stan2004 posted:Well, this is a discussion forum so maybe it's only me but I appreciate the exchange of ALL ideas as a part-and-parcel aspect of the hobby.
For example, I've always meant to look further into the use of audio amplifiers as a low-cost source of clean AC track power. The invention of the "triac" AC transformer controller and its chopped-ugly sinewave might have been the worst "invention" for our hobby! From the home-theater amplifiers available today, you get hundreds of Watts of clean variable sinusoidal 60 Hz track power at a fraction of what you pay for a typical chopped train transformer. It was this about lamp brightness in turnouts that led the Jtrains to brainstorm the idea!
Indeed Stan - as this is, after all, the "Electrical Forum" and I thought someone might have a really simple AC solution that I'd overlooked. As RoyBoy suggests I'll probably just continue to suspend disbelief - as we do with the third rail, the random scale-ness of cars, the gateman who stands 20+ scale feet tall, etc. The fun, at least for me, is in the discussion of ideas as much as the solving of the problem.
Unfortunately my Frankenstein guitar amp (or a derivative of it) won't cut the mustard as it is single-ended and thus can only output about 15W max of power. I guess I'll just have to build my first push/pull tube amp. 
