Recently I have been getting more and more interested in animation. The goal is to have more items of interest to attract the attention of visitors. Use the Animation pull down windows to see some of the animation items I have added to the San Pete Valley Railway.

A short discussion of animation:

Of course the first animated feature is the trains themselves moving along the track. Animation can be added to each train by lights (headlights, cab lights, firebox lights), sound (whistles, horns, chuffing, bells, etc.) and smoke from the stack. This can be accomplished using DCC control, wireless (radio) controller and to a lesser extent, analog control. These features can be supplemented by track detectors (magnets or light beams) to actuate an animation (like crossing gate arms, lights and bells).

Two easier animation items to add include lights and sounds. Various products exists to add these to your garden railroad, so I won’t describe them here.

As mentioned above, select the Animation sub menus to view some of the items I have on my garden railroad, along with a short description on how it was accomplished.