I remember the 1st time that I built what I call is a plateau on one of my Christmas layouts. I had always had just a level floor layout that was very quiet because I put blue insulation board down first with Homasote on top of that. No track bed. Tin-plate track.
I remember well the first time that I ran my PW 2343 Santa Fe on the plateau - the reverberation scared the crap out of me since I hadn't heard that echo effect before - I thought something bad happened!!!
I've liked quiet ever since! Or at least low-volume on my sound trains.
- walt