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Model Railroad Products
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Easy to use electronic model railroading products and supercharged LGB starter sets
We carry a full line of German made products by Marklin, LGB, PIKO and ESU, the English made SPROG for both DCC programming and train operation, as well as USA made Phoenix and Shourt Line products and many other brands. We stock everything you need to maintain and operate your trains. in addition to to new and vintage G scale items we offer own line of products for large scale trains. The Shourt Line has a service department for restoration, repair, installation and DCC loco conversion with free phone help with any problems. Shourt Line by Soft Works Ltd. offers low cost, easy to use, multi-effect, configurable lighting products, power supplies, throttles, decoders and train electronics.
We offer custom design, fabrication, repair and installation world wide.
Why we decided to design, manufacture and sell new throttles, power supplies, lighting and model train products
First, for over 20 years I set up and ran G scale trains for two weeks every year at Christmas. The first time I added lights to my passenger train I found that the power pack would stop running after one or two minutes of operation. After trying a larger output power pack with the same result, I checked the current (amperage) going to the track and found it was well within the rating or the unit. I realized at that point that the rating of power packs was not at all accurate.
In 2005 I built my outdoor garden railway and used a 5 amp outdoor throttle with a 10 amp power supply to run three trains at the same time. I found that the throttle overloaded after a few minutes of operation. I checked the amperage going to the track and found it to be under 4 amps, which is 1 amp under the rating of the throttle. At that point I realized that throttles were also over rated.
The third event happened a few weeks later when a friend, who is a grand master model railroader, and I destroyed the electronics in his prototype engine using a toy train power pack made by a leading G scale manufacturer. I measured the power pack and found it the output had a leakage of 15VAC regardless of the throttle setting and this was the cause of the destruction. I checked several other power packs from starter sets and to my horror found the same AC leakage problem. That was the last straw! I decided then and there to build a throttle, find quality power supplies and the result is the Shourt Line Throttles.
My background:
I have a over 30 years consulting experience in computer science, electrical engineering and model making. I made all the model electronics systems and many of the models for the original movie Star Wars. This project started my interest in miniature lighting effects and I have developed many products for clients since then.
This photo shows me in the my lab coat helping Grant McCune install the engine pod on the 'original Millennium Falcon' in the model shop at ILM in Van Nuys, CA.
The design for the Millennium Falcon was changed to a flying saucer design after the director saw some footage of 'Close Encounters'. My brother Bill Shourt and I were asked to quickly make the new model shown below in testing.
This photo shows my brother and I on the right foreground showing George the lighting system test for the new Millennium Falcon in the model shop at ILM in Van Nuys, CA. The new design included a cooling system for the engine lights that connected to the 6 way 2 inch steel mounting poles that also carried power to the model.
This photo shows me installing the radar dish for Richard Edlands who was photographing the blockade runner at ILM in Van Nuys, CA. Notice the radar dish and cockpit were used on the Millennium Falcon final design.
Miniature Lighting Products:
You will find many unique products on this web site for model railroading and next year I will release a line of scale lighting products using NMRA DCC standards. Please check this web site www.scalelights.com soon for the public release of these scale model lighting products.
I hope you enjoy these new products as much I have enjoyed bringing them to you. Please contact me if you have any questions or suggestions,
James Shourt.
