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I wrote this piece a couple of years ago and first posted it in the Layout Design Sig at Yahoo! Groups. I moderate in the layout design forum at www.trainboard and I am very active on the Atlas forums. I have posted this to all of the above. Some enjoy photography and showing pictures of their models and the prototypes; I enjoy word play around model railroading. To those who have already read this, my apologizes. My purpose is to bring some lighter material to the train.com forum. And I quote me: Before I say anything further, I would like to be up front and say that my modelling skills are not up to the standards I am about to apply. I hope they will be someday, and I strive to achieve it, but there are many, many, many, superior modeller's than I. When I visit a new layout, on the drive over to this person's home, I always have this same thought: "I hope this layout will make me say 'Wow!'" I'm cheering for the author and builder of said layout. I hope they can bring the child in me out so that I itch to own it, play on it, or just be generally envious of it. When I do see one that makes me go "Wow," it is the artistry of it that I am responding to first; not its operational capacity, whether it is free lance or prototypical, whether it is true to one era, or that it has all the "right stuff." This makes me a real sucker for narrow gauge layouts. The next thought after I have or have not gone "Wow" is, does this layout accomplish what the author hoped to accomplish? By this I mean does the theme extend into the modelled railroad and does it work. I don't like to compare layouts, but I would rather see a good "eclectic - perhaps a little bit too much eclectic" layout well modelled rather than an inferior modelled prototypical railroad. In other words, quality rather than "following the rules" which many have told me I'm not to good at. I have seen an 11 year's old model railroad make me say "Wow" - well done. Oh he didn't have proper staging, the tracks were a little bit spaghetti like, there was too much happening in the space he had, but "Wow!" His layout worked for me. I kept thinking if this kid is this good now, I wonder what he'll be like in 30 years? And I have seen layouts where the modelling was up and down, excellent in some areas, not so hot in others and yet the layout as a whole made me go "Wow!" In the particular one I'm thinking of, I was immediately itching to bring one of my engines over and run it on this chaps railroad. Since it was a Superintendent's tour, I had the good sense to keep my mouth shut. I find I am able to forgive the sins of layout transgressions when a layout "works." Before I visited another layout, I had heard from many that I would be impressed. The first second I saw it, I thought...this is a small layout. But after that first second had passed, I thought "Wow, wow!" His layout was moving from the "Wow" category to the "oh my god!" category. I have never seen an "oh my god" layout except in MR and MRP and other magazines. The obvious artists come to mind, John Allen et al. Unfortunately, a Japanese chap who's name escapes me, modelling the Pacific Northwest (while residing in Japan) always takes my breath away when I see pictures of his work. For me, if you can pull me into your world and have me enjoy it, then you've got a great layout.
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