The Layout--Imagination's breif existence?

[Anonymous]

While reading the thread about Frank Ellison's Delta Lines and the whistful sadness at the disassembly and dispersal of its components the thought struck me that models are subject to the same forces as the real railroads. A model railroad gives substance to a dream. It clothes that dream in concepts, the builder's own concepts of what railroading is like, was like or should be. Unfortunately when the modeller dies his concept dies and sadly so does his model railroad. Think of the Gorre & Daphetid without John Allen to give it life, or the Alturas & Lone Pine without Whit Towers and the Delta Lines without Frank Ellison. They would almost be like mummies. I saw a large HO club that was dead and only operated for tourists. It was huge. It had at least two roundhouses and turntables and long, long routes. It was run by summer help who managed to get a few cars and a cheap-o diesel to endlessly run around and around. No real operation....but then no really interested observers either. They had their time in the sun, now let them go. Who knows? Perhaps by now those modellers might have torn those old pikes down and built new ones. Odd-d

[brianel027]

Well Odd-d, in a religious way of thinking, it is written that everything in this life is temporary. In a practical way of thinking, that still holds true.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. What was (is) a labor of love and joy to one person, can easily be an aggrivation or burden to another.

I do think that one of the plusses to our larger "toy" trains versus the more realistic HO trains is that feeling of "play." I've seen this sort of thing at train shows... where folks are marveling at the HO layouts with their detail and realism. But folks keep going back again and again to watch the 3-rail train layouts. The HO guys must cringe with things like our Milk Cars, Aquarium Cars, Horse Cars, Operating Barrel Loaders, etc. But those toyi***ypes of cars are exactly what makes our train so much fun. And if you happened to see these things for the first time as a kid, well you knew they were magic then and chances are you may still feel they are. Childhood memories are so important... they're what keep us going later on.

When I used to do train shows, I got quite a thrill when especially the mother's would be saying "look at that" to their kids while observing my portable layout. Or when some little kid's eyes would be just following the train going around the layout. It wasn't just me, it wasn't just my layout... it was the bigger, noiser, more toyish Lionel/K-Line kinds of trains that were capturing the initial attention. Then folks would notice all the little added things.

Yeah, I agree that layouts are the personal expression and dreams of the people that built them. Some of the HO layouts you mention are amazing, like John Allen's. But I think it is the play element of the Lionel kinds of layouts that gives them their own sort of "life support." I'm sure, if I wasn't here, that if folks could figure out all the little things I've done - my own wiring and changes I've made to stuff - the layout would still have some life and magic to it.

But I don't even think about that really. I do it for me for the peace of mind and the relaxation - and as a sort of journey into my more innocent past. I know most of my own family members don't understand what I've done or why I play with trains. But I also know they look at it and can appreciate all the little things I've done... the mass-produced trains I have (that many others may also have) and the little alterations and changes I've made that have made these mass-produced trains of mine unique and totally my own.

[Anonymous]

There is some degree of maintianance necessary for any railroad to continue functioning. Actually, that applies to most things.

Brianel,
If you want to find kids at a train show, find the LEGO Layout. It is the most fun at any show that I've been to. Maybe Lionel should hook up with LEGO to sell trains. They allow kids to be more creative and have more fun. They should get them onto 3 rails, though.

Bill

[Anonymous]

Brianel, I agree with you. Its the toy aspect of the hobby that I enjoy. There's just something about dumping coal and watching it go up the coal elevator only to be dumped in a waiting car below. Or loading cattle into a waiting freight car. Its even a bigger kick when those accessories are 50 or more years old. Its not the collecting and having mint items in their original boxes, its the fact that they still work the way they did when they were new. Now that I have a few postwar items I want to try my hand at restoring a few items.

Mike

[Anonymous]

Odd-d
Were you reading Ecclesiastes again? It is almost as if your thoughts came right out of chapter nine.

I am too young to know of Frank Ellisson as a contemporary, but still have an interest in reading about his work. I truly have had little luck in locating much of anything concerning him on the Internet but I suppose that isn't too surprising as he departed well before the Internet arrived on the scene.
I'll have to look at Trainfest this fall to see if I can find a book or two on his layout.

Your analogy to layouts as mummies fits quite well. Both can be some of the most well thought out decorated works, pieces of art, but without the subject constantly infusing new life into the work they are merely shells of the former person in the focus.
Layouts are meant to be used and enjoyed by the builder while they are here and shared with those who can appreciate their vision. Anything after the originators exit is one-sided admiration, enjoyable, but not nearly as fulfilling. As a case in point I was very pleased to have Gil Reid personally sign some prints for me last year as I spoke with him.

I enjoy photos of yours and others layouts as they are posted and will share mine as it progresses. Live and enjoy trains while we are here.

Jim

[Anonymous]

Odd-d

That was just devine (sp?.)

A layout and its builders coupled as a new life-form, that is born, eats the builder's time, grows, lives for a while and then dies when it can no longer find builder's time to survive. . . . .


Alan

[Anonymous]

You are right Alan, they definitely know how to eat up time. Well put.

[mersenne6]

...All the more reason to take good pictures. Long after the last wheel has rolled to a stop, the pictures remain. As I've mentioned before, my road is named the Ophir and Oblivion. The last refers specifically to the fact that all of my layouts are of the Rug Central variety so their presence in any given form is extremely brief. The same is true for the diorama shots I've taken.

[FJ and G]

In parallel universes, these things continue.

[mersenne6]

If that's the case FJ &G, I'd hate to be in any ot them.....the dust on the floor because the parallel me couldn't vacuum the rug would be intolerable! [:)]