Realistic Animation, Lighting & Sound (Model Railroader Books)

Some good ideas in this book, which have been made up from previously published articles in Model Railroader Magazine. Nothing new for the subscriber or collector of the magazine.I would have thought that there would have been more modern, newer techniques and ideas for animation and lighting considering the current electronic trends with DCC and computer control (only the last few chapters contain updated literature in this regard).The chapters contain a lot of mechanical and lighting ideas to provide animation and interest on a layout which are well written and illustrated. For example, operating semaphore signals and track side scales are covered well, but the most common item on nearly every model railroad, the ubiquitous "gate crossing" (except for a wig wag signal of the 1920's...) is not even mentioned... go figure...The book appears to have been rushed in order to release the title, but could have been more relevant to todays standards and technology. Good book if you have little or no experience in animation and lighting, or the inclination to delve into back issues to find some ideas or search through the articles, then this book is handy as a reference.

As a lot of baby boomers, I am getting back into model railroading after being away for over 40 years. Things have changed a lot so I have been purchasing books like this to get up to speed. This book is a wealth of good information on animation, lighting and sound. It's a how to book with so much good information that I was surprised to see a great supplier missing on the list of suppliers on page 69. I am talking about Miller Engineering, which has fantastic animated signs for O, HO and N Scales along with N scale buildings. If you want to complete the information in this book, check out [...] - you will be glad you did in addition to ordering this book.

Great ideas. The chapter on Faller Car System should include the new Magnorail as seen on YouTube. It is a great chain system because you can use any Z or N-Scale car with a magnet slide attached with a pin hole. You can use both.I would use a Hankcraft motor with a pulley for the windmill probably? Vibration seems less reliable to turn the windmill.

Although the premise of the book is sound, I felt that many of the articles and projects were old school and that with the many improvements in electronics and robotics that maybe these could have been brought into play. I found this book helpful in jump starting my brain into looking at new and different ways of adding animation and lighting and sound, but would have preferred to see something a little more modern and taking into account newer technologies.

Dated material; useful but needs to be updated.

there seems to be a repete of info from other books. we need to be able to se some inside the book contents to better see if new info is there

Some good ideas, but lacking in covering the basics regarding the mechanics of animation. Keeping your steamer in sync with the huffing and puffing not covered. The book in strongest in covering the topic of lighting.

Some good information I'm pleased with this book

These books are very informative for the modelling in multiple scales. Highly recommended.

Great book filled with a lot of handy information

Full of ideas to animate and light your railway. A great reference book and an incentive to try out some of the ideas.

I was very disappointed in this book, most of the articles are not practical with today's model railroading, it was very dated. For example, it talks of using small bulbs to light buildings and using speakers under the table to reproduce sound effects. There was a brief mention of LED's and DCC but very brief.If you are selling a book at this price with this type of content it needs to be continually updated, I could/would not recommend this book.

Sicuramente il libro propone alcune idee simpatiche per i plastici ferroviari. Come tecnologia è un po' datato, ma comunque risulta utile come suggerimenti.