 16 DPDT relays switched by momentary push-buttons to set the double slips and points by changing polarity on the wired pair supplies. Note the remnants of my experimentation with resistance values for colour LED brightness on the left hand board! Paul.