Idea: Using Television show themes for modeling our layout's era!

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Hey guys!

Another suggestion that’s a take off of the Record Store post. ]Most of us strongly associate our youth with what was playing on TV back then!

During the late 60s in my neighborhood (Bronx, New York), many people in the early evening hours had their TVs on. The older style apartments had vertical sliding windows and many residents would have some open during the summer. Passers by could often hear what was playing on the tube! For me, the most memorable shows were: I Dream of Jeannie, The Flip Wilson Show, F-Troop, Mod Squad, Batman, Star Trek, Partridge Family, Hawaii 5-0, Petticoat Junction,.…far too many to list! [:p]

Suggestion/Idea:
The SoundAmerica website, and similar websites are loaded with HUNDREDS of TV show theme clips from the 1940s thru today. With a “burner”, one can burn these themes onto a CD! Then with that same CD player that’s hooked underneath the layout for the record store, or using a separate unit, a speaker could be placed inside a DPM or Walther’s Cornerstone Series apartment building.

[1] Imagine it’s 1958 and while your switcher is servicing the local industries in your town, the faint theme sounds of “Rawhide” and “I Love Lucy” could be heard coming from an open window apartment. [C):-)]

[2] On your 1978 based layout, one of your visiting relatives keeps looking around confused. She thinks she “faintly” hears the theme songs from “Welcome Back Kotter” and “What’s Happening” coming from a bui

2

Or if your steam loco is recieving water at the junction, the faint sound of the theme from “Petticoat Junction” can be heard.

3

I remember when TV first began to be an item that some families could afford. We lived 65 miles from Saint Louis, the nearest location with a TV station (KSD-TV). Outdoor antennas were required, usually mounted on the roof atop a tall tower, and even then the picture was snowy. Black and White picture only in those days. An airplane getting between the station and TV would cause the picture to flutter on and off, and picture ghosting off of buildings was also a big problem in those days. Howdy Doody and Kukla, Fran and Ollie were the first shows I remember ever watching. Even the adults thought Howdy Doody was high class entertainment in those days. Sid Ceasar and Imogene Coca’s Show of Shows, and Milton Berle, were the favorite evening shows. Broadcasting hours were only from 2:00 to 11:00 p.m. The first TV sets had small screens and contained vacuum tubes that took several minutes to warm up after the set was turned on. Our first set, a Zenith, was almost the size of a refrigerator for a 12" screen.

A small LCD screen could be used to have an actual picture showing through a house or store window, but getting the screen down to a scale size and keeping the picture only black and white would be a challenge.

4

I’d settle with getting a flickering bluish glow coming out of several residental buildings’ windows to indicate people watching television at night (interesting, even with the latest large-screen HDTV’s the light leakage through the windows is still mostly bluish-white).
You rarely hear the TV speakers outside (which is where we, the layout observer), usually are…

Now, some other ‘non-industrial’ sound effects you could have on modern era layouts are:
1.) Loud bass beats from a micro-speaker positioned under a model ‘ricer’ car (eg Honda Civics with gaudy paint, spoilers, VTEC decals, and hubcab spinners)
2.) A garage band practicing far-off in the hot summer nights (every few years I hear this in my neighborhood - last week was a Limp-bizkit wannbe)
3.) Back-yard party with boom-box blasting the era’s top 40s (before 1980, have the host position his stereo (well, hi-fi) speakers in the backyard instead).

5

All that’s fine and dandy for a time when TV’s were commonplace, but doesn’t cut it for an earlier time. I was rereading (for about the 70th) time Keith Jordan’s piece on the prewar Santa Fe Surf Line. I was listening to Glen Miller and that and Keith’s article were really putting me “In The Mood”.

Andre

6

Chutton1,

Where I grew up at in New York, there were many of the old style apartment buildings like what you see in the Walther’s Cornerstone buildings. As a kid, I distinctly remember walking to the store, coming from school, or walking to the train station with my mom. Many of these buildings had NO A/C, so residents would open windows and a few would place a fan in front of it so air could be sucked in. It was hot New York air, of course.

Not all, but some people would have those TVs turned up LOUD! Not loud enough to “boom” a neighborhood but loud enough that people walking by on the sidewalk could clearly hear it. I remember that some of these were either senior citizens (probably with deteriorating hearing), kids watching their favorite cartoons, or sports fans watching an exciting game.

The point I made above was that just like people on a sidewalk, the sound would be quite low to the point where if you’re having a conversation with someone while you’re running trains, you won’t hear it. Just like if you’re having a conversation while walking around your town, you tune everything else out!

The purpose of this idea is simply to add “ambience” to your railroad’s background, just as darkened lights in a romantic resteraunt or the rustle of leaves and tree branches when a gentle summer wind blows through them.

Simple.

7

I like 1906.

What’s a television?

Dave H.

8

O.K, Dehusman

How about “Barbershop Quartets”?[:P][:P][%-)][(-D]

9

How about the latest “Flash Gordon” or “The Shadow” from someone’s radio?

I don’t know if they still do it, as it’s been years since I’ve been listened to the station with any regularity, but WBBM (AM 780) from Chicago used to do old-time radio shows on Sunday nights around 10:30 PM. WBBM is 500 kilowatts, so they’re accessible to a good share of the US and southern Ontario.

You can also check your local National Public Radio station to see if they have anything like old-time radio. Check www.npr.org for a station finder. Wisconsin listeners can go to www.wpr.org. For southern Wisconsin, WHAD 90.7 FM, old-time theater is on Sunday nights.

10

Hey, how about the theme (and sounds) from “Gone With The Wind” coming out of a movie theater?

11

I think it would get old real quick. How long could you play the theme song from I Love Lucy (I hate Lucy!) during an op session. After hearing it over and over for three or four hours, I’d be longing for the sweet release of death!

Better to play around with this as just one part of a multitude of other appropriate background sounds, with the volume almost imperceptally low, almost sub-liminal. Then it might work effectively.

12

CBQ_Q Guy,

What you’re stating is exactly my point. The “I Love Lucy” theme is just one clip. I only listed between 1 & 3 samples above because there are literally hundreds per decade starting from the late 1940s. The trick is that you could time it where you would hear a tv theme every 10 or 15 minutes during a layout operating session. Something different each time.

The idea is to use a “Compact Disc” that “is LOADED” with tv show clips of the time period that you are modeling. These theme clips can be spaced apart so they don’t play right away as soon as one finished. So basically, I Love Lucy could be one of maybe 100 sound clips that could be put on a CD for someone modeling the late 1950s! A few would be: Dragnet, Superman, Rawhide, Howdy Doody, Father Knows Best, The Jackie Gleason Show, Sargent Bilco, The Steve Allen Show, Abbot & Costello, Leave it to Beaver, The Kettles, Bachelor Father, The Honeymooners, ------The list is very lonnnnnng!!. For the 1960s and later decades there are many MORE tv and movie clips. [8)][8D][;)]

There is no need to listen to the same theme show over & over. And again, the key is to keep the sound very low to the point where it’s as you say “imperceptibly low”, barely audible. When a train rolls by, it should not even be able to be heard.

Along with the music store and t.v sounds, one can run a Green Frog series tape with birds, city traffic, or farm sounds also. Again, the idea is not overdoing it, but with very low volumes a model railroad is transformed into a very realistic, believable scene!

As stated before, with websites like SoundAmerica, television & movie clips dating back to the 40s can be downloaded in just minutes. [:D]

High Greens with an E7 in Run 8! [:D][;)]

13

It’s 1978 and Battlestar Galactica is coming in for a landing on my layout!

14

What’s the internet?

15

For the 1960s, The Twilight Zone would work. Of course some of the operators may want that played at full blast [;)][:p][;)][:p]

The Outer Limits could work too.
“There’s no need to adjust your set. We control the sound, the horizontal, and the vertical…AND YOUR PRIZED BRASS LOCOMOTIVE TOO.”[:p]

LMHO

Take care,

Russell

16

jay_c, WBBM is FIFTY kilowatts, NOT 500! 50KW is the maximum power for AM stations in the US. That translates to 50,000 watts. In AM that is the actual transmitter output. FM power is figured as ERP (effective radiated power). I used to manage a 100,000 watt FM on 101.1 MHz that had an ERP of 100,000 watts; but actual transmitter output was 10,000 watts. Our sister AM ran 5,000 watts on 1300 KHz and could be heard MUCH further away than the FM.

I grew up in the Howdy Doody era watching KSD-TV in St. Louis just like cacole above. I don’t think I’d want continous themes playing. After all the themes only played on the hour and half hour, not all the time.

Anybody here remember Tom Corbett, Space Cadet or Space Patrol?

17

I am trying to find an old broadcast of a baseball game to play once in awhile under the layout. Any ideas where I should start looking ? Oakland A’s in the 60’s is preferred… Will look on the Sounds America site for other stuff, sound like a neat idea… I play music from the era I model and as long as you have lots of it and keep it low ,the crews appear to enjoy it

WP Steve web site http://members.bigvalley.net/norma

18

You could look up the radio stations that form part of a club’s radio network. Take WGN in Chicago. They’ve been doing Cubs for years, and did some Bears games in the old days. THeir website is selling aCD of hihjlights from 50+ years of broadcasting. WSM in Nashville has archive recordings of old broadcasts. Other old stations may also be celebrating 50+ years of operation.

For TV shows, I like the opening scene of In The Heat Of the Night. Watch that Amtrak Heritage streamliner (most likely the Crescent) pulling into town.

19

What a great idea this is! I have an old record (!) of Cubs broadcasts. It features Jack Brickhouse and includes Ernie Banks’ 500th home run. I’m thinking I might use it for this purpose.

20

I’d be pretty much pre-TV, but how about the LUX RADIO THEATER, or better yet, Orson Welle’s broadcast of WAR OF THE WORLDS? Actually, on my movie theater marquee, the film playing is SARATOGA TRUNK, and the coming attraction is RIO GRANDE. That way I can cover both the mid '40’s and 1950. Cool idea, though. I think I’ll sound-byte some of my classic video collection.
Tom