...is no doubt a very nifty piece of tech to control, and the model railway hobby is evolving into one of control and animation rather than replication.

I personally have no use for model sound. Not the grumpy opinion of a luddite but for reasons of purpose. I am not one of these folks for whom the animation is the hobby, and hooray for those that are, for they are the future of it all.

I am very much into the realism and replication of history in miniature as well as the operating side of things; emulating the purpose of the real thing. Let's speak to realism first.

Sound in locos today is the product of many hours both recording and processing those recordings. In order to record a loco, someone puts microphones on the prototype and records the thing ticking over if a diesel or simmering if a steam loco. Then, up-ramping and down-ramping changes are grabbed. All well and good, inarguably prototypical in nature.

The problem is these are the sounds aboard the loco, not the sounds heard on the ground as it passes. Take a vid of a passing diesel for example; the sounds on the ground of the blowers cooling the traction motors and the various resistance grids and radiators are predominant on the ground, but not in that model-sound recording made whilst aboard. In short, the sounds are cool, but they aren't what you hear on the ground. Realism isn't there.

Second, the sound doesn't come and go. It's constant and won't shut up, especially in a small space.

Third, there are more sounds than the loco. Where are the wheels and rails? Where are the birds and crickets and background sounds? If this is an element evoking realism, then by requirement, sound is an element of scenery.

That last statement then brings me to the big problem. In visual scenery, we go to great lengths to fool the eye into believing the scenes are bigger than they are, they stretch to the horizon, trains are longer than they are, there is a whole litany of trickery to make this all appear plausible.

Introduce sound as aural scenery, and it has to compliment the visual or the effect is ruined and the visual trickery is for naught. It has to wax and wane with the visual presentation, come and go as the train comes and goes, the inability to do true doppler effect is jarring, there just is no way to have sound blend with the rest of the presentation effectively.

So, for those for whom the tech and the animation is the thing, go for it. For me, it's a distraction from what I want you to visually believe for any number of reasons that need addressed before I find it of any use or desireability.