Because why not?
My modeling cliches & logical fallacies are clearly identifiable backdrops from Walthers and buildings with no "little-people" acess around to their sides and backs.
My J.P.U. is this.-- well, just look at those atrocious archbar trucks & that molded detail, not to mention the doors!
(Please do not get all defensive & apologetic, Tri-ang collectors, I am talking from a modeling standpoint, though there is also a fine line between toy-like and just plain ugly.
Can you think of any more of these sorts of things to turn into posting material?
Probably the single biggest cliche is the burning building. Close behind are the hobo campfire and carnival.
Steve S
How about locomotive smoke?
That ought to light the discussion up a bit!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
hon30critterThat ought to light the discussion up a bit!
If that doesn't... this will!
How about the big chunk of bent pipe sticking out of the bottom of the coupler?
Don't read me wrong—I love and exclusively use Kadee's excellent products—but it seems amusing to see a superbly detailed model with everything on it accurately scale-sized and then you see that big chunk of 3" steel pipe sticking out of the bottom of the coupler
Personally, I clip all mine off.
Have FUN, Ed
Ed:
I don't have a layout yet so I haven't made a final decision on how I'm going to uncouple cars, but if I can do away with the "3 inch pipe" I gladly will.
Steven S Probably the single biggest cliche is the burning building. Close behind are the hobo campfire and carnival. Steve S
I also like smoke in my steam engines, guess I love cliches but I am having fun.
What?? Having fun by doing stuff that others might not like or agree with??? How insensitive can you get? !!!
Charlie
I'm always bothered by engineering impossibilities. The rabbit warren mountain, for example. You know exactly what I'm describing.
While I've many laughable things in various photos and club and home layout visits one thing that troubles me the most is a modeler builds a beautiful water fall only to have it to end in a pool the size of a farm pond. It would look better if the water continued to flow off layout.
Those cutesy pie industry names may sound funny but,it kills any believability. Even the real Warps Pastics has been the blunt of many jokes.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
You mean no one has a version of the Red Wing Milling kit on their layout?? Mine's still in the box, probably will never build it. I see it on so many layouts, seems I see it in my sleep!
Steven SProbably the single biggest cliche is the burning building. Close behind are the hobo campfire and carnival.
Having saloons and breweries on a 1920s layout...that was the prohibition era in the US.
Having the "poster" billboards (the framed ones) not matching the era of your model RR - those were frequently changed.
I saw a layout 20x35 some years ago that had hand laid track done with utmost care. Brass steam locomotives painted and detailed to death along with his freight and passenger cars. It was set up for operations on a big scale. It was something to see. It also ran like a fine Rolex.
Only one problem, he never added scenery and only a few buildings. He thought the scenery took away from his fine modeling.
Not my cup of tea but he did it his way, is it wrong? No IMO. Was he a modeler? Yes again IMO.
So if you like burning buildings, goofy names, smoke in your steam engines or running non-prototypical names and engines, go for it.
It comes down to what you like no matter how much or how little you spend. I do it my way and I have nobody to please but myself.
Bottom line is to have fun if your fully prototypical or just having fun.
azrail Having saloons and breweries on a 1920s layout...that was the prohibition era in the US. Having the "poster" billboards (the framed ones) not matching the era of your model RR - those were frequently changed.
He also served alcoholic beverages to special clients from as he called his own private stash.
Breweries may have closed but they opened back up as the law changed.
E-L man tom You mean no one has a version of the Red Wing Milling kit on their layout?? Mine's still in the box, probably will never build it. I see it on so many layouts, seems I see it in my sleep!
Maybe they're too busy building their New River Mine.
Nice kit, but enough is enough.
chutton01 Also add me to the "don't like punny names" list.
Also add me to the "don't like punny names" list.
Second.
For me, the car pulled over by a cop with the flashing lights has grown old. Probably because it's a ten minute scene that is there forever.
Mark.
¡ uʍop ǝpısdn sı ǝɹnʇɐuƃıs ʎɯ 'dlǝɥ
How about the ever popular figure eight over and under track layout.
Joe
I've always liked (which I am guilty of, too) industries with no parking lots or roads for employees to be able to get to work..
I know...they're all around the back. : )
Jim
Hi NittanyLion
Well blame the pesky Red Coats for that they built the first one it is called the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway
It has many of the features for real that are in exactly what your describing
Those on the slimmer gauges tend to over do at times but they are very popular with the childeren at model exhibitions.
regards John
Hi all
Moving into the present day I think the train photographer with working flash is going to become one of the old hat things often placed in not quite the right spot.
These are starting to become common on exhibition layouts.
azrailHaving saloons and breweries on a 1920s layout...that was the prohibition era in the US.
Maybe the Northside and Southside Gangs in Chicago would have something to say about that. They made millions selling bootleg beer and whiskey to saloons during the prohibition.
Red Wing Milling and New River Mine are not kits.They are prepackaged Kit bashing and scratchbuilding supplies.
It might be time to put the various "Miracle" factory names cliche to rest (Miracle Chair Company. "If It's A Good Chair, It's A Miracle" and so on).
There was a cartoon decades back in MR showing two railroad employees, brakemen perhaps, and one has his arm in a sling. He is saying "It looked like a grab iron but it was nothing but a nasty ridge of plastic!" Cast on ladders and grabs are certain a time honored compromise/cliche. And in a sense they were step backwards: before plastic the metal and wood kits had separate ladders and grab irons. Athearn metal kits had far more realistic and prototypical sized stirrup steps than did the plastic kits that came after them. Indeed it could be argued that it is only in the last 15 or so years that stirrup steps have bettered what the Athearn metal kits had in 1950.
I am surprised this one has not become a new layout cliche - seen on a modular layout at the Madison WI train show a few years back:
A donut shot surrounded by a huge parking lot. .... Every car in the parking lot is a police car.
Dave Nelson
Hi dknelson
The reason its not going to become a new cliche is because depending on your point of view it's iether an old one or a current one
The cops and donut thing has been done in many variations.
Well I think your going to hate a mate of mine.
He is going to do a variation on the police and donut store.
That being the store being held up and a total police overkill attendance
SWAT teams, ordinary plods, police chopper the lot.
I don't think the crim is going to survive that hold up iether that or it going to be a ten to life stretch in the slamer.
I look at the burning building this way. A building is only going to burn for one day. Unless you are going to model a specific day over and over again (and I've read about modelers who do), it really strains reality to have the same building on fire day after day. It might make an interesting feature on a diorama but I wouldn't put one on my layout. For those that do, well, it's your railroad.
The dog & fire hydrant
Police car behind a billboard
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch
I think allot of you guys are missing the point. Allot of the things listed is what makes up a layout. Some are funny, and some are not but we are putting our own touches to our layouts that make them special to each one of us.
No need to make fun of what some people do just because you may not like it.
The old "fantasy" paint on locomotives, where an old, no longer existing, railroad has brand new power painted in their scheme and name.
Yes, you all know which manufacturer I am referring too.
Yes, I am guilty of this as well.
(So what if Erie Lackawanna never lasted long enough to own ES44AC's, that is a "heritage" unit on my railroad! )
Ricky W.
HO scale Proto-freelancer.
My Railroad rules:
1: It's my railroad, my rules.
2: It's for having fun and enjoyment.
3: Any objections, consult above rules.
I'm not Catholic but I must go to confession:
I have committed the unpardonable sin of running brand new Tangent Scale Models Penn Central G43C gondolas behind HO brass (non-excursion) steam power. I've further compounded the unpardonable sin by running Tangent ICG orange covered hoppers behind the brass steam, too.
I had at least privately said I'd never run anything Penn Central behind steam, because we all know most U.S. steam was gone from actual revenue service by about 11 years before...
I can remember the 1970's freight cars, and I just like them...the diesels of that era, I can only vaguely remember. Saw Reading big Alco's once when we drove past Reading and Allentown/Bethlehem on vacation. That's my only memory of them.
John