Narrowing the Focus - on what we model

[sparky]

My layout is BR blue mid to late seventies and 80% is blue...but I have strayed into sectorisation and also the red res livery Class47 with res livery guvs....I keep thinking vabout selling the non BR blue bits and bobs but I just like them !

[Pengi]

My layout is all modern image EMU/DMU however there are not many RTR trains for the South  . So the layout is more cosmopolitan with ICE trains and Shinkansens as they now come through the Channel Tunnel. Plus the heritage Blue Pullman and Brighton Belle.

[jrb]

I was flicking through an old edition of Railway Modeller at the club the other week, and there was an article on a (rather nice) layout set, I think, somewhere in industrial Lancashire. I don't remember it exactly, but the blurb went something like: "The layout represents the station as it appeared on the morning of Tuesday 5th April, 1960..."

I remember thinking wow, that's VERY specific...

[rogerstalbans]

Very impressed by the focus shown in some of the replies. My first purchases 13 years ago were a LMS 4F & a GNER HST & I've been filling in the gaps ever since. Although my main preference is green / blue diesels, German DB & Austrian OBB ...........

I have to congratulate myself every so often that I never look at OO/HO...not yet anyway.

Roger.

[N-Gauge-US]

I was flicking through an old edition of Railway Modeller at the club the other week, and there was an article on a (rather nice) layout set, I think, somewhere in industrial Lancashire. I don't remember it exactly, but the blurb went something like: "The layout represents the station as it appeared on the morning of Tuesday 5th April, 1960..."

I remember thinking wow, that's VERY specific...

Very specific indeed! I would assume the creator was using a photograph as the basis for the layout and as such, wanted to capture that exact moment and could say with great certainty that what he/she modeled was accurate! Not my own modeling goal, but showing the layout at exhibition with the photograph is always a hit.

[port perran]

My focus is loosely based on the time period 1959-66 although I'm flexible in either direction (slightly).
I model North and West Cornwall in a fictitious way which enables me to operate both Western and Southern steam and similar early diesels.?
I have 2 layouts. One with atypical ex LSWR feel and the other with an ex GW feel. Trains are able to operate freely between the Two layouts.
A few of us on the forum have "invented" the CLPG-Cornish Loco Preservation Group and various local branches of the Great Wester Society. This allows me to run some pre Nationalisation locks/stock in preserved format but loaned back to BR to allow them to operate normal services.

[REGP]

I started trying to model (very loosely) a joint GWR/ LMS  line during the Shirtbutton era.
However I felt it didn't have enough scope with the RTR locos at the time so sort of expanded into the BR Early Emblem period, after all from the scenery point of view apart from signage not much had changed.

But then it crept into the BR Late Crest era, but both still vaguely focused on GWR/LMS operations.

Of course I always loved the HSTs so had to have one of those. As arthritis became a bit of problem when handling steamers I had to get a couple of 37s & 47s to haul Parcels & TPOs.

Talk about mission creep! 

And I haven't mentioned the Pendo' I bought because like NPN I wanted the project to succeed.

Ray

[JasonBz]

Some interesting and informative replies here   

So far I have decided I should probably possibly sell my Farish Wessex Alphaline*  class 158 and......erm that's it

No, I may as well keep what pieces I have acquired already, and focus more closely  from now on.....
At least everything I do have would have run in the area at some point, and there is not too much in the way of infrastructure changes on the kind of railways I like - That is cos there is not much infrastructure at all!

[Chris Morris]

I am pretty strict with myself and only buy what fits my layout location and timeline. My new layout is set in South Devon in the summer of 1963. This allows mainly diesel hydraulics together with a small proportion of steam. In order to keep interest I have allowed myself a rake with mainly Crimson and cream coaches which would have all but disappeared by 1960 and I have a Maroon Warship which didn't appear until September 1965. Everything else I have could have been seen in South Devon in 1963.  I see this as a bit of modelling licence required to add interest. I would never allow the Crimson and cream coaches to appear at the same time as the Maroon Warship - that would be just so wrong.

I admit a blue and grey HST would look good.....

[Cutter]

I am modeling Welwn North in 1930 but aim to run trains of 1925-35ish. I am stretching this to include streamlined trains and with the upcoming Thompson BG I'm beginning to plan a1947 Flying Scotsman. And while I'm concentrating on locos and rolling stock appropriate to my location and era I do go for other stuff that appeals. I'm working on a sentinel shunter for example because they don't make working N gauge shunting horses. And I am waiting impatiently for the upcoming Farish GWR Castle--Pendennis Castle ran on the ECML through Welwyn North for a week or more in 1925!

[railsquid]

I have laser focus... problem is it runs through a prism involving the various countries/eras I've lived in.

At the risk of sounding like Captain Obvious - if you want to focus on a particular location/era, Just Do It (TM). Anything else is a distraction.

Me myself personally, I like collecting trains which ran in the periods when I was resident in the respective countries I was in, but am happy to be distracted by things I find interesting (pre-war Japanese and German DMUs/EMUs for example). The layout I'm building will eventually include sections where all this stuff can run without looking too out of place, but it will never be one of those "WOW OMG Lower Upperton Junction as it was on a Spring Bank Holiday in 1967" exhibition layouts.

[JasonBz]

What is even worse for me is that although I buy the odd non-compliant items I have so far not rostered a class 25 (a fave of mine too!) because they didnt run with the D6300/class 22.
I must give my head a shake I think

[JayM481]

I tried focus, but my inner magpie usually takes over when I see something shiny (or BR green, or LNER apple green/teak, or involves Belles and Brighton, or is a shiny blue Pullman, or GWR.... You get the idea).

[shandy]

You think you've got problems, I started with n gauge GWR,

then added some LMS and LNER - cos I like 'em,

then BR green diesels - cos I like 'em too.

and now even worse - tinkering with O-gauge as well - guess what - cos I like it.

My name is Steve, I too, am an addict....

[JasonBz]

You think you've got problems, I started with n gauge GWR,

then added some LMS and LNER - cos I like 'em,

then BR green diesels - cos I like 'em too.

and now even worse - tinkering with O-gauge as well - guess what - cos I like it.

My name is Steve, I too, am an addict....

I love O gauge but I do have some self control ( so far) I used to build Parkside kits just for fun back in the 90s

I also do a fair bit of 4mm, mainly OO but with a slow drip-feed of P4 (again!!)