The May issue now available
http://mrhpub.com/2016-05-may/online/ (http://mrhpub.com/2016-05-may/online/)
Just read the editorial, asking for more articles. I found it hilarious that they consider 'small' layouts to be anything under 500 square feet!
:smiley-laughing:
Quote from: jrb on May 24, 2016, 07:08:45 AM
Just read the editorial, asking for more articles. I found it hilarious that they consider 'small' layouts to be anything under 500 square feet!
:smiley-laughing:
I noticed that. 500 sq feet is bigger than the floor plan of my house!
I saw that, surely that's not average, even in the US?!
must be Texas :angel:
It's a different world... I like the Rapido Trains ad on the page opposite to where they mention the 500sq feet.
Now, am I the only one who keeps reading the title of this thread "Model Railroad Hobbit"? ;)
Quote from: railsquid on May 24, 2016, 02:33:31 PM
Now, am I the only one who keeps reading the title of this thread "Model Railroad Hobbit"? ;)
:oopssign: :computerangry: :poop: :sorrysign:
Finger poking problem.
Quote from: Ditape on May 24, 2016, 02:37:35 PM
Quote from: railsquid on May 24, 2016, 02:33:31 PM
Now, am I the only one who keeps reading the title of this thread "Model Railroad Hobbit"? ;)
:oopssign: :computerangry: :poop: :sorrysign:
Finger poking problem.
:laugh:
Paul
In English, hobbist is not what they think it means. The word should be hobbyist.
I thought the article on building the fuel depot was very good :)
Quote from: Malc on May 24, 2016, 06:52:22 PM
In English, hobbist is not what they think it means. The word should be hobbyist.
It is, there's a typo in the thread title...
Quote from: njee20 on May 24, 2016, 08:30:35 PM
Quote from: Malc on May 24, 2016, 06:52:22 PM
In English, hobbist is not what they think it means. The word should be hobbyist.
It is, there's a typo in the thread title...
:sorrysign: :oopssign: :computerangry: :poop:
finger poking problem now corrected.
Regarding 500sq/ft layouts in the US... It actually doesn't surprise me. Most home based layouts are built in the basement, or sometimes the garage.
Given the average size of an American house is something like 2400sq/ft over two floors, that would give you a basement of up to 1200sq/ft, if you devote less than half your basement to a layout you have 500sq/ft quite easily, particularly in HO.
A typical new build 4 bedroom home these days is more like 3500sq/ft with a 3 car garage, need I say more :goggleeyes: And before anyone asks, my layout is about 100 sq/ft...
I can believe the layout is housed in a room that size, but that's a huge difference to having a layout area of 500sq/ft, or rather that simply being the threshold for small! Not even average.
I guess it's skewed because they're wanting people to write articles, and those who write articles are probably the ones with the huge layouts to show off.
Is there an exhibiting culture in the US? Vast basement layouts don't lend themselves to it, and I recall most layouts I've seen in Model Railroader over the years do tend to be exactly that.
Quote from: njee20 on May 24, 2016, 08:46:13 PM
I can believe the layout is housed in a room that size, but that's a huge difference to having a layout area of 500sq/ft, or rather that simply being the threshold for small! Not even average.
I guess it's skewed because they're wanting people to write articles, and those who write articles are probably the ones with the huge layouts to show off.
Is there an exhibiting culture in the US? Vast basement layouts don't lend themselves to it, and I recall most layouts I've seen in Model Railroader over the years do tend to be exactly that.
I have to agree 500sq/ft is large ??? A lot of US layouts are a meandering single track design with lots of peninsulas containing loops of track. There also tends not to be standard baseboard structures, most layouts comprise a cut plywood track bed attached to a baseboard frame, with the scenery built up, or down or extended flat from the plywood track bed. Perhaps the 500 sq/ft relates to the floor area the layout meanders through rather than just the baseboard size?
To answer your second question, yes there are model railway clubs and yes there are exhibitions, but significantly fewer of both than in the UK. Exhibition layouts are typically smaller and often modular eg to N Trak standards. For example in Philadelphia where I live (population 1.5 million), I am only aware of 3 or 4 clubs and I think most of them are in the suburbs outside of the city limits! Open house exhibitions are more common, held at both the model railway club and individual homes, which makes sense given these basement behemoths!
They'll be talking about the area it meanders through.
Those huge layout rooms are ... interesting. There's been a discussion on the MRH forums (where I sometimes walk trembling amongst the gods) about whether the focus on huge layouts is turning kids and younger adults away from the hobby.
Not only because of the expense involved, but also the 'frustration' factor - if you set about trying to build something of that size there are high chances of getting stalled, or running out of ideas, or realising halfway through that all along there was a better way to do trees etc.
Even if I had the space, I don't think I'd want a layout larger than I could view from a nice comfy chair.
I'd probably consider doing a big room-filling layout if I had a wife and kids and they were all on board, mind. (This is purely theoretical, in several ways.)
I have come to the conclusion in my old age that my own layout is way too big, and if I stare at myself honestly in the face, I'm starting to realise that it will probably never get finished.
There are also things which should have been done differently, and they jump out at me in a very annoying way to the point of frustration.
If I could pluck up the courage I sometimes think I should rip it all up and start a smaller more manageable layout.
Weired just like American Railroad fans call Solder Sodder, I always thought Sodder was something a bloke said when he had an argument with his Wife ???
After reading MRH for a couple pf years I came to realize that N Scale is almost non existent in their mag/
Yeah it's a shame about that, though Joe Fugate asked for more N submissions in his latest editorial and they cover new N releases in their new products section. I sort of don't mind though because it's free.
How many giant basement empires will ever get past the mostly being at the Plywood Central stage?
Even on some of the fine layouts featured in MR, one notices most, if not all, the accompanying images are taken in one smallish area of the overall plan....
That isn't a criticism, the main purpose of the layouts is operation so PC works jsut as well as any other part :)
My Mother's cousin(s) of whom several live in Canada pointed out that large layouts were as much about the winter weather as the space a basement offered....