Very well, I stand corrected! Thanks for the perspective, everyone. It is what it is, and ain't what it ain't. So I withdraw my criticism.
Still, Choo Choo Barn & Roadside America have their certain charm in the way they present a display, with more scenery variety.
Northlandz is a special case, you got that right. More of a model world that happens to have trains running through it, than a train layout as such.
It is what it is and does what it does for a basic purpose. I would have walked down to check it out.....
I agree with what has been said. This is not a museum piece or museum-type layout, but it is an attraction. Due to its size, it needs to be simple so that it needs little in the way of paid or volunteer 'help' or monitoring. And the intended audience, on the basis of paying or merely appreciative viewing volume, is going to be, not informed modellers, but Ma, the kids, Auntie Barb, Cousin Joe the computer geek, delivery truck driver Dan, and so on.
It is eye candy for those who like candy.
-Crandell the Candyman
A display layout designed to attract the attention of non-modelers (and maybe some modelers as well) and possibly increase attendance at the host's function. The prime idea is to let the largest number of trains possible run at the same time for the general public to see. I've seen similar layouts in other parts of the country. If you ever get to the Marblehead Penninsula in Northern Ohio, there's a large layout of this type called Trainorama. Strickly a tourist attraction that has been operating for at least 35 years. Many areas with small vignettes, mostly in HO, and a few long runs, but with a smattering of Z, N, S, O, and I think even some old #1 and what used to be called Standard guage. Also a lot of static displays and even a small hobby shop. Visitor's book is signed by people from all over the world. At one time there was a similar but smaller layout being built in one of the museum type buildings at the Cedar Point Amusement park. In fact, the ride at Cedar Point that supposedly has the highest number of riders a season is a large narrow guage loop around the park (a very large model railroad?) called the Cedar Point and Lake Erie Railroad. Some interesting facts about the numerous fairly old, mostly coal fired, steam locos they have running can be found on Google. But, even though they haul passengers in 3 or 4 open coaches each train, they still just run trains around a loop, two at a time. Not much different, really, than the subject mrr?
Several times in the past when my Model Airplane club put on an annual mall show, we had a local MRR club put up a modular HO display, that while it did have switches, was by it's very nature of independantly constructed modules, devoted to runnng several trains at a time around a large multi-track key shaped layout, with a few action accessories thrown in. Sometime a minimum of operatrion in the form of staging was used. Actually almost tinplate, eh? Same basic thing as in this discussion. In the early 1950s, a couple local hardware stores had loops of Lionel and Marx track set up in their display windows that could be activated any time day or night, even when they were close, by touching a touch plate in the window. Same basic idea, attract public attention.
The late Bill Schopp, aka 'Layout Doctor,' strongly recommended that display layouts should have several continuous loops and that no turnouts should operate while open for public view. He even suggested that a complex junction should be undergoing maintenance (gandy dancers, MOW train, etc...) as an acceptable excuse for NOT switching trains to alternate routes.
I have seen a large (HUGE!!!) HO layout being operated exactly as the prototype actually operates. Being a railfan and an operator, I could appreciate the near-perfect rendition of the joint BNSF-UP route over Tehachapi Pass. The mundanes would take a quick glance, then move on to something else. Fortunately, in the rail museum at Balboa Park, there's lots of, "Something Else."
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - layout not intended for public viewing)
Non model railroaders watching a layout want to see lots of trains go round and round. Goto any train show and look at the display layouts the clubs have there. Trains are just going round and round. You know that's not what the club layout looks like for the regular ops sessions.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
It is a "display" layout, the HO equal to a Roadside America or Choo Choo Barn. And as such, based on your three photos, does not look bad at all.
The great unwashed masses that know nothing about our hobby are often bored silly by our freight yards, prototype operations, or prototype based scenery.
Think "Christmas Garden", as as they go it looks OK to me. True, not what I'm building but people may not want to pay money to see that either.
I was very disapointed when I went to see Northlandz, but others love it, go figure.
Sheldon
Looks pretty impressive to me, especially with all the lights on. It's a display for Joe Average and the kids to enjoy. Not every big layout that charges admission has to satisfy your demand for prototypical operation and scenic fidelity. Lighten up.
Bill
"Never try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and annoys the pig"
I'm a big believer that every model railroad hobbyist is free to pursue whatever style or interest gives them the most satisfaction. But when a layout charges admission, I figure it's fair game.
Yesterday we were up in Jim Thorpe, in PA's Pocono Mountains, to ride the excellent Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway . After, I decided to check out an HO display on the second floor of an old commercial building, right next to the train station. Well, it was a dramatic demonstration of the fact that big doesn't mean good.
It features over 1000 feet of HO track . . . and no turnouts. That's right: no operating possibilities here: you got 14 continuous loops, and when they turn on the layout, playing a canned audio track, each has a train going around and around. The scenery is vaguely urban, with buildings and blocks plopped around, with no rhyme or reason. The streets are disconnected loops of slot car track. Let the pictures speak:
I was curious and wasn't expecting anything wonderful. So I got my $4 worth of curiosity satisfied. So, has anyone seen worse?