Railway Sound Effects and Creating your own Station Announcements for free

I've had a few questions in the comments regarding the station sounds and announcements I've used in some videos that weren't part of any locomotive's sound options. I use a combination royalty free sound effects and announcements I've created myself. In this video, I'm going to bring you through some of the websites I used for generic stations sound effects and other sounds you want want to use on your layout. We'll then take a look at creating a realistic sound station announcement and the tools you'll need to put that together. Finally, we'll take a look at how you can playback the sounds you've either downloaded or created.
00:00 - Introduction
01:00 - Railway Sound Effects
04:30 - Creating an Announcement
10:30 - Playback Options
Links to all of the websites mentioned in this video are contained in the
Free Sound Effects Websites:
pixabay.com/
freesound.org/
www.zapsplat.com/sound-effect...
mixkit.co/free-sound-effects (This is a commercial channel but does have a range of sound effects available for free)
Audacity Software Download:
www.audacityteam.org/
Text to Speech:
cloud.google.com/text-to-speech
speechelo.com/ (commercial software - do a Google search for "Speechelo" to find any discounts)
Playback Options:
Mini Wireless Speaker
www.amazon.co.uk/ASelected-Po...
Mini MP3 Player with Speaker
www.amazon.co.uk/Bluetooth-Po...

[@user-db8bc9gk4t]

Appreciated for this tutorial. It's really helpful

[@irishsixtysixfanGbrf66739]

Calling at not stopping at is the most common one Eugene

[@EuviRail]

Easily fixed. Thanks for highlighting.

[@tonywilliams9600]

One of the best ‘How to’ tutorials I’ve come across in this hobby. Thanks for sharing this and encouraging us to give it a go!❤

[@EuviRail]

Thanks Tony.

[@086DEN]

Excellent video, thanks lad.

[@EuviRail]

Thanks for that.

[@stephendavies6949]

Very good tutorial video. My only suggestion has already been mentioned: "calling at", as opposed to "stopping at'. Today's totally irrelevant trivia point: I used to travel on the line you use in your example, and reckon your train is about to leave Woking. Any train that stopped at West Byfleet would also stop at Byfleet, Weybridge and Walton on Thames. Told you it was an irrelevant point!

[@EuviRail]

Thanks Stephen.

[@chrissharp5073]

You have made my day with this excellent guide. Just what I've been looking for. I run sound through my tablet to a blue tooth rechargeable mini cube speaker. Works well for music and sound from videos so see it as another asset for my model railway. Thanks for sharing.👍

[@EuviRail]

Excellent. Thank Chris.

[@rogerfosdike619]

Excellent thank you

[@cedarcam]

I made a test version of a station announcer using a text to speech. One thing I found is some words came out wrong so I had to spell them another way to get the correct word. The system used recordable chips for greetings cards There were 4 parts per announcement the first Platform one for the, next a chip containing the time of departure, the next chip had the destination and the final one calling at. There were rotary selection switches so any combination could be selected platform 1-6 a switch with 12 hour positions and one with 12 minute positions then 12 calling at options. It took a lot of chips but the idea did work. All 4 chips began to play at the same time when the announce button was pressed so each recording needed blank space so the bits of announcement played in the right place. I hope to get it fully working on my smaller layout which has only a few options. The test version only had 3 options using a bank of 15 cards.

[@EuviRail]

Sounds like a speech synth board I built 30 years ago that required phonetic spelling of every word and even then it was robotic. Using sampled speech like your announcer is a much better approach though a single chip controller with memory could it all today and more. Still, those days of building circuits like that were fun in themselves. Thanks for sharing.

[@cedarcam]

@@EuviRail For sure today you could build something all electronic but I am a relays and switches guy with little knowledge of how to design an electronic one. I will look at the links for speech you put on and may be inspired to get that old box out and see what I can do. It is fun building circuits you designed and getting them to work.

[@jamtart606]

I have access to ATOS Anne station announcements (most commonly used one across pretty much the entire network) would probably be the most realistic one to use.

[@EuviRail]

Can't do better than the originals! Thanks.

[@hotdogpilot6319]

Hadn't even considered this, well done for pointing it all out. I may have to have a go.... all in the name of fun of course.

[@EuviRail]

Thanks Andy

[@tonydaly2642]

Excellent tutorial. Thank you.

[@EuviRail]

Thanks Tony

[@HarryTheRailfan]

I have a product that Life-Like made. It is a receiver in the shape of a train station. the station has a speaker in it. It is accompanied by a remote control.

[@EuviRail]

Thanks for that.

[@irishsixtysixfanGbrf66739]

The train approaching platform number is not scheduled or due to stop here please keep behind the yellow line

[@EuviRail]

Yeah, I like that one.

[@User-3O3]

:)

[@EuviRail]

Thanks

[@Ashley-tq5fj]

Promo'SM