What do you consider a layout ?...

[ereimer]

i consider a layout pretty much anything beyond the train set , even just bare plywood , a couple of turnouts and a few plastic buildings . it's all about what the owner wants , and has the time , skill and money to build .

[ClinchValleySD40]

Whatever pleases the layout owner is fine. For me personally, it needs to be sceniced with a feel of the location/era I'm trying to model.

[MisterBeasley]

It's a layout as long as you're still working on it. After that, it's either a display, if you consider it "finished," or a dust catcher if you've moved on to other things.

The scenery on my layout is mostly pink foam, which I like to think of as a "curious pink-tinted sedimentary sandstone from the Late Devonian period." In the last couple of weeks, though, evidence of hominid habitation has appeared.

A layout is a living thing. It evolves, but the hand of a creator is also clearly evident. (There, that should make both the Red States and the Blue States happy.) Trains move under their own power. But mostly it's whatever you want it to be.

[Anonymous]

If you dont have it all, then whats the point?

[CNJ831]

Nothing short of a reasonably scenicked (or scenicking well in progress), at least modestly detailed and fully operational arrangement.

Anything that consists of just track and trains on bare plywood, with a few storebought RTR structures, is a simply a train set in the same category as an old fashion Lionel-around-the-Christmas-tree setup.

CNJ831

[Jetrock]

I would consider an operating track plan, even on a bare table, to be a layout--not just the basic loop of toy-train track, but something intended for operation, even if it's just a "switching puzzle" or mini layout scheme. The general idea isthat it's more than a toy train set, and more thought has been put into its execution, either operationally or aesthetically, by the owner.

[Pruitt]

I'd consider a layout as anything with some permanently-affixed track.

It might not be what I'd want in a layout, but if it's what you want, it's a layout.

[Anonymous]

I guess one way I'd ask it is, What do you consider a usable layout? Much as I would love to have all of the structures and scenery in place, I call mine a 'layout' when all of the mainline [and at least half the spurs] track is laid & tested, and I can run trains on it. Adding the scenery and structures is a long-term, ongoing thing for me and is part of the fun.

[Anonymous]

I agree!! It's all in the details.

[Jetrock]

A table wiht a track, transformer and train is a train set, not a model railroad. It doesn't need to be an empire, in fact a few square feet is all you need, but it's just more fun when it looks like a layout, not a bare circle of track!

[Anonymous]

To some people, a layout is nothing more than a table with a track, transformer and train on it, while others have to have it all. I personally am one of those people that has to have it all or it just ain't a layout...

How do you folks feel about it ?.

trainluver1