Good read!

I enjoyed this article.  Good ideas for adding the illusion of motion to water scenes.  The swimmer is great!  Lots of good ideas here.

Not so sure about motion...

While I enjoyed the article, I also recall one by Tony Koester a few years ago in which he pointed out the problems with motion. Fundamentally, this is that the sign painters never finish the sign, and the tugboat never gets anywhere.  When I come back to the layout for the next ops session, there's that tugboat, still steaming along, in exactly the same place as it was last time.  If however, the tugboat is tied to the dock, then it is entirely plausible that it has come an gone in the meantime, or that it hasn't moved at all.  Of course, that begs the question... if someone like me would never accept seeing the same boxcar delivered to the same siding every ops session, why should I accept the same car trying to make the same left turn, week in and week out.  Perhaps I ought to have a plan to move vehicles around on the layout so that it appears not to be frozen in time.

Bruce Smith

Auburn, AL

+ +

Personal note: Future  project.. HOLOGRAPHIC pictures of vehicules  that appear to change direction/orientation  as you move about the layout.

Marc Fournier, Quebec

Slot cars!

Moving the cars is easy! Slot cars!  It's trying to get all the people walking down the street to move along that's the real problem. Haven't you seen the same grandmother about to enter the same store over and over?

Actually, Horace Fithers claims it's like it's Ground Hogs day (the movie) except instead of repeating a day over and over, it's about a 1/4 second that's being repeated over and over...  Or maybe a new virus escaped from the governments biological warefare lab down the road. A variation of tetanus (lock-jaw) except that it locks everything else too?

Charlie

Modular layout at a show...

I read a comment somewhere by someone who has a modules that he displays as part of a modular layout at shows in the area he lives in. One of his modules included a grade crossing, so he put a car there to wait for the train. Same car, all the time.

One year a lady stopped by, looked at the car and commented that it had been waiting there since she last saw the module at the same show a year previously.

He started trading out the car (and I believe other similar static elements) after that.

Frozen in time

Good article & comments.  My one cent worth of opinion (it's not worth 2 cents!):  What we do with our model railroads goes way beyond  just building a model (model railroad) in that what we do is actually art.  Of course, some art is better than others.

Now, if I go to a museum they may have new or different paintings, but the artist doesn't modify or re-paint his painting just because someone has seen it before.  This is where the viewer's imagination and appreciation embrase the art piece for what it is - static, but alive with possibilities provided by their own imagination!

When I look at a model railroad I can imagine the activity that can happen with the static portions and thus bring the art piece alive in my own head.  Oh, sure, I have illuminated signs with motion and sound modules on my layout because what I can "move" I try to move.  There's nothing wrong with moving around the movable items, but what's next? - are we going to replace our trees & growing things with taller, more mature items so views don't get "stuck" on our static landscaping?

(My one cent worth)

Rick 

Animation is a challenge.

One reason that I don't like to model intermodal terminals is that I used to work in the harbor and there just isn't any way that I know of to get all of the trucks, cranes and other vehicles in motion to replicate the activity of an intermodal terminal.  At least there isn't any way to do it on a budget that I could afford.  That is also why it is difficult to model a convincing city.  There is movement and activity on a city street.  The pictures in the model railroading magazines look great because they are always a snap shot in time.  On the layout, in person, it all looks too static to me.  If you are working a train with walk around control, it looks more realistic because when you get ot that railroad crossing with your train, it looks right for the gates to be down and the cars waiting for the train.  When you leave the scene with your train, you don't see what happens behind you.  On the other hand for a visitor or observer, when the train leaves town and the crossing gate stays down, or even if it comes up, if the car doesn't move, it suddenly can look too static. 

Whatever happened to

Whatever happened to imagination and pretending? While I can't consider my layout a work of art, maybe a piece of work though, I do consider it a toy, albiet a sophisticated one, but a toy non the less. I play on it, realistically I hope and the stars of the show are the trains. If we get all bent out of shape about cars and people not moving, what did we do before the advent of DCC and realistic sound and lights? I am sure most of you somewhere along the line made train sounds, huh? And what about smoke from a steamer climbing a grade, Yes there are smoke generators but most look like a giant cigarrette smoldering! Also, none of the foliage actually grows either and does not change colour with the seasons, and the sun on most layouts stays in the same position all day, and night too! Ok, enough, you catch my drift I hope.  Not all cars can be in a parking lot and not all people can be sitting,  That would look even more unrealistic. Most of what we are creating is an illusion, and to the casual observer it works very well. If it does not for the modeller, then start playing again and move the cars around. I received a nice comment, once, that everytime he came to see the layout it looked different. Yes, some of my cars do move, and I enjoy creating the different scenes, and I still enjoy playing with my trains and cars! 

Steve      

It's the trains

I like animation and lighting, quality structures and landscaping, but it's the trains that bring us together.

Somebody who nit picks about immovable grannies and cars just isn't invited back.  Ask them to solve the (their) problem. 

This is a tempest in a teapot, because I still don't know anybody who can scale down smoke or water.  What are the issues with water that doesn't flow, or smoke that looks like it's coming off a cigar?

The closest I've come to these is lighting under the stream (complex work: light, fan, "christmas tree rain", plastic ceiling lighting material and stained glass paints); and a "strong breeze" to dissipate smoke created, with a ceiling fan to remove it.  Lots of variations.

Bringing your layout alive

I enjoyed this article. When I first read the title, I thought it was going to instruct me on animation techniques. I've seen several layouts over the years that did one great job animating everything possible. Car's and buses running in slots, flying airplanes on ultra thin wire, blimps flying by. Then there's the fairly new lighting technologies with blinking lites and neon signs. For my tastes these items fall under the gadget category. I do like the use of environmental sound. One of the article layout photos is of a scene on George Selios's layout. I think that this guy is an artist in that he takes figures, cars, etc.and puts them in a scene so that you can use your imagination to figure out what is going on. He is a master at doing this and I respect that work completely. This article gave the reader a nice introduction into the possibilities of figure and auto use on the layout. Tell a story, create an environment. Let me - the observer, the operator imagine a story. The comments for the article really got me thinking - especially the one about moving boat versus the boat at dock. Fantastic. It'l influence me when I start building my own water scene.

Tom 

Auburn

Bycykling in HO

Two and a half minutes into this video:

Leave it to your imagination

I, too, agree that a model railroad is a piece of art. It's a recreation of something that YOU have imagined from, perhaps, an earlier life experience. When someone looks at your railroad for the first time, they are seeing a creation that you have put together. We all, by nature, tend to put together things in our mind that tell us: "If that was mine, I would do this", or If that was mine "I would change that". Or, the all too common phrase "why did he do it that way"?  We are all critics, wheather we like it or not, in one way or another.

To that end, it seems as though we sometimes try to go the extra step trying to please others instead of pleasing ourselves. There is nothing wrong with that, of course, but we tend to get dissapointed or frustrated when we hear negative comments from those people we were trying to please in the first place. I have said this before in this forum and it still holds true..this is only a hobby. We all have different skill levels, some are better than others, as is true in life. The model railroad is, to me, a learn as you go process. The model railroad is NEVER finished! Through this forum, I have learned  a bunch of new tips and techniques that I never knew of. These ideas can ALWAYS be tried out on any model railroad at any time. There are a few that I know of that I would like to share with you.

Animated techniqes are a great way to enhance a model railroad, but what if your not sure if thats the step you want to take. I say, start small with a few simple changes to your layout that are NOT animated at all but look as if they are...with imagination. The best trick I learned was to make your layout look "busy". Reading one of the posts above it was said that "why make it look like the same customer gets the same car all the time". Change things up a bit for both your visitors AND your operators. If that siding can hold 4 or 5 cars, then put 4 or 5 cars in there. Make it look like the customer(s) is doing a "booming business". As a "bonus", that will, in turn, make it a bit harder for your operators to service that industry as well. Why should your operators have to look at, or expect, the same thing all the time? Why make it easy for the crew? Heck, my 5 years old can spot a car in a siding. But what if the customer emptied the 3rd and 5th car only? Now cars 1,2 and 4 have to go back in. Not so easy anymore, they have work to do. Fill up your empty sidings with railcars. It will add more "life" to the scene without adding "life" to the scene.  

Another good trick I learned  is that you don't need a "building or structure" to have a customer siding. Do you have room for a siding somewhere on your layout but don't have enough room for a building or industry to go with it? We all have had this problem before. Do you have an extra piece of flex track and a switch left over from a project? Railroads have what they call "trans-load facilities" (sometimes called team tracks) all over the place. This is where railcars with all sorts of product are parked and transloaded onto trucks. Lumber is common but I've seen such items as grain, liqued fertilizer, rock salt and even heavy equipment. There is ALWAYS room for a team track.

How about a "RIP tracK"? Do you have room in your yard for 1 more track? A RIP track is where defective cars are placed for the "car department" to repair. This is a EASY way to enhance animation on your layout. We all have a box full of railcars somewhere that are missing knucles or stirrups or somthing like a roofwalk or hand brake etc... Well, folks, in the real world these are "defective" cars and CAN'T run until repaired. So take them out of the box and put them where they WILL FIT IN...on the RIP track.

Sorry for going on guys...I tend to get carried away. It's your model railroad and your ideas. People will only get out of it what you put into it. And if they have have comments about it....well, it's only natural. We all try to share our ideas to help others. That's what I like about this forum. We can't please everyone, we can only try to please ourselves. If you achieved that, that's all that matters. Happy Modeling!

ok

Ok, simply said, that bicyclist is kick-ass. I want one! 

Ditto on the bike

That has to be the best animated trick I have ever seen. I would like one also. How was that done? AWESOME!!!!

Faller road system allows you

Faller road system allows you to do far more with your roadways than many ever wanted to imagine in the first place -full automation, including stopping and changing directions...based upon the road, of course!

Look up what can be done with the system on Minatur Wunderland!

Walkin' the Walk

That scale bicyclist certainly pushes the envelope as far as making a scene look real.  But as Charlie was alluding to, finding a way to make 1:87 humans walk, sit, climb, whatever - that is the true stumbling block to making a video scene look real.  Maybe Faller or somebody will design a way to make scale legs appear to walk.  Even then, I'm not sure how anybody will imitate the swaying and other subtle body motions accurately enough to keep them from looking like robots.  [And even if they do, I'm sure they will be priced way beyond my budget!]

If anybody has fun installing animations on their layout, more power to ya!  But I'm staying with still photos as my mrr artistic medium.

More food for thought

Endless source of ideas - and it's not just limited to the article - the feedback comments are another goldmine of ideas.