The center of attention!

[steemtrayn]

 

 

      Uh, Dave,

      The signal on the left reads APPROACH, while the signal on the converging track says STOP AND PROCEED. Doesn't that just invite a collision? Or are you just testing us, to see if we're awake?

 

 

Yes!...  except that two reds vs three ambers in a horizontal line indicates Absolute Stop.  That extra light is a pain; I ought to just cut the lead

 ______________________________________________________________________________

Don't cut the lead, just install a switch. This way, the towerman (you) can give a train permission to follow another train into the interlocking.

[Dave-the-Train]

The solution was in the ballast.  My previous layout had used a brown colored ballast (Highball Brown) with cinders-it looked very dark.  It made the overall layout almost too drab.  While the colors were similar to ones I'd seen on PRR coal branches in photos, it made the layout seem dark and unfriendly.  Plus, the trains did not stand out.

The current layout uses a much lighter colored ballast.  I used Woodland Scenics' fine gray blend.  It's a bit on the coarse side for my tastes, but the color was similar to some of the mainline PRR photos I'd seen from 1956.  Fortunately, the "Standard Railroad of the World" didn't really have a standard ballast color (photos show every color from brown to black to gray to almost white).

I then framed this light colored ballast with a cinder shoulder.  While prototypical for 1956, the cinder shoulder served a second purpose: it frames the track area like a picture frame or an outline.  Now my dark, drab trains can be seen against a lighter gray background, framed by a black outline that says to viewers that "this is the center of attention!"

So this is why I am forever going on about ballast!

It's even easy to highlight main track from lesser tracks... You want to focus on one piece of track or away from something... just put in a patch of new clean ballast worked by the MoW crew...

How do others project the center of attention for their layouts?

Exactly the same use of colour (and light) can be employed with anything else.  Our eyes and brains naturally pick out what is different in any scene... whether it is the black and yellow of a wasp or a bright advert...

A building can be made to stand out by re-pointing all or some of the masonry.  Repainting a bridge... or re-painting in progress will make it stand out.

If you are sitting at a grade crossing while a string of covered hoppers goes by you will wake up for the odd one out.

[SilverSpike]

Thought it is still in the early stages of layout construction, the center of attention for my layout is the roundhouse, roundtable and swing gate area.

 

[twhite]

I guess the center of attention on the Yuba River Sub is the Fall mountain scenery.  At least that's what everyone who has been in my garage says. 

I always thought it was my bridges--God knows I've got ENOUGH of them--but everyone just seems to be hung up on Yuba Summit, or the hydraulic mining scars at Malakoff Diggings or Bullard's Bar Lake.  Actually, to a lot of my friends, the trains are almost incidental, LOL!  Except that they like watching them climb over and through the scenery.  Oh, yah, and those vibrant Fall colors in the Sierra. 

Tom

[Anonymous]

I can't read those signals anyway! I just wish I had working signals!

[wm3798]

 

      Uh, Dave,

      The signal on the left reads APPROACH, while the signal on the converging track says STOP AND PROCEED. Doesn't that just invite a collision? Or are you just testing us, to see if we're awake?

Yes!...  except that two reds vs three ambers in a horizontal line indicates Absolute Stop.  That extra light is a pain; I ought to just cut the lead.

SO the focal point of Dave's layout is his morbid fascination with train wrecks...  Just like Gomez Addams!!

 

Uncle Fester 

[Dave Vollmer]

 

      Uh, Dave,

      The signal on the left reads APPROACH, while the signal on the converging track says STOP AND PROCEED. Doesn't that just invite a collision? Or are you just testing us, to see if we're awake?

Yes!...  except that two reds vs three ambers in a horizontal line indicates Absolute Stop.  That extra light is a pain; I ought to just cut the lead.

[steemtrayn]

What's the center of attention on your layout?

Seems like a silly question...  but it's not.  Each modeler has his/her own idea of what the "message" is that he/she wants to convey.  This is often done by having some part of the layout be the center of attention.  For some it might be a steel mill or a coal mine.  For others it might be the scenery.  Still others build their layouts to showcase their structures.

For my layout, I wanted the center of attention to be the trains themselves.

To that end, I wanted the layout to be a 3-dimensional backdrop for the trains.

But, there's a problem...  In 1956 (the year I model), the PRR (and many other eastern roads) used drab colors that don't draw attention to themselves.  Locomotives were mostly a black-green (known as Brunswick Green or DGLE) or a Tuscan red.  Freight cars were variations on the boxcar/oxide red theme.  These colors, against a backdrop of trees and brick structures, don't exactly stand out.  So how can these trains be the center of attention?

The solution was in the ballast.  My previous layout had used a brown colored ballast (Highball Brown) with cinders-it looked very dark.  It made the overall layout almost too drab.  While the colors were similar to ones I'd seen on PRR coal branches in photos, it made the layout seem dark and unfriendly.  Plus, the trains did not stand out.

The current layout uses a much lighter colored ballast.  I used Woodland Scenics' fine gray blend.  It's a bit on the coarse side for my tastes, but the color was similar to some of the mainline PRR photos I'd seen from 1956.  Fortunately, the "Standard Railroad of the World" didn't really have a standard ballast color (photos show every color from brown to black to gray to almost white).

I then framed this light colored ballast with a cinder shoulder.  While prototypical for 1956, the cinder shoulder served a second purpose: it frames the track area like a picture frame or an outline.  Now my dark, drab trains can be seen against a lighter gray background, framed by a black outline that says to viewers that "this is the center of attention!"

How do others project the center of attention for their layouts?

 

      Uh, Dave,

      The signal on the left reads APPROACH, while the signal on the converging track says STOP AND PROCEED. Doesn't that just invite a collision? Or are you just testing us, to see if we're awake?

[tomikawaTT]

Since it will be physically impossible to see my entire (presently under construction) layout from a single point, I propose to have several visual centers of attention, which will receive the appropriate level of detail:

• Construction scene where the track is being doubled - bridge foundation under construction (with operating pile driver), and a TBM working its way through the adjacent mountain (window in the fascia.)
• Large crew/engine change station, with a puzzle palace of specialwork, partially under catenary.
• 5-tiered pagoda, and the adjacent grounds of the Tomikawa Tera, overlooking beautiful downtown Tomikawa from a low hill with tracks on both sides.
• Single track crossing a steep cliff face, short tunnels alternating with short deck girder bridges (painted red-orange.)
• Hard little knot of trackage (including a double slip switch) jammed into the space between a high bridge and a tunnel portal.
• Major coal mine, capable of unit train empties in/loads out operation with the additional ability to live load loose cars.

At most, two of these might be visible from one place without turning one's head, but in one case the viewer would have to back up against the water heater to do it.

I look on each as a construction challenge, but MY main center of interest is operating the railroads - every train on time.

Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

[BRAKIE]

Lee,Mighty fine looking B&O GP35s.

[wm3798]

The focal point of my layout is operations. 

The first thing you see coming into the room is the paper mill and all the attendent sidings that serve it.  As you survey the room, you'll see a yard and engine terminal, a junction, and several different points where industries are served by rail.

When you glance away from the scenery, you'll see car cards clipped to the fascia, clipboards with switch lists, and a train schedule.

 

The other focal point would be the scenery in general, which is my favorite thing to work on.

 

Lee 

[selector]

...But it isn't a draw bridge, Crandell...

Tom 

(slap!!) So that's why all the funny looks....!!!

[BRAKIE]

For me  as the center of attention has to be the engine service/engine house area since theres usually a flock of locomotives to look at.

[MisterBeasley]

I prefer to de-focus the viewers' attention and let them find the smaller details, rather than pull everyone in to look at only one or two things.  I believe in subdued colors, too, because to me they look the most realistic.

The eye-catchers are in the eyes of the beholder, too.  Some will concentrate on the structures, some on the figures and some on the automobiles.  And a few even look at the trains...

[aloco]

Locomotives.  Even when I look at other layouts I notice the locomotives first and foremost.  I also believe that layout photos are incomplete without locomotives in the picture.

[Anonymous]

I think the center of attention on my layout is Allen Mountain, which is the largest scenic feature on the layout, is the first thing you see when you go over to my third of the basement, and yes, is named for John Allen. 

[Anonymous]

WC Fan- I think your layout's center of attention is that huge brick building in the center, or the grain elevaitor. (forgive me if it's not for grain, I get the mixed up with cement plants all the time, although, knowing me, it's probobly not either!)

[secondhandmodeler]

Mr. Mouse, I sent you a pm.

[SpaceMouse]

My mean streak aside, I've enjoyed these reflections and discussions.  Sometimes it's good to reflect on the intellectual side of the hobby.

Then we can say "screw it" and go back to running laps on our Plywood Centrals.

[SpaceMouse]

I guess that would parallel your thread on over-detailing. 

Yep, just another example of Dave preaching to us on how to build a layout.

Ouch!  Chip, I don't see a smiling emoticon...  should I?

EDIT:  Whew!

Gottcha!

[Dave Vollmer]

I guess that would parallel your thread on over-detailing. 

Yep, just another example of Dave preaching to us on how to build a layout.

Ouch!  Chip, I don't see a smiling emoticon...  should I?

EDIT:  Whew! 

[SpaceMouse]

Oh yeah, add these to the above comment.

[SpaceMouse]

I guess that would parallel your thread on over-detailing. 

Yep, just another example of Dave preaching to us on how to build a layout.

[tstage]

I had the most fun with the trestle.  I enjoyed learning about them and figuring out how to install it on the layout.   I feel that, when I enter the layout, it is always a draw for me.

But it isn't a draw bridge, Crandell...

Tom 

[selector]

It's a bit of a cop-out, but I don't really have one.  Since mine is a duck-under to get at the central operating pit, I can turn and face about four different directions currently to find interesting tidbits that are, to me, eye-candy.  Later, once I have the Danby Sawmill and my coal mine looking realistic, they will be added.  I have one lone Doug Fir that I made during my long summer last year away from MR, which is getting desperately lonely.  Some folks comment on it if they see it...it's by itself in a corner where not much else is happening.

For some, they really like my backdrop...it seems to command as much or more attention than the rest of the layout.  This is especially true of women.  The men look at the hardware, the women like the expanses of blue sky and the trees hanging above everything.  Women will comment on the few fall colour trees I have in a short section, high over the yard.  The men like the turntable and the locomotives.

I had the most fun with the trestle.  I enjoyed learning about them and figuring out how to install it on the layout.   I feel that, when I enter the layout, it is always a draw for me.

[tstage]

The use of centers of attention or focal points helps guide the viewer to the aspects of your layout you wish to emphasize.  It also reduces view confusion as can occur when too much seems to be going on with no clear "main point."

Dave,

I guess that would parallel your thread on over-detailing.  Too much of something tends to "muddy the waters" and make it more difficult to soak in the nuances.

Kinda like watching TV these days.  Watch a commercial, program or music show and take note how often they change shots.  Sometimes it's on average of every two seconds.  The sports broadcasts, in particular, are especially bad with all the extra graphics and stats that flash on the screen.

When it reaches visual overload, I just turn it off and listen to the radio.  Even then...

Tom 

[on30francisco]

For me the emphasis is definitely on structures, trackside details, super detailed scenes,  detailed trackwork, and  one-of-a-kind pieces of rolling stock. I really enjoy scratchbuilding wooden structures and narrow gauge rolling stock that aren't available commercially. Right now the main attractions are a small (for Large Scale) super-detailed trestle for my Gn15 industrial line, yard office, and a small backwoodsy water tank for the three footers. The layout is built around the perimeter of a room which allows you to easily focus on individual scenes.

[hminky]

I never thought of anything as centered it just flows along. What ever comes up is what comes up along the right of way.

I know the tank is leaning it is underconstruction

Harold

[Dave Vollmer]

Yes, I should emphasize...

One need not restrict oneself to a single center of attention or focal point.

Muliple focal points work as well, especially in an around-the-walls layout situation, when at any given time only part of the layout is visible.  Like Brunton and Spacemouse mention, each individual scene or section of layout can have its own focal point.

The use of centers of attention or focal points helps guide the viewer to the aspects of your layout you wish to emphasize.  It also reduces view confusion as can occur when too much seems to be going on with no clear "main point."