Treatise on Animation
Model animation has long been a passion. Ever since I met Rick Spano when I was 15, the bug bit, bit hard, and never let go.
When I began the Mountain Vista Railroad, I had no plan, let alone any idea, it would become a "hotbed" of animation. Initially I was going to motorize a mill water wheel (inherited from the Greystone & Rock Bottom), and that was it. Then a friend started pressing me for more ideas, and pretty soon the animation projects exploded, with over thirty of them.
When it comes to model railroad animation, many modelers think in terms of old Lionel toys with big, metallic, clunky devices producing crude and often corny effects. While undeniably fun, they're the furthest thing from what I do that one can imagine. The other sort of animation that may come to mind is the obvious, corny stuff, like amusement park rides and so forth. I break past the corniness two ways: I animate unusual things, the sort you wouldn't expect; and I do it with subtlety and realism. My animations are not "in your face," and they aren't herky-jerky or toy-like.
The greatest challenge with animation is that gravity cannot be scaled down, so things affected by gravity won't look right. Thus, anything involving free-falling materials such as goal or gravel loaders/unloaders, free-swinging objects including cranes, or any effects involving real water, I tend to avoid.
But above all, subtlety is perhaps most important. Having a layout bristling with dozens of big, obvious animated devices (unless it's a substantial layout) can be overwhelming, annoying, and not particularly realistic. Having to hunt for animations and "discovering" them makes for more satisfying effects. Which is why my ten-square-foot layout can feature over thirty animations and not seem chaotic.
Occasionally I'm tempted by more "obvious" effects, such as enginehouse doors. But I keep these to a minimum, make them as realistic as humanly possible, and most importantly don't leave them running constantly. Many of my effects are "on demand," that is they only operate when someone wants them to.
If in real life something is a one-shot action, such as a car on a lift, it's best not to leave it running cyclically or, at the very least, incorporate a long pause into the action so that it's not sitting there pumping away. It's more effective to provide manual controls, and better still to make the controls accessible to visitors.
Water, like gravity, cannot be scaled down, looks awful, and creates a host of problems for the modeler and the layout—problems such as having to waterproof everything nearby, dealing with evaporation, humidity, pumps, leaks, and so forth. The solution is simple: don't use water. My spillway is basically a small waterfall, which has been a challenge I've wanted to tackle for nearly as long as I can remember. It's a miniature motorized mechanical device that utilizes various materials to simulate water.
Trust me, I would love to animate absolutely everything—every vehicle, every door, every person—but this is obviously quite impractical, so I pick and choose my targets with great care. When I go into a project, my goal is always the same: can I pull it off realistically? I'm not always successful; there have been a few projects over the years that I've abandoned.
What's the secret to realism? The single most effective trick is slowing things down. And when something appears to be moving slowly enough, slow it down some more. The quickest way to ruin an effect is to have something snap or pop from one position to another, or spin or whirl quickly. An example of this philosophy at work are grade crossing gates. Many modelers have remarked about their realism, and that's because we're all used to commercially-made gates that flip up and down suddenly.
Not all of my animation effects are mechanical moving things; I roll dynamic lighting effects into the category of animation. In other words, if it changes, it's animated. One of my very favorites is the field of fireflies. Other examples include a television set and a neon open sign.
Modelers have also remarked that I produce animated effects quickly and prolifically. Well, I've been doing this for roughly fifty years, and it's tough to beat that kind of experience. This is not to say I'm doing the impossible; most any modeler who has tinkered outside the box ought to be able to pull off good effects of their own. That's one of the reasons I've provided detailed documentation on the things I've done: to inspire others to try it.