My RDC board game deals only with passengers. (It was too hard to represent multi-car freight trains and keep everything together using only magnets on the back of a steel baking pan!) Passengers randomly appear, desiring to go to one of four stations. For the O gauge version, I was intending to install LEDs in the tops of my stations to indicate the presence of passengers. Similarly, LEDs would be installed in the roofs of the passenger cars. So when you "pick up" a passenger, an LED on the station goes out, and one on the car illuminates. I was planning to use battery power with hands-on selection by physical switches, or perhaps a short range multi-button addressable RF remote.
The track plan on my gameboard was purposefully designed with multiple routes and opportunities for reversing. There are at least two ways to play my game: The first, is that each train has to complete its delivery via specific track segments determined by drawn cards. This emphasizes planning and efficient routing. The second way is that a conductor is free to choose the shortest route. However, segment cards can be used to claim bonuses for traveling over those segments (even though they may not be on the shortest route to the passengers' desired destination.) As I said, this isn't a simulation of real railroading! In either case, trade-offs are what make it fun. Multiple trains vying for the same passengers or the same track segment create interaction and the need for cooperation. Observers get to see multiple trains navigating the entire network, and rarely following the same path twice.
Getting back to LEDs, two years ago Lionel introduced a "light-up" Fastrack that could serve as a visual indication of target segments in the O gauge version of my game. Of course LEDs can be installed in any roadbed, or next to the track where they would be more visible. Depending on game play, multiple colors could be used to designate each conductor's target segments. I was also planning to control these LEDs manually with toggle switches. In a perfect world, the "game engine" (a computer program) would generate signals that go through an Arduino or custom circuit which turns the LEDs on at random, and off when a sensor track registers passage of the obliged vehicle(s).
Lionel's LCS app already has layout-building tools and a nifty graphical representation which allows control of track switches. IMO, any layout complex enough to host this kind of game-- multiple alternate routes, multiple trains-- would benefit from iPad-based control of switches and junctions. Whether the layout representation in the LCS app could be enhanced to show sources and destinations for passengers and cargo is something that only Lionel could answer.
I agree that a "scoreboard" will increase interest and engagement. I'm planning to have a chalkboard in the train room to keep track of the most prolific crews over multiple sessions. I'm planning to award laminated photo cards, or even Hallmark Lionel ornaments as keepsakes for participants. I'm determined to make this "game" / operating scheme interesting and fun for my non-train friends, scout groups, sick children visiting with their families from the hospital across the street -- people who have never been exposed to model trains or the fun that you can have with them. But turning the LEDs on and off, keeping track of routes with cards, etc., will be a full-time job. Automating these tasks with LCS and custom hardware such as you are building would allow me to interact with my guests, which is a huge win!
