How far can you stretch Rule 1?

[FeelixTC]

Some rivet counters (and I have seen real ones at a show so they do exist) would point out small faults like livery for instance but miss quite obvious things because there is a sort of convention that applies to model railways.

When you think about it, we model a world that ends at the edge of the baseboard, in which only the trains move. We also miss quite a lot of detail out and you often see locos without drivers, coaches without passengers, trains without lamps vehicles from the wrong era etc.

A good point, well made

[EtchedPixels]

I've seen a few fantasy layouts including one set in Ankh Morpork, a rather strange one in Mordor and one that looked like a black and white photograph (including all the rolling stock)

Plus of course Far Tottering and Oyster Creek has been modelled several times

[PostModN66]

I would like to see any theme done really well - (even something with steam engines if it really evokes a compelling feeling of representing a real place!)

I really like the Far Twittering layouts I have seen in the flesh and in magazines; I also saw a very light hearted German castle layout a couple of years ago (in N) with an unfeasible twisting branch line up to a lofty peak, which was great fun.

And I love Quintopia's EDO video.

But what I don't get is where someone does a really nice "serious" layout then adds a strange feature like a dinosaur,  or shop names like "D.Kay dentist" or "Bodgit and Bolt" - it then just seems to fall between two stools.

Still, rule 1 - they're free to do as they like!

Cheers   Jon 

[EtchedPixels]

But what I don't get is where someone does a really nice "serious" layout then adds a strange feature like a dinosaur,  or shop names like "D.Kay dentist" or "Bodgit and Bolt" - it then just seems to fall between two stools.

The real world can be just as silly though. We've got a Herr Kutz (barber) and used to have a Pizza da Action

[Chris]

As you know I tend to back my videos up with sounds of real trains, so my general rule 1 is that I'll run anything that I can create a sound-track for, and with my sound editor I can mix & match locos and rakes as required, although I try to recreate real workings where possible, but at the same time enjoy applying a bit of Rule 1, even down to fictitious liveries.

The real world can be just as silly though.

Proof of that a couple of weeks ago - I saw a Western hauling welded rail!


D1015 Western Champion on 4M10 Welded Rail 05/11/2013

[Newportnobby]

Thanks Chris - brought back some great memories

[Croxy]

Layouts are built for our enjoyment so if you choose to run within the confines of a locale or era and that pleases you there is nothing wrong with that.

If however, like me, you want to run different things and create your own little "world" go ahead. In my case I will have a mixture of British and German which will include architecture as well as locos and rolling stock because there are elements of each I like..

My opinion.

[Bealman]

As I've said before on this forum, we're just big boys and girls playing with trains. 

[ozzie Bill.]

If some of you are interested in modelling "foreign" locos and rolling stock, you really should have a look at some of the Aus ones. Here are a couple of sites - just don't let the prices put you off - remember we have to cope with those all the time!
http://www.sar-nscale.com/   or 
http://www.aust-n-rail.com.au/category25_1.htm   I have 7 of the grain wagons. The last loco I bought was the little T class, with DCC
http://www.aust-n-rail.com.au/images/t_382_sml.jpg.
cheers, Bill.

[ParkeNd]

The guy who is currently exhibiting a cartoon-like layout with bendy houses and narrow gauge looking trains has made a good stance against the rivet counters and those who feel the compelling need to observe that a turntable is going round the wrong way.

Can't remember what it is called but the mag pictures make it look great. His next layout is going to be based on a fictional prototype that served the trenches in WW1. Shouldn't get too many Rule 1 fanatics to critique that.

[Claude Dreyfus]

The guy who is currently exhibiting a cartoon-like layout with bendy houses and narrow gauge looking trains has made a good stance against the rivet counters and those who feel the compelling need to observe that a turntable is going round the wrong way.

Can't remember what it is called but the mag pictures make it look great. His next layout is going to be based on a fictional prototype that served the trenches in WW1. Shouldn't get too many Rule 1 fanatics to critique that.

That sounds like our club secretary. He has plenty of diverse interests and likes going off piste with his modelling. The Wipers , Fish Hook and Menen Railway is S gauge running on N gauge track. His cartoon layout was the Lumpy Barmcake and Salted Cracker Railway ( LBSCR).

[Agrippa]

There's a good short video of the LBSCR on the net(can't add link ) , very entertaining, it's like seeing something after a long bevvy session.

[Claude Dreyfus]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQPTYoz06xM&feature=youtube_gdata_player

[fisherman]

How  far   can  you  stretch   Rule   1


about   5   miles  in  N  gauge....

[Richey1977]

Having spent only two years going to MR Exhibitions, and building my own collection of stock, I've taken a lot more enjoyment from those layouts applying modellers' licence quite liberally.

Funnily enough, I don't take the same approach to TV - I get quite annoyed with implausible or unlikely plots, but that's an aside.

I started with the intention of only collecting stock from the sectorisation era, and modelling a small station in NSE colours.  Well, I'm sticking with NSE colours for the station, but the trains will be a mish-mash of everything.  I got fed up with the constant feeling that even though I liked certain models, they wouldn't 'belong' in my collection - which is obviously nonsense.  Life imposes all sorts of limitations, from time, space, money, skills, and the limitations of what's avaliable on the market anyway.  It seemed silly to impose more constraints just for the sake of it.

Having said that, I do like the train to be plausible from front-to-back, i.e. matching (with some imagination if need be) the loco to its coaches / wagons.