Station announcements

[Dylans_Grandad]

As I haven't seen any comments about the announcements in the Railmaster setup I thought I would outline what I have done.
As I have 2 layouts each with 2 stations I bought 2 x 3W stereo amplifiers from Maplin (N75AW) with 4 Oval 8ohm speakers (GL16).

Also required were 2 x 10Kohm log potentiometers for each amplifier as volume controls. (Saves fiddling about with balance and volume on the PC/Laptop.)
I also installed an led + 1K resistor and min toggle switch. All were installed in a suitable project

box with clip for a 9V battery and phono sockets connected to the amplifier inputs.
A number of holes wre drilled under the stations and after cleaning away the dust and drillings, the speakers (previously wired) were screwed underneath the stations. The

amplifiers were mounted such as to be easily accessible to connect the input cable to the PC/Laptop. Its a bit of fun getting the announcement timings right and the choice provided are really good enough to get started. Of course, there is a plan to someday

make my own announcements (or visit a station with a recorder). Having set all this up over a few days, yet again my 10 year old Grandson got the hang of it in a couple of minutes.
There is a fair amount of soldering involved in my setup so if you are not

into soldering you could just fit a pair of PC speakers in appropriate positions.