Whimsical layouts?

[Anonymous]

After reading the “Furlow bashing” topicI know this might be a potentially controversial question, but I’ll risk it anyway. Does anyone know of any resources, internet, print, or otherwise for whimsical model railroads?

I’ll let you know where I’m coming from and the reason I ask, just in case that’ll cut down on any potential backlash.

I’m currently in that nebulous phase known as “thinking about building a layout” with no real firm timetable on when construction will begin. I’ve read a lot of books, and have been subscribing to MR for about 3 years now. I’ve come to the conclusion that prototypical accuracy or operation isn’t my focus. I think the aspect of modeling that I’m being drawn to the most is the details that can be added to a layout.

My family is another consideration in all this as well. My wife and my 4 year old daughter love model trains as well. We’re frequent visitors to the Twin Cities Model Railroad Museum.

So, we’d like to build a family layout that will be fun for everyone. My current thought is to have a layout that is half city/urban area and half “fantasy land” for lack of a better term. Actually, I think it would be two 4 x 8 layouts joined by a smaller section maybe 2 x 3. I’m still trying to figure out how much of the basement I can appropriate for all this.

The layout plan that is my favorite at the moment is the Carbondale Central from one of the Kalambach books. The appeal there is a simple track plan and the potential for adding lots of detail. I envision adding a track around the outside that will connect the “real” space to the “fantasy” space. We have the Hogwarts Express set, so it would be fun to try and design a hidden train station on the real side that lets the train cross over into the other half of the layout.

Something that I thought of the other day, is that the train comes out of a tunnel at the edge of the “real” layout, crosses behind a corn field where a baseball game is in progress (ala “Field of Dreams”) and then passes into another tunnel to emerge in the “fantasy” space.

On the “fantasy” side I think the general scenery will be a generic English country side sort of thing. Some of the items on the list to include in that are Hogsmead Station, Thomas the Tank Engine (we have that set as well), the lamppost from the “Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe” (along with the lion and the kids), maybe some dinosaurs hidden in the trees, etc.

Anyway, I don’t mean to offend the purists. I enjoy looking at the prototype models that are features in the books and magazines. I have an immense amount of respect for the skill and dedication that that sort of layout takes.

[CP5170]

Go for it! Model railroading is suppose to be fun. Since you have a small child, maybe you would include an animated circus. I've seen one on a layout tour and quite enjoyed it.

I model the Canadian Pacific Railroad and enjoy operations but I admire people who do their own thing and enjoy it. Usually those who are most critical are those who haven't tried to build anything. we all have different skill levels and enjoyment levels.

Have fun...Ken

[BR60103]

In Britain, one of the favourites for whimsical railways is Rowland Emett. A search on his name will turn up a lot of cartoons. He drew railways as they should have been, not as they were. Some of his best are of the sleepy branchlines.

[vsmith]

Model whatcha like and like whatcha model...

For any freelanced layout, which yours will be, the sky is the limit. I would first figure out how big an area you will have to do it. Make a list of what "scenes" you want to model then start to draw up a trackplan incorporating those scenes.

-or-

Save time and use a track plan from one of the many publications out there and then add your scenes into the open spaces on the layout.


DONT FORGET to add a scale TARDIS and a Dalek "Exterminate!, Exterminate!"

[Anonymous]

Hey sounds great, Im in same sheoes. I havent got a layout on benchwork yrt but like you Im planning one. I have my layout on paper only right now, also like you Im not going to follow any prototype layout, Basicly my laout will have 5 differant Rail Roads. Each serving a different Indrustry, Im not so conserned with having the RRs running exactly like the real thing. And my RRs names are made up. My layout will be a 4x8 model connecting to 3 smaller layouts, A 2x4,4x4 and a 1x4. I will do all this in N scale,

My first plan is to get the ok from my wife. Shes agreed to let me but only after we buy a house, which will be within the next 1 to 2 years. Anyway good luck with your layout.

[Jetrock]

Whimsical ideas can also be used in prototype modeling. On my own layout, I have plans for the following whimsical scenes:

An ASPCA facility (animal shelter), which was located right off the prototype's main line, featuring a "dog breakout"--a few HO dogs being chased by net-carrying dogcatchers.

Two neighbors--one with an immaculately kept house and lawn, the other with a run-down looking shack and overgrown weed-infested lawn. On the neat property, a prim housewife will stand glaring at a slovenly slob sitting on the shack's porch in an easy chair with a case of beer.

Several "inside jokes" in the form of businesses and miniatures on the layout in honor of some of my modern-day friends who have a fondness for the period I model.

A dog in the cab of one of the diesels--on the prototype, a pit bull owned by the railroad was appointed "official rodent catcher" on the railroad's right-of-way and it often rode the rails, kind of a less-well-traveled version of the Railway Post Office's legendary dog "Owney." Even though the dog would have been long gone during the period I model (1947-60) the idea of having a dog riding in the cab is too cute to not model. Although I could also have him leading the pack of the dog breakout, heading straight for the railroad's main line...

Whimsy and realism don't have to butt heads, really--often history can provide us with more amazing stories than legend.

[Anonymous]

I've got Zoids and harry potter people (from some dice game that worked out the right size HO)
Still looking for Lord of the Rings figures at the moment. I have Orc's rounding up clowns and lots more to mention!

[Anonymous]

If you like whimsical, I suggest you get yourself a copy of Carl Arendt's two books on Micro-Layouts - they're full of whimsical ideas for railroads. Carl's focus is on very small layouts (4 square feet or less), but the concepts and ideas could be expanded to larger layouts as well.

[Anonymous]

UFO, come on you need a UFO!

Jay

[Jetrock]

Well, considering that 1947 is the beginning of the modern period of UFO sightings, something off in the background might not be inappropriate.

Even the straightest layouts can have some oddball business happening in the corner--if you've ever seen the California State Railway Museum's HO scale logging-line display, if you look carefully you'll notice an elephant hiding in the woods in the background!

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone for the input, especially the tip about the Harry Potter dice figures. I'll also check out that mirco-layout book for sure.

There will be a TARDIS for sure. The Daleks are a strong possibility, so I'm sure a UFO could be worked in somewhere.

[ndbprr]

My personal opinion is nobody minds whimsical layouts. The ones that drive people nuts are the guys who claim to model XYZ and claim they follow prototype rules. equipment, (fill in the blank). When you arrive at their house drooling all over yourself and the guy escorts you to the layout he has 4-4-0's pulling 86' box cars and diesels pulling 1800 passenger cars and wonders why you don't have any compliments for him.

[DSchmitt]

The G scalers have a magazine called AW NUTS. I've seen it at some train stores in the Sacramento area. They used to have a web site (Ilooked at it less than s months ago) I just searched for the link. I found the magazine listed on 4 or 5 model RR site apparently its address has been changed if it is still around.

Does anybody know?

[Anonymous]

I love this idea! I have posted my feelings about modeling fantasy before, and if I had no full-time job and loads of ca***o support myself, I'd be embarking on an adventure of this sort. The thing is, though, you face the same problem that faces all true freelancers, in that the door is wide open, and this makes it hard to know when you've got it "right". What is required is a vivid and detailed imagination, and a commitment to a singular vision. If you follow all the wild suggestions here (UFO! Orcs! Daleks! Alice in Wonderland, anyone?) you will certainly end up with an incoherent collage, one that fails to persuade the viewer of its alternative reality, end thus fails to engage the imagination of others.

The Hogwarts Express is a great starting point, because there is already a lot of visual source material to draw from, in the first two movies. What isn't shown in these can be inferred, and one could research idyllic English countrysides for inspiration. You might try subscribing to some British modeling periodicals and learn how it's done across the pond, and also learn where to buy models of English equipment. To make it be something non-British, you might want to throw in a counter-culture influence, such as Chinese, and then mix-and-match elements. Or even kitbash rolling stock together from the two! Build your train stations as thatch-covered tudor-style pagodas! I dunno, just ruminating about the possibilities.

The point is, to narrow down your vision to something specific, then execute that. If you can make that commitment, then your work will not fail to impress the rest of us, even as determined as we are to follow our prototypes.

[Anonymous]

I'm running a couple of the Chinese boxcars made by Bachmann on my layout - they don't look too out of place and they certainly confuse the purists!

[Anonymous]

Dave:

I'm about as far from what you want to do as I can be! But I'd like to mention by way of support that its YOUR railroad and YOUR hobby. Build whatever you want and have fun doing it. That you are considering both your wife and child in what you plan is commendable.

A thought you might consider? Perhaps as you move farther from the 'real world' portion of the layout the scene might become more abstract and elemental, bright colors and basic shapes. Something on the order of the landscapes in the Beatles movie Yellow Submarine or the Peter Max posters from the 60s/70s era. My daughter loved them as I recall, Yours might as well?

Have fun, you seem to have a great idea for a family railroad.

Randy

[Anonymous]

I am in the same boat as HellFire. I have already purchased a house and am planning on building a layout to go around the circumference of the room. There will be multiple railroads. So far I plan to have a roundhouse and turntable and I will be building a bridge out of styrofoam.

I have already gotten the ok from my fiancee.

[vsmith]

QUOTE: Originally posted by DSchmitt

The G scalers have a magazine called AW NUTS. I've seen it at some train stores in the Sacramento area. They used to have a web site (Ilooked at it less than s months ago) I just searched for the link. I found the magazine listed on 4 or 5 model RR site apparently its address has been changed if it is still around.

Does anybody know?

Unfortunatly "AW NUTS" stopped publication a few months ago. There are no plans to restart as far as I know.

[Anonymous]

I recently purchased the November issue of BRITISH RAILWAY MODELLING. It has an article Under the heading of Layout Planning called Fantasy Park. The display type layout has 3 Track Guages O scale, On3, and Z Scale track with to represent a miniture railway snaking around a dinosaur model. The idea is of a hypothetical Devon Sea side Park complete with a Standard Guage Station, which interfaces with the paks theater and souvenire building, plus other buildings. Very good description of the idea testing process as well as physical test of concept features.

cheers

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the tips so far. I'll be sure to pick up that issue of British Railway Modeling.

I was in a comic book shop today (one of my other hobbies) and they had an extensive section of war gaming miniatures. Mostly pewter, all unpainted, and a variety of sizes. Lots of possibilities there for figures. The range of styles was interesting to me since I just assumed they would all be D&D type things. But they had cowboys, spacemen, pirates, and more.

[Anonymous]

I am unashamed to say I run Thomas and his friends on my layout. The grandkids love it. I have aliens. I have steamers pulling 86 foot cars. I don't care what anyone else thinks. I paid for it, I built it, it's mine. If you don't like it and it offends you go home, I will not miss you. I do this for my pleasure, not some dope on the internet. It's a hobby, it's folk art, not a statment in history, engineering, or any other serious pursuit. It use to say Model Railroading is FUN on mags, then the riviet counters took over and try to impose their will over the people wanting to have fun. I say screw 'em. FRED

[Jetrock]

flee: calm down, have some dip.

accurate prototype railroading, or freelance railroading with an eye towards authenticity and consistency of theme, is ALSO fun. if pulling 86 foot modern cars with 19th century steamers is your bag, that's fine--just don't accuse those who strive for a sense of realism of not having fun.

Saying "I do X" does not necessarily imply "Other people should not do not-X", nor does "I like Y" imply "People who like not-Y are idiots."

Freelancing does not HAVE to be unrealistic. It can be if you want it to be--but it doesn't have to be. What is FUN, what is challenging, at least to me, is making something that seems odd or incongruous part of one's layout and then making it fit.

FUN doesn't mean the same thing as EASY.

Whimsical ideas are NOT incompatible with consistent theme and realistic operation.

Please read up on the Gorre & Daphetid for ultimate proof of this. I know it gets mentioned over and over again, but this was a guy running a completely imaginary line with a dinosaur switcher and a wide variety of in-jokes and wackiness all over the layout whose skill at realistic modeling and accurate prototype operation is still a height people aspire to 30 years later.

I consider model railroading to be an art form. I've known plenty of artists in my time. Some were good, some were not so good. Some were painfully bad. While I'm sure that the painfully bad ones got a lot out of their artwork and thought they were great, and that's fine, but I am under no obligation to like or respect their work. They don't need my approval--which is a two-way street.

daves-obc: Military miniatures have been around for a long time--you'll find Napoleonic ones, Civil War, WWII and modern military ones, science fiction, ancients (roman, greek, egyptian, etc.) and more. It's a pretty diverse field. Those in 15mm are a little small for HO but close enough to pass muster if used in their own scene.

Hmmm....come to think of it, a bunch of Civil War HO military minis might provide an interesting scene on a modern layout--a group of Civil War reenactors acting out a battle, perhaps? A perfect excuse to break out that 4-4-0 American on a modern layout, too...

[Anonymous]

If you are wanting to build a "fantasy" layout (as i have often thought of doing) then one of the best ways to get it to look "right" rather than an incoherent collage would beto follow the Terry Pratchet Discworld books.

I have given it quite a bit of thought and would rather like to build a large layout in Lancre (anyone familiar with it?) or the Uberwald. There is so much detail in the Discworld books that it would be possible to maintain a general "look" without it going crazy.

Neil

[Jetrock]

Another place where fantasy miniatures would come in handy: if you built such a model in, say, On3/On30 (with suitable modifications to rolling stock and motive power for swamp-dragon-fired steam engines and applejack-thaumelectric locomotives) you could, quite feasibly, make use of common fantasy miniatures and the wide variety of miniature castles, mud huts and assorted pseudo-medieval accoutrements available at your friendly local roleplaying/minis wargaming shop.

While traditional 25mm miniatures might be a tad small for O scale, Citadel 28mm miniatures would be close enough--especially if one was using OnXX sized equipment--and the structures available for 25/28mm scale would be about right considering that most model railroad structures are a bit undersized anyhow...

You'd want to do a *LOT* of kitbashing of your motive power. Following Pratchett's assumed corollary to Moore's Law (Any sufficiently advanced technology on the Discworld is probably powered by magic) one wouldn't necessarily want coal-fired steam or diesel-electric--as mentioned above, steam power could be provided by having small, tame dragons strapped under the boilers as a heat source, with the "firemen" shoveling shovelfuls of dragon-food (coal? gold pieces? princesses?) into the dragon's mouth periodically. Applejack-thaumelectric locos could be fueled with that nefariously combustible beverage, fed into a Mystical Engine (either some complex magical device or a hedge-wizard named Deezel with an enormous thirst) that converts the created magical energy into a fairly powerful kinetic-energy spell to turn the wheels. That rare sort of applejack made with re-annual seeds might be used for the extremely dangerous practice of High Balling, in which a scheduled train arrives at its destination shortly before its departure from its point of origin...

Control and signaling could utilize the Discworld's growing set of semaphore signals, with stone wizard's yard towers located at division points to cast "Throw Switch" spells at turnouts.

Of course, since the Discworld has a tendency to follow storylines, many stereotypical railroad plotlines would have to take place at some point--the wicked railroad company that wants to put its line through a peasant's farm ("We have to put the railroad here! It's right on a ley-line!"), a villain tying the local princess to the tracks, a group of barbarian train-robbers, etcetera...

see where I'm going here? Ludicrous? Yes! Completely out of line with the history of railroading as we know it? Yes! But internally consistent with its own logic and the logic of the world in which it is placed (so far as I can tell, having read a dozen or so Discworld books but not being much of an author myself.)

[jrbarney]

Daves-obc,
It's probably before your time, but if you can access a copy of Carl Fallberg's beloved Fiddletown & Copperopolis, it's full of ideas for fantasy. And, one of the first movies I saw as a kid was Walt Disney's Dumbo. Popular Science even had an article for a model of the train in that movie, but you'll have to find a back issue index, as I've misplaced my copy.
Bob

[Anonymous]

Funny how people are still try to tell me how to have fun? So if I put an O-27 layout around my christmas tree and it's easy it's not fun? That's what gets my goat, people saying their way is fun and the rest of us are too dumb, unskilled, or whatever to know everyone else is inferior to them. I don't know whether to laugh, cry, or feel sorry? FRED

[CP5415]

I agree with Fred. It's my railroad, if I want my 4-6-2 to pull a stack train so be it.
I don't want to be stuck to one idea. I love the fact that the 2 interchanges that I've been able to incorporate on my layout involve the UP, C&NW, MEC, NYC, Virginia & Truckee,
Seaboard, NS, Conrail. B&M. As much as I love Canadian Pacific (my main line) I wanted to have locomotives from various railroads so friends can come over & bring their trains as well & won't be stuck using CP all the time.
Just my 2 cents

Gordon

[Jetrock]

QUOTE: Originally posted by flee307

Funny how people are still try to tell me how to have fun? So if I put an O-27 layout around my christmas tree and it's easy it's not fun? That's what gets my goat, people saying their way is fun and the rest of us are too dumb, unskilled, or whatever to know everyone else is inferior to them. I don't know whether to laugh, cry, or feel sorry? FRED

No, no, we're not. We're saying that your way is fun **AND** our way is fun, even though they're different. The examples I'm giving are just illustrations of why I find more detailed railroading to be fun.

Don't laugh, cry or feel sorry. Have fun--I do too!

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by flee307

Funny how people are still try to tell me how to have fun? So if I put an O-27 layout around my christmas tree and it's easy it's not fun? That's what gets my goat, people saying their way is fun and the rest of us are too dumb, unskilled, or whatever to know everyone else is inferior to them. I don't know whether to laugh, cry, or feel sorry? FRED

Gotta tell ya, FRED, for someone who says he's comfortable with what he does, you sure spend a LOT of time rationalizing and defending it.

[jhugart]

There was an article in MR some time ago about Yesterland -- a fantasy theme park setting for a layout. You might dig that up.

I live in Saint Paul, myself...I'd recommand picking one of your 4x8 modules and concentrating on that, instead of trying to build the whole thing at once. I'm working on a hexagonal 4x6 layout (corners cut off), that's just a simple loop of track with a stream, bridge, tunnel, and town, to keep my 3-year-old amused. Two friends are helping me, and it is amazing how time-consuming it can be!