I found the link to this video on Lance Mindheim's great web site. Especially his blog entry on capturing a sense of "mass"


It shows some great switching action and it gives a sense of the overwhelming mass of the cars and power required to move them. It is particularly enlightening to non-rail guys like me, who have no (or little) direct reference when it comes to switching cars.

In his blog, Mr. Mindheim discusses some of the things that modeler can use to capture this sense of mass in switching. In particular, he mentions:

• Layout height - the closer you get the models to eye level, the more realistic the viewing experience will be.
• Sound - capturing the visceral sense of mass using auditory inputs.
• Speed curves - using a broad range of control for slow speeds is achievable with today's decoders and programming tools (such as Decoder Pro)
• Decoder tuning - using Pulse Width Modulation and silent motor control to achieve the smooth slow-running operation required to simulate prototype switching.

I'm a bit of a lead-foot when it comes to switching - I guess that it's just my impatient nature. We tend to scoff at the really slow operators, saying that they are "milking the job" or something like that. But, actually, they have the right idea. The slower switching certainly duplicates the prototype and gives the illusion of mass that we are trying to achieve.