On another website I mentioned briefly that I thought that the future of high end model railroad layout design could rest in taking inspiration from the world of dark rides in amusement parks. I found an article on dark ride design which I shared in that post which I felt was relevant to model railroad design (this article: http://entertainmentdesigner.com/featured/shining-light-dark-rides/).
Thinking about it some more, I want to see if anyone has some examples of what I want to call “special effects” heavy layouts. By this I mean a full gauntlet of all the tricks in the hobby, full CTC mainlines, radio communications, ambient sound systems, light cycles that go from day to night following the time set on a fast clock (and the needed safety lights to prevent operators from stumbling into each other in a darker room), animations, etc… Maybe even some out there lighting/sound effects such as lightning storms in a summer monsoon (or a nice occasional flash of white and orange light in the distance towards Las Vegas in a layout set in Nevada or Utah in the mid-1950’s… I’ll let you guys figure that one out [:P]) Maybe even going the final step and adding scents of some sort, via scented oils perhaps (imagine a heavy pine forest in the Northwest or Canada, with the pine scent lingering in the room). Top it all off with a clean room, and a simple visual design for the benchwork to keep distraction away and put all the focus on the layout itself. Sort of like the museum quality of Mike Danneman’s layout, but with more blinking lights!
Of the three private layouts I have been to, I have seen bits of this but never a full implementation of all of these effects. I know some might say this much tech would be overkill; but I could imagine that if applied properly it could be the next level for the hobby. The effects could be used